Can we coexist with big wildfires? A new documentary, ‘Elemental,’ suggests we can
The premise is that by more heavily managing the forests, we can create better outcomes. It’s an approach consistently promoted by timber industry lobbyists and representatives or rural communities who stand to benefit economically.
But researchers featured in ‘Elemental’ suggest it’s a ludicrous strategy. The scale of the problem is simply too large. The vegetation grows back in short order. The chance of a wildfire actually encountering an area that has been treated is less than 1%, one researcher found. And when one does, the treatments frequently have little to no effect on fire behavior.
Yosemite’s sequoias survive Washburn Fire—and might benefit from it
Many of the sequoias that have died were outside the most protected parts in Sequoia and Yosemite national parks, where officials have used prescribed fire to thin out the surrounding forest , said Zeke Lunder, a wildfire consultant in Chico, California. “The sequoias that burned were in the national forest surrounded by thickets of cedar and other trees,” Mr. Lunder said.
Ancient sequoias safe for now as crews continue battling 3,500-acre Washburn fire in Yosemite
But sequoias have also evolved with wildfire and in fact rely on extreme heat to help release their seeds. Crystal Kolden, a fire scientist at UC Merced who has been tracking the blaze, said she was “not worried” about the trees in Mariposa Grove. “They’ve been doing prescribed burns in that grove for over 50 years, and it’s early in the season yet,” Kolden said via email. “This fire should actually be pretty beneficial for them, and it is much better for them to burn in July — which is normally when most of the lightning ignitions are in Yosemite, so it’s the natural fire timing — rather than in September.”
Are chemicals the best way to fight forest fires?
U.S. officials are testing a new chemical mixture that is able to slow down the progress of wildfires. But critics say the Forest Service should be spending less on these mixtures known as fire retardants and more on firefighters.
Karuk leader Bill Tripp appointed to new federal wildfire commission
A Karuk leader who has been among those leading the charge to bring managed fires back to the landscape has been appointed to a new federal wildfire commission.
On Thursday, the Biden-Harris administration announced that Bill Tripp, the Karuk Tribe’s director of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, was one of 18 experts appointed to the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The commission is expected to provide recommendations to the federal government on how to address catastrophic wildfires.
Tripp said it was “quite the honor to be selected.”
“I think that we are in a new time where people are ready to listen to the perspectives that come from Indigenous communities on this subject matter,” Tripp said.
All that’s needed is a spark’: why the US may be headed for a summer of mega-fire
Fire activity is expected to increase in several US states over the coming months, according to a newly released outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), with parts of the Pacific north-west, northern California, Texas, Hawaii and Alaska forecast to be among those hardest hit by fire conditions in the months ahead.
The severity of the emergency will depend on four key factors: drought, dried fuels, windy or warm weather, and of course, ignitions. But the climate crisis and human-caused warming has turned up the dial on risk-factors with more intense conditions and a greater frequency with which these conditions align.
More wilderness, more … wildfire?
As the West reckons with decades of suppression and mismanagement, some politicians are exploiting the politics of wildfire in peculiar ways.
Wildland fire agencies work to create 'better work-life balance' as fire seasons grow longer
Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in late 2021, which funds $8.25 billion for wildland fire management around the country. A considerable amount of that money is designated for federal wildland firefighter pay increases and will turn many seasonal jobs into full-time positions for the longer fire seasons.
NIFC spokesperson Jessica Gardetto said the goal is to help improve their way of life, while also recruiting and retaining more wildland firefighters.
Gardetto said federal agencies will not begin to see the staffing effects of law until next fire season because they do most of their hiring in the fall which was around the same time Congress passed the law. She said leadership does believe the law will certainly entice new and former wildland firefighters to join crews in 2023.
Oregon faces firefighter shortage as it looks toward wildfire season
This year's fire season could be a challenging one for crews in Oregon. They're dealing with a firefighter shortage and a delayed pay raise. Sen. Ron Wyden visited Southern Oregon Tuesday to get an update on this year's fire season from state fire officials. Wyden has been pressuring the Biden administration to speed up a promised pay increase for wildland firefighters. Congress approved $600 million last year to raise firefighter pay, but that’s been delayed by over a month.
Oregon wildfires offer new clues on forest management
In the Pacific Northwest, land managers should focus on fire-resistant construction and fire suppression, not big forest management projects, a research paper on the Labor Day 2020 fires said.
Ecologists say federal wildfire plans are dangerously out of step with climate change
"Seems astounding," fire ecologist Timothy Ingalsbee tells NPR's Here and Now. "Never again should we have the excuse that we failed to include climate conditions and climate data in our fire management actions. That's just the era we live in," says the former Forest Service wildland firefighter who now directs the group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. "I can understand why people are upset. It sounds like the 'dog ate my homework' kind of excuse,' he says.
Author: Flawed fire policies hurt Pecos River forests
In the 1970s and ’80s, forest officials resisted conducting prescribed burns and letting natural fires run their course but began embracing this type of fire management in the 1990s, said Tom Ribe, public lands advocate and author of a book that takes a critical look at the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire.
Some similar missteps were made with both the Cerro Grande and Hermits Peak fires, Ribe said. Crews felt pressed to complete the burns despite dry conditions and the risk of erratic spring winds, especially on sloping terrain, he said.
As U.S. tests new fire retardant, critics push other methods
Andy Stahl, executive director of the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, and Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, both said that the ammonium-phosphates-based retardant is essentially a fertilizer that can boost invasive plants and is potentially responsible for some algae blooms in lakes or reservoirs when it washes downstream. They said the magnesium-chloride-based retardant is essentially a salt that will inhibit plant growth where it falls, possibly harming threatened species.
Check out the wildfire risk at your Oregon property. Building codes and other requirements may depend on it.
That broader approach is exactly what Tim Ingalsbee would like to see happen. The executive director of the Eugene-based advocacy group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, he says the definition of fire risks within the interface will give property owners with a low-risk classification a false sense of security.
“They’re talking about zones and not the actual conditions of individual properties,” he said. “It’s not a bad thing as a sensitizing exercise, but all of us have to get prepared regardless of what color the map is where our properties reside. It’s about the home ignition zone.”
Ralph Bloemers, an environmental lawyer who is the director of fire safe communities for Green Oregon, agrees that “regardless of where you are on the map, hardening homes and business is the most durable, cost-effective and fire-safe step you can take.”
Even the ‘Good Fires’ Can Now Turn Disastrous
But Pyne is most focused on what he calls “working with wildfires”: a more open and fluid approach that treats those that begin with an accidental or natural ignition almost like prescribed burns by guiding them toward useful spread. “I wish the agencies were a little more forthright about this” — that some remote fires can just be left to burn, he said. “It’s legal, it’s legitimate. But it can also seem evasive, a little sub rosa,” especially against a backdrop of growing fire anxiety across the West, driven not just by the fires themselves but the smoke they produce. “People get hay fever in the spring,” Pyne said. “Well, you may be dealing with smoke fever in the fall.”
Forest Service failed to account for climate change in setting New Mexico's largest wildfire
A new report by the U.S. Forest Service finds that the agency didn't account for the ways climate change has altered the conditions and the landscape when it set a prescribed burn in the national forest in April. That blaze quickly grew out of control and became the Hermit's Creek fire that then merged with the nearby Calf Canyon fire, which has torched more than 341,000 acres. That's an area larger than the city of Los Angeles.
Host Peter O'Dowd talks with Timothy Inglasbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology.
Forest Service says it failed to account for climate change in New Mexico blaze
Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director with Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, said authorities “can no longer manage fire according to the calendar date” and should incorporate climate data more thoroughly into their models. He also said firefighters need to intensify prescribed burns when weather conditions are favorable. He warned that halting prescribed burns for three months could have consequences later this summer. “Areas that should have burned under controlled conditions will burn under extreme conditions,” he said.
Cal Fire fumbles key responsibilities to prevent catastrophic wildfires despite historic budget
Cal Fire has publicly signaled a commitment to rebalancing its priorities. But a monthslong investigation by The California Newsroom, a public media collaboration, found that the department continues to fumble key responsibilities related to forest management and wildfire mitigation.
Wildland firefighters win pay rise - but is it enough?
Tom Ribe is the Co-founder of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE) and a retired wildland firefighter. He said firefighter pay and working conditions are so bad now, this rise may not change much. “I don’t think it’s enough,” Ribe said. “They need to be able to survive. They need to not be living in their cars when they are off the fires.”
Trial by fire: The trauma of fighting California’s wildfires
As California’s wildfires intensify and burn year-round, its firefighters suffer from the increasing strain of post-traumatic stress. Decisions made while struggling with lack of sleep, long hours and stress could endanger not just the crews, but the public, too. What is the state doing to respond? Overwhelmingly, California’s firefighters and mental-health experts say, “Not nearly enough.” Cal Fire has been slow to address PTSD and suicides among its ranks, and firefighters routinely encounter problems getting workers’ comp insurance to cover their care.