California tribe enters first-of-its-kind agreement with the state to practice cultural burns
For the Karuk Tribe, Cal Fire will no longer hold regulatory or oversight authority over the burns and will instead act as a partner and consultant. The previous arrangement, tribal leaders say, essentially amounted to one nation telling another nation what to do on its land — a violation of sovereignty. Now, collaboration can happen through a proper government-to-government relationship.
“When it comes to that ability to get out there and do frequent burning to basically survive as an indigenous community,” said Bill Tripp, director for the Karuk Tribe Natural Resource Department, “one: you don’t have major wildfire threats because everything around you is burned regularly. Two: Most of the plants and animals that we depend on in the ecosystem are actually fire-dependent species.”
The way L.A. thinks about fires is all wrong, two experts say. They explain how to do better.
Frustrated by the continual ineffectiveness of firefighting efforts over the decades, both advocate for a more sophisticated understanding of fire and the ecosystems that foster urban and wildland blazes. Fire is so often viewed as a crisis and emergency that it is divorced from many factors that contribute to its destructive nature — factors that, if addressed, could mitigate the destruction.
Simple ways to protect OR homes from wildfires
Once a fire starts moving house to house, Ingalsbee acknowledged it is almost impossible to control. He added people living rurally as well as in urban areas need to think about safety because embers from wildfires can travel for miles and ignite homes easily.
"If anything is teaching us a lesson now, in this era of climate change, we're all living in the fire zone," Ingalsbee pointed out.
Rain aids L.A. firefighters, prompts fears of toxic runoff, while Trump plays politics
“Our current dominant model is to invest in reactive wildfire suppression, and the costs are just soaring,” Timothy Ingalsbee, co-founder and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, told the Guardian.
Climate change is stoking monster blazes that no amount of dollars or human effort can put out, the former wildland firefighter warned.
Rather than reactively laying siege to fire whenever it appears on the land, Angelenos need to “re-engage” with an element that has always been a part of the ecosystem in which they live, Ingalsbee said.
This bill to reduce wildfires might actually make them worse
Some experts told me that the basic logic behind the bill could actually lead to more severe burns. Tim Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, or FUSEE, told me that scaling up logging in the wilderness, where uncontrolled blazes can stomp through small towns on their way to the exurbs, would leave behind the most flammable materials. “Grasses, shrubs, leaves, small trees, old logging slash: These are the things that the timber industry will never ever remove,” he says. “They have no commodity value. When they wanna do logging, they remove the least flammable portion of a tree and dump all the needles and limbs on the ground where it’s basically tinder.” In fact, the best wildfire mitigators are often the trees themselves. Old-growth forests are able to survive and slow the spread of flames—and their numbers are dwindling due to logging.
We Australians have learned from our bushfires. Can Californians?
As Angelenos stand in the ashes of their own fires, the fear, rage and finger-pointing has kicked in. Australians have been there, too. Fire transforms what it touches, not just the air that it poisons and the land it blackens, but also people and institutions. Over time, we’ve learned that comanaging nature and urban sprawl involves trade-offs that are difficult but worth making.
Inclusion of Indigenous voices in revised Northwest Forest Plan focus of symposium
“One of the ways we are going to get through both the climate and the wildfire crisis is by bringing in the values and perspectives of indigenous people,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety Ethics and Ecology. “They survived here, thrived here for millenia.”
Symposium stresses need for Indigenous perspectives in Northwest Forest Plan amendment
One point of emphasis for one of the speakers was how going forward fire management needs to change its year-round approach, especially outside of wildfire season.
"As wildfires come through, then we pick up the broken pieces,” says Ryan Reed, an Indigenous fire practitioner and wildland firefighter. “There is a lot of power that needs to be distributed into the proactive aspect. It's wintertime now, where work and strategy-making has to be done now."
‘We surpassed human limits to stop this’: LA megafires show our approach to fire needs to change.
“Our current dominant model is to invest in reactive wildfire suppression, and the costs are just soaring,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, co-founder and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology (Fusee) and a former wildland firefighter.
“The problem is we surpassed our human limits to prevent or put out all wildfires, particularly during these extreme wind-driven weather events that have a link to climate change.
“We surpassed our human limits to stop this,” he said.
Here’s what we know about L.A. fire department’s DEI efforts, which Republicans have attacked
Timothy Ingalsbee, a former wildland firefighter and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, a public education and advocacy group, said the wildfires are "a clear sign that we have surpassed the human capacity to stop these extreme, urban conflagrations during these extreme conditions."
It’s a "grand delusion" to suggest that "more white, male firefighters, bigger fire engines or bigger air tankers" would have stopped this disaster from unfolding, he said.
Lesbian fire chief blamed for L.A. wildfires by conservatives. Conservatives falsely complain Kristin Crowley prioritized DEI over firefighting, leading to the horrific situation in Los Angeles.
Mike Beasley, the head of the board of Firefighters United for Safety Ethics and Ecology, told National Public Radio that blaming DEI for the current difficulties extinguishing wildfires has “only slightly more credibility than the Jewish space laser theories.”
He added that right-wingers’ accusations of DEI are nothing more than political pandering to their ideological allies.
OPINION: As fires rage on, political tensions rise
Mike Beasley, who heads the board of Firefighters United for Safety Ethics and Ecology, told NPR that “No fire agency is going to sacrifice training and fundamental fire control and fundamental operations at the expense of DEI training” and that “there is no number of people that will stop all the fires in the middle of a hot, dry season with the climate charged fuel aridity.”
What is pink fire retardant, being used to curb California wildfires — and what are the environmental concerns?
The use of pink fire retardant is not new in the United States — the product has been around for decades. However, growing research has raised questions about its effectiveness and potential harm to the environment.
What Los Angeles could have done to prepare better for wildfires
Los Angeles County has one of the world's top fire suppression organizations. Most technologically advanced. The firefighting force is highly trained and well paid.
There could have been ten times the number of crews and equipment there and they would not have been able to stop the spread of these fires.
If anything, this is another screaming signal about climate change. When these conditions of prolonged droughts and hurricane force winds and record heat waves are all aligned, it's just not humanly possible to stop the spread or put out these fires.
[Interview with Timothy Ingalsbee at 3:25:00 mark]
Inconvenient truths about the fires burning in Los Angeles from two fire experts
For decades, Jack Cohen and Stephen Pyne have studied the history and behavior of wildfires. The magnitude of destruction this week in Los Angeles and Altadena, they argue, could have been mitigated. Society’s understanding and relationship to fire has to change if the conflagrations like these are to be prevented.
Why Los Angeles was unprepared for this fire. Several key factors left L.A. exposed to disaster.
“There was a lot that could have and should have been done,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Oregon-based Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “Decades before we knew about climate change, we knew this kind of urban sprawl was a big risk.”
Why right-wing influencers are blaming the California wildfires on diversity efforts
As for the impact of DEI policies on putting out wildfires, "I give it only slightly more credibility than the Jewish space laser theories," said Mike Beasley, who heads the board of Firefighters United for Safety Ethics and Ecology. In 40 years of firefighting, he says he has watched wildfires become more extreme and "meaner."
"There is no number of people that will stop all the fires in the middle of a hot, dry season with the climate charged fuel aridity. There just isn't," said Beasley.
Conspiracy theories are blaming the scale of L.A. wildfire destruction on DEI efforts
HAGEN: Mike Beasley is with Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology. He fought fires for 40 years and says there are many serious discussions these fires should raise - about climate change, funding firefighters, water management, housing development, aging infrastructure. But...
MIKE BEASLEY: Well, I'd give it only slightly more credibility than the Jewish space laser theories.
Giving Guide! Eugene Weekly’s annual effort to help you decide what nonprofits to support—FUSEE
“FUSEE is engaged in paradigm-shifting educational and policy work around fire. Shifting fire policy is essential to responding to the climate crisis, protecting communities and ecosystems, and supporting Tribal sovereignty and traditional ecological management. FUSEE’s work is incredibly important for our region at this moment.” – Sarah D. Wald, associate professor of environmental studies and English, University of Oregon