Firebrand, FUSEE’s Quarterly Newsletter
Winter Becomes Spring, April 6th, 2022

In this issue:

• Dispatch from the Executive Director

• FUSEE in the News

• Torchbearers: Interview with Board Member Miriam Valentine

• Upcoming Event - IAWF’s Fire and Climate Conference

The Forest Service’s Not So ‘New’ Strategy

Dispatch from the Executive Director

To our FUSEE supporters,

We are living in the Pyrocene, and the increasing frequency of megafires and urban conflagrations demands smart strategy and bold action to get us out of our failing crisis-management mode. Unfortunately, what we are getting from the U.S. Forest Service is its "Wildfire Crisis Strategy." The agency proclaims its new strategy represents a "paradigm shift," but sadly it represents a continuation of its obsolete fire exclusion paradigm, framing a "forest health crisis" as the primary culprit of megafires, and mechanical fuels treatments as its preferred cure. This is neither new nor strategic, and its only claim to a paradigm shift is its promise to use vaster sums of taxpayer money on a grander landscape scale.

The USFS' Wildfire Crisis Strategy does pay some lip-service to the desire to do more prescribed burning, allow more Indigenous cultural burning, and eventually manage some wildfires to maintain fire-adapted ecosystems after they've first been mechanically treated. But most revealing is the propagandistic image on the cover of the document: a small American flag bravely standing in the ash mound of an incinerated home. Reminiscent of images of ground zero from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the meaning of this image conveys that wildfire is our ‘enemy’ that must be feared and fought in a total ‘war on terra.’

There is not a word about wildfire response or any hint of a shift away from a suppression-centric policy of aggressive initial attack on all fires. And in press conferences and community round-tables promoting the agency's strategy, USFS Chief Randy Moore refuses to rule out another 'attack-all-fires' and 'ban-all-burns' decree if and when PL-5 is reached this coming fire season. The agency's flickr photo page promoting its wildfire crisis strategy does not even showcase firefighters, but instead, features images of fellerbunchers piling up ginormous decks of sawlogs. In essence, the agency has crafted a fuels strategy, not a fire strategy. Funded by billions of infrastructure bucks, the agency opportunistically if not arrogantly believes it can get-the-cut-out to put-the-fire-out, and can do its own thing without the collaboration or consent of other federal and state agencies, Tribes, nonprofits, and community groups.

FUSEE pledges to watchdog the rollout of the USFS' flawed Wildfire Crisis Strategy, along with opposing all reactionary political or policy efforts to formalize a return to the 10am Policy of yesteryear. We will continue to advocate for safe, ethical, ecological management of fire at every opportunity. We will articulate a real paradigm shift that sees firefighter, community, and land safety as holistically interconnected. And we will work for a forward-thinking wildfire management strategy that is part of the solution to the ultimate crisis of all: human-caused climate change. We welcome your support in this epic battle between the future and the past that, true to the double-meaning of the word 'crisis,' makes the present a moment of both great peril and great opportunity.

Yours,

Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D.
Executive Director, FUSEE

FUSEE in the News

FUSEE members featured in the news media

As 2022 has kicked off, FUSEE has been featured in more reflective, analytical stories that examine the impacts of the previous fire season and look to what lies ahead. Scientists are reporting the worst drought conditions in the last 100 years in the Northwest, and predict another hot, dry summer. Journalists have been looking to FUSEE to provide critical analysis of policy pronouncements from the Forest Service, the Biden Administration, and members of Congress. So far this year FUSEE members have been featured in 10 articles. Here are a few of the media highlights:

New York Times, 1/3/2022:
This Isn’t the California I Married: The honeymoon’s over for its residents now that wildfires are almost constant. Has living in this natural wonderland lost its magic?

“We need to accept that there’s going to be a fire,” he [Zeke Lunder, FUSEE Advisory Council] said. “It’s going to burn the whole town down. When that happens, let’s have identified a pot of money to buy these 5,000 lots that are in the worst places and we know are never going to be safe. So, let’s buy them and rebuild in a footprint that’s defensible.”

The Missoulian, 1/20/2022:
Intentional blazes spark new complaints in fight against wildfire

“Although it uses the words “paradigm shift” 13 times, the U.S. Forest Service’s new wildfire crisis strategy appears stuck on old tactics, according to area fire experts.

“I saw no new strategy but rather a potential increase in the same fire control strategy of ‘fuel treatment’ to enhance fire control,” retired Forest Service fire scientist Jack Cohen [FUSEE Advisory Council member] said after reviewing the documents released on Tuesday.

Energy and Environment News, 2/20/2022:
Forest Service stands firm in dispute on fire retardant

Photos of red or orange retardant being dropped from airplanes make good, but misleading, public relation images, said Tim Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology in Eugene, Ore. "We used to call them photodrops," said Ingalsbee, a wildland fire ecologist and former firefighter with the Forest Service and the National Park Service.

See our full collection of articles featuring FUSEE in the News.

Torchbearers for the New Paradigm:

Board President Miriam Valentine

FUSEE: What drew you to be a wildland firefighter? And how has your on the ground experience impacted your relationship and perspective on wildfire?

Miriam Valentine: Well, my mother and my aunt were both firefighters and I grew up knowing that there were women in fire. I wanted to do it but they didn’t really want me to go down that route because of the patriarchal culture, but I decided to try it anyway. In the beginning I was mystified that I could even be a wildland firefighter and distracted by making sure that I was physically capable. But once that first honeymoon stage with fire wore off, I really began to see the beast that fire really is, not the fire itself, but the infrastructure and culture that surrounds fire. I had this idea that firefighting was protecting communities, and there’s definitely an element of that, but I found myself protecting private land and timber operations and things that didn’t align with my values. But I’m still grateful for those experiences out on the hill, it gives you a whole other perspective and really drives the necessity and the passion for getting more fire on the ground during the off season.

FUSEE: As both a firefighter and a firelighter, how have these roles interacted to inform how we address increasing climate fires and the harm of historic fire suppression and exclusion?

MV:  It’s really time to acknowledge that fire is going to come no matter what and it’s how we prepare for that wildfire that matters. Because the way that fire moves through landscapes is driven by fuel type and of course, there is wind and other elements that are out of our control, but it’s really the work that we do during the off season that’s going to build fire resiliency. And that has so much to do with investing in more fuels reduction projects. But it’s also more than that, that is the physical resiliency. Putting fire on the ground and doing that fuels reduction work in a way that’s intentional and informed requires people to come together in local spaces. We have to create spaces in which neighbors and community members can come together in conversation to build social preparedness as well as physical preparedness.

FUSEE: As an artist, how do you view the role of art as a tool for shifting the fire paradigm?

MV:  “Well art has been used as a tool always. There’s so much fear surrounding wildfire that has been curated by art in anti-fire propaganda starting in the 20th century. All those anti-fire posters show that art matters, that the contra art and the propaganda art have huge impacts on the collective human psyche. So it’s really creating a new fire culture through art, and it’s not just creating art to counteract that, but creating art that can help people positively reassociate with fire that celebrates fire and makes ideas about fire more accessible. You don’t need to read an academic paper to learn and understand all the dynamic pieces of wildfire. Seeing art that’s inspired by fire makes it more personal. With the FUSEE bandana that I made, people are always asking what the plants are, what the different critters are, and why they matter and why they are important. Art is inherently human and humans are inherently intertwined with fire.”

Thank you, Miriam, for your thoughtfulness and meaningful contributions to FUSEE!

Upcoming Events

The International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) is hosting the Fire and Climate Conference in Pasadena the week of May 23rd. This international conference will bring fire science and management experts from across the world to focus our attention on one of the most important forces shaping wildland fire - climate change. FUSEE served on the planning committee helping to recruit the great keynote speakers and plenary panels at the conference.

FUSEE will be in Pasadena attending our first in-person conference since the start of the pandemic! We’ll be there in force with staff hosting an exhibit booth featuring our literature, and lots of FUSEE swag. FUSEE’s executive director will be delivering a presentation titled “Incendiary Rhetoric: Messaging Ecological Fire Management as a Solution to the Climate-Wildfire Crisis.” And we’ll be displaying a poster of “biochartoons” from one of our resident artists. 

As an independent voice in the wildland fire community, FUSEE brings together the most progressive minds in the fire science and management communities. Our exhibit booth has traditionally been one of the more active networking hubs at fire conferences.The discussions we have out in the hallways around the coffee pot are at times more valuable than the presentations in the meeting rooms. Mark your calendars and come by the FUSEE booth if you come to the conference.

Support FUSEE in the Upcoming Year

We hope FUSEE’s vision of Ecological Fire Management brings you inspiration. Your generous support provides fuel for the collaboration, engagement, and creativity it takes to shift the paradigm of fire management.

As we prepare for another fire season in 2022, please consider a donation to FUSEE to help us continue our work promoting safe, ethical, ecological fire management.

Thank you for your support!

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