Indigenous stewardship of forests topic of Feb. 7 Oregon State Science Pub
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Indigenous stewardship of Pacific Northwest forests as a way of increasing forests’ climate resiliency, particularly related to wildfires, will be the topic of Oregon State University’s Science Pub on Feb. 7.
Cristina Eisenberg, a community ecologist and associate dean for inclusive excellence and director of Tribal initiatives in Oregon State’s College of Forestry, and Ashley Russell, a faculty research assistant who works with Eisenberg, will give the talk at 6 p.m. at the Old World Deli in Corvallis. It can be viewed in person or online.
Climate changing: Research shows times for ‘prescribed burns’ in the West shifting
Deciding when and where to conduct prescribed burns is becoming increasingly important as the climate warms, and, according to a recent study, the timing and frequency of appropriate weather will also play a larger role.
Prescribed burns are an essential tool land managers use in reducing fuel availability for extreme wildfires, and conditions favorable to prescribed burns will become far less frequent in much of the West, especially the Southwest, according to a study published in October 2023 in Communications Earth & Environment.
However, the study found that parts of the northern Rocky Mountains will have more days to use prescribed burns, especially during the early and late winter months.
Our tinderbox world: Wildfires and risk reduction
“The following websites and organizations can help you identify and implement a number of concrete actions that could protect your community or your own family and residence from wildfires:…Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (ecological fire management), Indigenous Peoples Burning Network…”
Next Thanksgiving, Smokey Bear should talk about climate change
In an excellent story timed to Smokey’s 75th birthday in 2019, HuffPost reporter Chris D’Angelo made the case that the federal fire-prevention campaign “may be a net negative for the environment.” He talked with experts who told him that the bear’s “only you can prevent wildfires” message had obscured the important role that natural fire plays in healthy forest ecosystems.
Fighting wildfires: Young people are going into fire service and science careers
More frequently, those living in fire-prone areas are turning to groups who have coexisted with fire for generations. Controlled, intentional burns and other strategies enable the landscape and wildlife to thrive, mitigating climate change and offsetting future wildfires. “The way that I was raised, we look at resources as relatives. It is our obligation to take care of them,” Mahseelah says. “Our tribe practiced fire management long before we were on the reservation. Fire is medicine, it's rebirth, regeneration, cleansing. It is needed.”
Two years with America’s elite firefighters
A report published this year by the University of Washington concluded that on average, the base monthly pay of federal firefighters, including hotshots, was about 41 percent less than their counterparts in state agencies.
The pay disparity is at the heart of the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act, legislation that would raise the base pay of entry level federal firefighters by 42 percent. The bill is currently pending before Congress.
Sunriver summit focuses on Indigenous knowledge of forest health, responsible use of fire
Inside the Homestead Conference Hall at Sunriver Resort on Wednesday, six Native Americans chanted and drummed at decibel levels so high, the windows shook.
The powerful performance by the Mountain Top Singers of the Paiute-Shoshone Tribe kicked off two days of panel discussions, networking events and cultural celebration for tribal and nontribal guests at a learning summit.
Leaders and youth representatives from 17 tribes in the Pacific Northwest were involved in the event. Participants focused on ways to improve the ecological health of Pacific Northwest forests, mainly with the responsible use of fire.
How I learned to stop worrying and love unmanned aerial flamethrowers
Rather than mount a whole flamethrower to a drone, the Drone Amplified device works by dropping small potassium permanganate shells that had been injected with anti-freeze, causing the shells to ignite, over a landscape. (The shells are known as “dragon eggs.”) This allows fire agencies to conduct controlled low-intensity burns in hard-to-reach locations to limit the available fuel for future wildfires. It also allows firefighters to start what are known as backburns, defensive “counter-fires” of last resort that block an advancing wildfire from moving into a new landscape, and that are traditionally started by hand with dip torches.
Federal money will support Native American burn practices in Oregon’s oak habitats
A project incorporating traditional Native American management practices for oak habitat restoration in Oregon has been awarded $9.23 million.
The project also seeks to permanently protect designated oak savannas and woodlands, and give Native Americans access to them for cultural use and environmental stewardship.
Federal money will support Native American burn practices in Oregon’s oak habitats
A project incorporating traditional Native American management practices for oak habitat restoration in Oregon has been awarded $9.23 million. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service awarded the money, which will go to the Oregon Agricultural Trust and its partners.
The traditional management practices include setting fire to the landscape in order to rejuvenate certain plants, eradicate pests, and reduce slash and debris, commonly known as “cultural burns.”
Park Service should refrain from planting sequoia seedlings and let nature do its job
The death of numerous sequoias got lots of media coverage, though subsequent analyses are finding many trees assumed to have been killed are in fact alive. More recently, attention has shifted to what’s happening with sequoia regrowth after the fire. There’s been a concerning lack of new sequoia seedlings surviving over the past century, putting the future of sequoia ecosystems in doubt.
This is what I witnessed in Redwood Mountain Grove: verdant carpets of young sequoias stretching up to my knees and covering the hillsides. And this new generation is thriving. Researchers are finding high survival rates, vigorous growth and new seedlings continuing to emerge two years after fire.
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article280709210.html#storylink=cpy
America’s new wildfire risk goes beyond forests
Forest fires may get more attention, but a new study reveals that grassland fires are more widespread and destructive across the United States. Almost every year since 1990, the study found, grass and shrub fires burned more land than forest fires did, and they destroyed more homes, too.
Why many scientists are now saying climate change is an all-out ‘emergency’
“Scientists are more willing to speak out,” Ripple said. “As a group, we’ve been pretty hesitant, historically.” But, he added, “I feel like scientists have a moral obligation to warn humanity.”
'Get bitten by the fire': Book explores wildfire's mystique, science in a shifting climate
Science journalist M.R. O'Connor's new book "Ignition," published Tuesday by Bold Type Books, will make you fall in love with the flickering, challenging mystery of fire, and even, cautiously, with its fearful ferocity.
How megafires are remaking the world
This incendiary age, which some scientists have called the Pyrocene, could lead to “a wholesale conversion of what habitats are where on the planet,” Dr. Hodges said. “Right now, everybody is talking about fires and smoke and who dies, because of the immediacy of this fire year. But really, truly, the long-term consequences are much more severe and sustained.”
This wildfire season, here’s another terrifying threat to worry about
Members of Congress have already proposed bipartisan bills that could shore up pay and benefits for our firefighters. It’s imperative that our government take legislative action to permanently secure and stabilize the earnings of those bravely defending our communities.The consequences of inaction are dire. If lawmakers don’t stabilize firefighter pay, about a third to half of the 11,000 U.S. Forest Service firefighters could leave the service, according to the National Federation of Federal Employees.
Thousands of federal firefighters face a looming pay cut. How much is up to Congress
Federal wildland firefighters were on the frontlines of some of the harshest wildfires to hit the U.S. and Canada this summer. But as Congress is inching towards its Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government, those firefighters stand to lose half their salaries.
The threat of wildfires is rising. So are new artificial intelligence solutions to fight them
Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence.
Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space. And Microsoft is using AI models to predict where the next blaze could be sparked.
With wildfires becoming larger and more intense as the world warms, firefighters, utilities and governments are scrambling to get ahead of the flames by tapping into the latest AI technology — which has stirred both fear and excitement for its potential to transform life. While increasingly stretched first responders hope AI offers them a leg up, humans are still needed to check that the tech is accurate.
Learn to live with wildfire smoke, British Columbians told
British Columbians are going to have to live with the health effects of huge forest fires for decades to come and need to be prepared to protect themselves individually and as communities.
“We are going to have to face this again and again and again,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said.
He said it means training and hiring more nurses and providing greater support to health workers as they work with affected people in communities.
And, he stressed, among those most affected by fires and the resulting evacuation alerts and orders are the elderly living in care homes.
A Northern California tribe works to protect traditions in a warming world
"One of the first things the government outlawed was cultural burning," said the Southern Sierra Miwuk's Lerma.
State officials made this tribal practice of igniting small fires illegal in 1850. The years of fire suppression that followed have made wildfires worse.
"'Smokey the Bear' all over the place," said Fouch-Moore. "And now our forests are overgrown and in bad health. And they're like, 'Oh wait, maybe we should let the Indians do their thing.'"
In recent years, the National Park Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) have started to collaborate with Indigenous communities to return traditional burning to the land.