Canada’s ability to prevent forest fires lags behind the need
“We need to do more to get ahead of the problem,” said Mike Flannigan, who studies wildfires at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, a community in the heart of that province’s wildfire country. “And progress on that has been slow, primarily because we are kind of stuck in this paradigm that fire suppression is the solution.”
Forest managers using lightning-caused wildfire near Flagstaff for ecological benefit
The Volunteer Fire was initially reported as just a single acre two weeks ago within the scar of the 2021 Rafael Fire. But following the burn-out operations, it’s grown much larger though managers intend to keep it within a broader 3,580-acre footprint. In the coming days they plan to ignite another 1,800 acres, which will likely produce smoke that’ll impact Flagstaff. It’s among several prescribed and managed wildfires currently taking place in the region.
‘Missed opportunity?’ Records detail Forest Service response to Beachie Creek Fire before blowup
The documents and actions illustrate a team trying to put out a fire with no ground crew availability, said Michael Beasley, deputy fire chief of Yosemite National Park from 2001 to 2009 and a retired interagency fire chief.
“They dumped a lot of water on it, they used a lot of resources and spent a lot of money," he said. "That wasn't for show."
Beasley said his only question about tactics was: “I would say in my day we never did water drops without a crew on the ground, because you really need that ground crew to be effective in actually putting out the fire. These days, hotshot crews have more ability to turn down dangerous missions and it has become more common to have aircraft dropping water without ground support.”
Three national forests in Colorado receive nearly $47 million for wildfire barriers
North of Pagosa Springs in Archuleta County, the 2021 fuel break project cleared shrubs and small trees across about 100 acres in a narrow, 25-foot-wide strip along Fourmile Road. During wildfires, similar undergrowth can act like a ladder and carry flames higher into tree canopies, which helps the fire spread.
Clearing it away from roads, rivers and other landscape features helps slow down wildfires, reinforces existing barriers and enlarges the buffer zone. Wildland crews use these fuel breaks as safe spaces to work while battling fires or assisting with prescribed burns.
Readers respond: Invest in workforce with Oregon Conservation Corps
The Oregon Conservation Corps offers a glimpse of the future community wildfire preparation workforce needed to live with fire on the land but keep it out of our homes. This science-based, socially-progressive program should be expanded, even exported to other western states, and the Legislature would be wise to fully renew its funding as an investment in youth and rural communities.
A ‘Canadian armageddon’ sets parts of western Canada on fire
In a country revered for placid landscapes and predictability, weeks of out-of-control wildfires raging across western Canada have ushered in a potent sense of fear, threatening a region that is the epicenter of the country’s oil and gas sector.
Climate research suggests that heat and drought associated with global warming are major reasons for the increase in bigger and stronger fires.
Almost 40% of land burned by western wildfires can be traced to carbon emissions
Almost 40% of forest area burned by wildfire in the western United States and southwestern Canada in the last 40 years can be attributed to carbon emissions associated with the world’s 88 largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers, according to new research that seeks to hold oil and gas companies accountable for their role in climate change.
Controlled burns help prevent wildfires, experts say. But regulations have made it nearly impossible to do these burns.
Even though the 2021 Marshall Fire made it clear that the fire threat posed by Colorado’s grasslands endangers large urban areas, federal, state and local rules continue to make it difficult to address the risk.
Fire retardant kills fish. Is it worth the risk?
Retardant contains ammonium phosphate, which is highly toxic to fish and other aquatic life. In the years following the accident, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE), a Eugene, Oregon-based nonprofit that represents former and current Forest Service employees, has called for policy changes regarding the use of retardant. The group has won two lawsuits against the Forest Service restricting its use and is now suing the agency over employing it in and around streams and creeks. The suit has reignited debates over retardant’s firefighting efficacy, and the outcome could change how it is used in the future.
This tribe was barred from cultural burning for decades — then a fire hit their community
Cultural burning — the practice of using controlled fires to tend the landscape — was once widespread among many Indigenous groups, but ended with the arrival of European settlers.
The practice is central to tribal culture, said Coats, who recalled how when he was a child, basket makers would gather basket making materials, hunters would gather hunting tools and medicine people would gather medicine. Burning was performed to help all of those tradespeople collect the best supplies possible, he said.
“We didn’t call it cultural burning,” he said. “We just called it taking care of the land.”
Prescribed fire training in Central Oregon aims to make communities safer, forests more resilient to wildfires
Forty firefighting professionals from the U.S. and Canada gathered recently in the Deschutes National Forest in Central Oregon to gain hands-on experience with prescribed fires.
Such fires help reduce fuel load, improve forest health and protect communities from wildfires which have grown more intense due to climate change and 100 years of suppressing fires.
Since its launch 15 years ago by the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of the Interior and The Nature Conservancy, the Prescribed Fire Training Exchange Program, or TREX, has taken place in more than a dozen states and has grown to include the involvement of Tribal nations, state and local governments, private landowners and other partners.
Arguments get heated in fire retardant case
The Forest Service in court documents argue the only way to prevent retardant from being dropped or spilled into the waterways is to stop the use of it altogether – an action the service and other stakeholders say would not be in the best interest of the public.
No formal charges yet in October arrest of Forest Service burn boss in Grant County
Six months after a U.S. Forest Service employee was arrested on suspicion of reckless burning while supervising a prescribed burn in Grant County, no formal charges have been filed in the case.
In the days that followed, the case drew national and even international media attention. It was believed to be the first time a Forest Service firefighter had ever been arrested while doing their job. The arrest was widely condemned by federal officials and members of the wildland firefighting community.
Skepticism reigns during hearing on banning Forest Service fire retardant
During Monday’s hearing, Judge Dana Christensen noted that a ruling is likely soon to follow Monday’s hearing as wildfire season in the western United States is about to commence. Along with an overarching skepticism at the nationwide impact of siding with FSEEE’s position, Christenson rejected its push for an extended buffer zone for aerial drops.
California wildfires grew worse. The Forest Service dropped more retardant. Did it help?
Some studies on aerial retardants conducted by a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that they can slow the spread of a fire. But the conditions in which they are dropped have a huge impact on its efficacy; high winds, weather and the type of terrain take significant tolls on whether the retardant can properly impede a fire’s progress. Now at least one group is questioning if they work, and if the benefits of using them outweigh the costs of chemicals accidentally contaminating water.
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article274236915.html#storylink=cpy
How Native American traditions control wildfires
In Happy Camp, both the Native and non-Native communities have engaged in intensive discussions about how to use cultural and prescribed burns better and more frequently. And in recent years, local students have begun visiting sites before and after prescribed burns to understand the process and observe the health of various species. Some have also started attending the prescribed burns themselves, to start getting used to what it’s like to be around flames again. “Fire can be your friend if you can learn to understand it,” Tripp said.
The Next Fire Generation
Over the past few months, Trefny has collaborated with a diverse group of young, fire-focused leaders to develop, build power around and present a vision to the United States Forest Service (USFS), the Department of Interior (DOI) and other government officials. It’s called the FireGeneration Collaborative, or FireGen for short, and their ask is simple: to provide young people, particularly those from Indigenous and other marginalized communities, with the space to influence wildfire policy-making.
Discussing what makes the use of aerial fire retardant in forest fire management controversial
This features an audio recording of a 15 minute live radio interview featuring FUSEE’s Executive Director on the NPR affiliate, KPCC (Pasadena, CA)
Aerial fire retardant drops are attacked as ineffective and environmentally harmful
“Aerial retardant is effective over a narrow range of conditions, and the windows of opportunity for those conditions are narrowing each year due to climate change,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, a former wildland firefighter and executive director of the nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, which is not involved in the lawsuit.
“The Forest Service feels pressure to do something, as much for public relations as any operational benefit,” he said. “But it’s just a big airshow.”
Wildfires in northern forests broke carbon emissions records in 2021
Carbon emissions from wildfires in boreal forests, the earth’s largest land biome and a significant carbon sink, spiked higher in 2021 than in any of the last 20 years, according to new research.
Boreal forests, which cover northern latitudes in parts of North America, Europe and Asia usually account for about 10 percent of carbon dioxide released annually by wildfires, but in 2021 were the source of nearly a quarter of those emissions.