Fire as the Essential Tool: Remembering to Celebrate Success
Looking at the Washburn Fire, there have been dozens of iterations of prescribed burning, thinning, and pile burning around the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and the nearby community of Wawona. In addition, the park has since the 1970’s had a program of allowing some lightning caused fires to burn. Both the human community of homes and infrastructure that comprise Wawona and the natural community of giant sequoias have benefitted from a single program of work – return fire to the extent possible to fire-dependent and fire-adapted landscapes.
FUSEE welcomes new crew members
Thanks to generous donors and the shifting cultural fire attitude around fire, the FUSEE crew is growing! We have recently welcomed more torchbearers for the new fire paradigm - an Administrative Director and two summer interns.
We Owe the Forests Good Fire
People owe the forests and wildlife restoration. We owe the natural world the best of our knowledge to restore the land to a resilient state that will support the maximum populations of diverse plants and animals and give generations of people beautiful places to find solitude, beauty, knowledge, adventure, recreation and spiritual sustenance.
Safety is more than a 5-minute talk. Keep close contact with your community too.
Despite worsening drought, longer seasons, increasing job vacancies, and increasing fire behavior it always seemed that tragedy could never hit me or anyone close to me. We are too smart. Too tough. We pay attention. We know what we are doing. Well, turns out that there are a lot of things out of our control.
Leadership in Forest Management
Leadership. It's a simple word that can be as complex as an August lightning bust. Its principles are beaten into individuals and organizations, but they're only as useful as the person who cares enough to think about how to apply them.
Forest Wisdom Found At The Golf Course?
It was a little rich having Donald Trump and Mike Pence coming in from New York and Indiana to tell California’s governor and state scientists that they need to “manage forests” to confront unprecedented wildfire. For those of us deeply involved in fire and land management on federal lands in the West, their know-it-all scolding was laughable, condescending, ignorant and mildly insulting.
In Oregon’s 2020 fires, highly managed forests burned the most
This record-breaking fire season has re-ignited discussions about causes of severe fires. One long-standing narrative is that fire suppression has resulted in ‘overgrown’ forests that fuel larger and more intense fires than occur under more intense management (the “fuels narrative”). This narrative, promoted by timber interests and the president, among others, is irrelevant within the context of Oregon's major western Cascades fires.
America’s Black Tuesday
“This could be the greatest loss of life and structures… in state history.”
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.