New This Summer: Exclusive Event Invite, New Crew, and News Updates

Firebrand, FUSEE’s Quarterly Newsletter
Summer Solstice, July 2022

In this issue:

Dispatch from the Executive Director
FUSEE in the News
What has FUSEE been up to? - International Fire and Climate Conference and the Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance Gathering
Torchbearers: Introducing Three New FUSEE Crew Members
Upcoming Event - Invitation to Private Virtual Screening of "Elemental" with Renowned Fire Scientist Dr. Jack Cohen

Climate and Covid: Looking Ahead and Leaving Behind

Dispatch from the Executive Director

To our FUSEE supporters,

It is now almost become trite but true that our traditional “fire seasons” have radically changed in this era of climate change. This spring large-scale wildfires erupted from two escaped prescribed fires in the Southwest when unforecast winds blew strong and steady for several days, causing unstoppable rapid fire spread. The USFS Chief, Randy Moore, confessed that agency planners neglected to consider climate change in their burn planning– an unbelievable omission! Then Chief Moore issued a decree that imposed a summer-long “pause” on prescribed burning on all national forests nationwide– a ridiculous reaction!

FUSEE raised the alarm within the fire community and in the newsmedia: prescribed burning is a vitally necessary tool for reintroducing fire in areas that have missed burning due to the agency’s misguided fire exclusion policies. Controlled burning helps recycle surface fuels and reduces understory vegetation in forested wildlands– essential for adapting ecosystems for ongoing climate change. It’s too bizarre to believe: the agency admits it failed to consider climate change, then decides to remove a vital tool to prepare for it.

Another crisis seems to keep grinding on and on: the Covid-19 pandemic. After nearly three years of lockdowns, social distancing, vaccines, masks, and the loss of over one million fellow citizens–millions more across the globe–we hoped we might be leaving the pandemic behind. The virus keeps evolving with new variants, and the stats of infections show a weekly roller coaster ride. It remains an open question if the new protocols for fire camp hygiene, social distancing, and module organization will prevent firefighters from catching Covid this summer. FUSEE will be monitoring the health situation of crews, advocating for full health care and support for crews who put their lungs on the line.

Between a future of ongoing climate change and the past (that is not really past) of the Covid pandemic, we need to be sure we care for ourselves and each other to cope physically and mentally with this convergence of crises that reflects a fever of the planet and all peoples. Fire is an agent of purification and transformation–in the right hands with the right mind and spirit, torchbearers offer hope for healing. FUSEE will keep advocating for a paradigm shift in fire management with a foundation of safety, ethics, and ecology–a cure for so many of the world’s ills.

Yours,

Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D.
Executive Director, FUSEE

Support FUSEE With a Summer Solstice Gift

Photo by Trip Jennings, filmmaker of movie Elemental see below

You can help sustain FUSEE’s vision of Ecological Fire Management and Community Fire Preparation. Your generous support provides fuel for the collaboration, engagement, and creativity it takes to shift the paradigm of fire management.

As we enter fire season, please consider a donation to FUSEE to help us continue our work promoting safe, ethical, ecological fire management. We are deeply grateful for your continued support.

Your gift supports firefighters and the sharing of important fire rhetoric today!

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FUSEE in the News

FUSEE members featured in the news media

FUSEE has received a lot of coverage in newspapers, radio and television, magazines, and podcasts even before big wildfires ignite in the Pacific West. To date we’ve had over 30 stories this year!

Story topics included the New Mexico wildfires, Forest Service’s flawed prescribed burn ban despite the critical necessity of prescribed fire, the role of climate change in wildfire activity, the environmental impacts of aerial fire retardant, wildland firefighter pay, and more.

Key highlights include Executive Director, Tim Ingalsbee, on the National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast discussing climate change and wildfire, and the need for increased funding for proactive prescribed fire and cultural burning instead of reactive fire suppression. You can also read Tim’s critiques of aerial fire retardant and its role in boosting invasive plants, and algae blooms in lakes or reservoirs when it washes down streams in the LA Times.

Tom Ribe, co-founder of FUSEE and retired wildland firefighter, discussed the New Mexico wildfires, and dismal wildland firefighter pay and poor working conditions on the KUNM radio. Check out the Washington Post article, where Tim discusses the potential negative consequences of the Forest Service’s summer-long prescribed burn ban. Stay up to date with our news coverage in FUSEE in the news and Fire News sections on our website.

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

What has FUSEE been up to this year?

FUSEE Fires Up the International Fire and Climate Conference

FUSEE members participated in the International Fire and Climate Conference in Pasadena in May. Hosted by the International Association of Wildland Fire, the event brought together over 300 fire science/management professionals for the first major in-person fire conference in the U.S. since the pandemic began. We signed up dozens of new members!

FUSEE hosted an exhibit booth that was a big hit located front and center in the exhibit hall. We sponsored a contest for folks to guess what date the USFS will declare Preparedness Level 5 (PL-5) both regionally and nationally. When the agency declares PL-5, this means that wildfire activity is high, firefighter resources are low, and the agency commits to aggressively attack all fires!

FUSEE members gave an oral presentation that critiqued false solutions to the climate/wildfire crises, and we hosted two posters. One poster featured the “chartoons” of FUSEE’s resident cartoonist, Parts Permillion, and the other featured an interactive poll for attendees to mark their preferred term for wildland fire use. Of all the choices, FUSEE’s preferred term, “Ecological Fire Use,” won in a landslide!

It was a great event to reconnect with friends and colleagues after nearly three year’s absence. And once again, FUSEE provided the energetic “buzz” for the fire conference, rallying students, raising policy debates, and facilitating critical discussions of the burning issues affecting fire management today.

Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance Gathering

FUSEE attended the first gathering of the Pacific Northwest Forest/Climate Alliance (PNWFCA) in May, near Molalla on Molalla Kalapuya land. The Alliance comprises 65 organizations, organizing to work on diverse issues from prescribed fire to climate change.

FUSEE is a part of the wildfire working group, while the Alliance has working groups working on industrial forests, field surveying, rural communities, the Green New Deal, the Climate Action Plan, and more. The Alliance has a wide range of members from ages 18 - 80 and located from the Oregon Coast across to Clearwater, ID and down from Bellingham, WA to the John Muir Wilderness.

The Alliance’s goal is to create a mutually supportive, grounded, and effective allocation of resources and communication to support the diverse missions and values within the group.

FUSEE will continue to support other organizations and groups working to combat climate change, protect our forests, and promote prescribed and Indigenous cultural burning.

Find out more about the alliance here: forestclimatealliance.org.

Torchbearers for the New Paradigm:

Introducing Three New FUSEE Crew Members

In each quarterly newsletter, FUSEE features information about a “Torchbearer for the New Paradigm” - a person whose knowledge and experience helps shift the narrative around fire. This solstice, we welcome new crew members to the team.

Helena Virga (she/her) is the new Administrative Director. Currently a double Masters student at the University of Oregon, Helena was drawn to FUSEE after taking many classes with Tim. She views fire as a form of art- from the colors of the flames to the way smoke paints the sky, and how it regenerates the land and inspires a wide array of emotions in humans across time.

Braden Ravenscraft (he/him) is the new Nonprofit Management Intern. He is a University of Oregon student, and found his way to FUSEE via an interest in environmental nonprofits and the underserved area of fire advocacy. He appreciates fire for how it stimulates all the senses and how it brings people together.

Copeland Burchenal (he/him) is the new Social and Digital Media Intern. A student at Lewis & Clark College, he became interested in working for FUSEE because of the bold stances FUSEE takes on important issues regarding forest fires. Copeland grew up in rural Montana, and wants to use his rhetoric skills to bring more rural communities into the vital fire conversation.

We are excited, FUSEE summer crew, for the projects you are creating and your continued meaningful contributions to FUSEE!

Don’t Miss This Exclusive Member Event

Private Virtual Screening of “Elemental” with Dr. Jack Cohen and filmmaker Ralph Bloemers

July 27, 2022
6:00 - 8:00 pm PST

Stay tuned for a special invitation to the sneak preview of a brand new, yet-to-be-publicly-released screening of "Elemental" on July 27, a must-see, powerful documentary that invites you to reimagine your relationship with wildfire.

Only you and other FUSEE supporters are invited to watch the film alongside filmmaker Ralph Bloemers and Dr. Jack Cohen, renowned fire scientist from the Missoula Fire Lab, who did the pioneering research on home hardening and the home ignition zone. After the film you will be invited to ask questions and find out how to bring the film to your community. Look out for your official invitation soon, or get your tickets here today!

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