Watch Out Situation: Disastrous Suppression Spending From Wildfire Disaster Funding
We must stop disastrous suppression overspending that is certainly not preventing wildfire disasters. Strategic investments in fire planning, fuels management, and community preparedness are the way to wisely use limited taxpayer dollars.
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength: Orwellian Spin on the Red Salmon Complex Fire
It's a big deal that the USFS is waging their war against wildfire in the Karuk's homeland, and brought their Big Iron war machines into the Trinity Alps Wilderness. In essence, it represents the latest invasion and imposition of white settler-colonialism.
Community Destruction During Extreme Wildfires is a Home Ignition Problem
For the sake of fiscal responsibility, scientific integrity, and effective outcomes, it’s high time we abandon the tired and disingenuous policies of our century-old all-out war on wildfire, and fuel treatments conducted under the guise of protecting communities. Instead, let’s focus on mitigating Wildland/Urban fire risk where ignitions are determined – within the home ignition zone.
Don’t stop or shop, until you drop
“Permission has been given to use one blade wide dozer lines in the wilderness.”
Wildland Firefighting as an Extreme Sport
There are intrinsic gratifications for being a wildland firefighter that we dare not admit lest the public know that we're not into it just for the fame or fortune--we're in it for the fun!
Smokey Bear to Trump: You're AWOL!
A USDA-approved mask mandate outlines the consequences for employees who refuse to wear approved face coverings to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Solemn and Steadfast in the Year of Living Dangerously
Firefighters working on the line will face extreme difficulty maintaining healthy distance from each other.
Locked down and unequal: The looming shortage of firefighting crews in California
Over 1,400 inmates and employees at San Quentin Prison have tested positive for COVID-19. Six on death row have died of the disease. A growing public health crisis in the Bay Area, itself, transfers from San Quentin are responsible for COVID-19 being introduced into the Susanville prison population and the Conservation Camp of firefighters there. In Northern California last week, during the run-up to the 4th of July holiday, only 30 of 77 inmate crews were available in Northern California. That’s 800 fewer wildland firefighters available to dig lines, put in hoselays, and save homes and communities.
Head Fire
…I remember my hardhat being nearly blown off my head by the B-1 bomber from nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base passing low overhead at nearly treetop level. Myself and a squad of firefighters were in positions all around the amphitheater at the base of the “heads”, as they were affectionately known.
Run to the Water
Christmas turkey in Australia this year was served smoked, if not charred. In the final days of 2019 the increasingly familiar eerie visions of a day sky turned to night with embers flying in all directions were dished up on the people of New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. Sirens sounded out and residents were told to flee to the water…to the beaches. Many huddled together in small groups out in the sand, others staged a Dunkirk-style apocalyptic retreat under red skies onto the water in boats.
10 Ways that the Climate Crisis, Wildfires and Militarism are Intertwined
The war on wildland fire is simply an extension of our country’s extreme militarism – a place where veterans of foreign wars, wanna-be cops, and other conservative-minded men, mostly, can assemble, bond, and wrap themselves in a narrative of strength, heroism and sacrifice. There is a place for men and women to suppress fires near homes and vulnerable infrastructure. However, claiming glorious victory when fires are easiest to suppress, go out on their own, or when a break in the weather moderates conditions is disingenuous.
We Need Progressive Fire Management in Southern Oregon
This is a proposal for fire management changes in Southwestern Oregon.
Oregon Governor Wildfire Response Council - A Lost Opportunity
This post concentrates on the work of the Fire Suppression Committee of the Governor's Wildfire Response Council (WRC), relying on draft policy recommendations issued on September 16, 2019
Spotlight: FUSEE Board Members
Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology would like to welcome its two newest Board Members, Bill Tripp and Taro Pusina.
World on Fire
It's no wonder that we live in a society rife with depression, adolescent suicide, mass shootings, and opioid addiction. One might think that all this despair was driven solely by economic distress and hopelessness - the inability to even get one rung up on the ladder to prosperity, but I believe that there are deep feedback loops connecting humans and the natural world.
Overton’s Window Opens
The FUSEE street team, Madeline Cowen and myself, have been hard at work here in the north of Scotland, at the venerable Findhorn Foundation intentional spiritual community. We are here for the Climate Change and Consciousness conference, and we are a bit more than halfway through. Record-breaking Earth Day temperatures were followed immediately by a twelve square mile wildfire, threatening a nearby wind farm. A pall of smoke hung over Findhorn on Tuesday, and fire was on everyone’s mind, if not their lips. Our mission, aside from adding our voice to the chorus, was to bring more balance to the discussion of wildfires, as nearly every presenter used the language or visuals of wildfire destruction in their presentations to paint the dystopian future of runaway climate change.