Review of "Ignition: Lighting Fires in a Burning World" by M.R. O'Connor
I must say I loved this new book by nature and science writer M.R. O’Connor. “Ignition” has O’Connor spending significant time away from her partner and home in New York as she enters the world of fire practitioners plying their trade as nomadic pyrotechnicians, burn bosses and controlled fire specialists. These are wildland firefighters, many of whom maintain the same credentials as local, State and Federal wildland firefighters. Known as the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), this body sets training and experience requirements for the many specialized roles that wildland firefighters fill on both wildland and prescribed fires.
Doing What (Be)Comes Natural: Cut, Pile, Burn
On some snowy February days, I drove from my cabin, crossed the Rio Grande Valley north of Santa Fe, and joined other firefighters at sunrise in an icy, snowy place in the Jemez Mountains. I’m used to working on fires in the spring, summer or fall, but here we were with layers of warm gear under our fireproof clothing, blowing into our hands and standing in the sun when it finally came up. Then we set out to burn piles of slash on a snowy slope, deep in the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
USFS Launches Northwest Forest Plan Amendment
The U.S. Forest Service convened the first meeting of a Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) in early September to work on an amendment of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). Covering 17 national forests in 3 states, this is one of the most ambitious planning projects the agency has initiated in years. The agency wants to modernize the 30 year old NWFP by developing new strategies for dealing with climate change and wildfires, and engaging Tribal communities and Indigenous perspectives that were largely excluded from the original plan.
FUSEE's program director for the FireGeneration Collaborative, Ryan Reed, serves on the 21-person FAC as the sole designated "public" representative. Ryan is an Indigenous fire practitioner and wildland firefighter, and is the youngest member ever to serve on a FAC.
Oregon Landowner Brings Good Fire Back to the Forest
Rich Fairbanks knows what a healthy forest looks like, so when he and his wife bought forested land in the Little Applegate Valley in Southern Oregon in 2003, he started making plans to bring fire back to the land.
“These forests historically saw fire, on average, about every six to ten years” said Fairbanks. Rich holds a M.S. in Fire Science, is a founding FUSEE Board Member, and has semi-retired after a 32 year career with the Forest Service.
“Since 1911, we have been suppressing fires to the maximum extent possible” Fairbanks adds. This has decreased biodiversity, allowed more fuel to build up, and led to higher intensity fires.
Elers Koch: Early Architect of USFS Firefighting Mission; Early Prophet of Mission Failure
In 2023 when megafires erupt across North America, and our national forests seem trapped in an escalating yet faltering war on wildfire, it might be good to look back on history and see how we got here. How did firefighting on public lands get started? What was US Forest Service firefighting like back in 1905 or 1920? How are those roots relevant today?
Run to the Water. Run for Your Life…Updated 8/23
If you’ve ever visited the beautiful Lahaina town on the west coast of Maui you cannot help but feel a huge loss, not only for the lives lost, a number that is likely to increase, but for the loss of Hawaiian history.
Chief Moore's New Direction on Prescribed Fire
In his 2023 Letter of Direction to USDA wildland firefighters, Chief Randy Moore made a significant change in tone and language when it comes to the use of prescribed fire.
Big Iron & Big Profit
As is in vogue today, business experts are allowed to pose as experts in any and all things. I caught this review of the new book, Running Out of Time: Wildfires and Our Imperiled Forests in Wildfire Today.
Jetstream
“While most of the United States is coming out of a wet winter, large fires are ravaging Alberta and British Columbia just north of Montana. Ninety large fires have burned a million acres in 2023, burning 150 times more area than fires in the last five years combined. While May is typical fire season in western Canada, fires are going to new extremes this year, burning
Indigenous Cultural Burning Crew Returns Good Fire to Oregons Willamette Valley
“As a thirty-plus year veteran of wildland firefighting and retired Fire Management Officer for one of California's eighteen National Forests, I have had the privilege of working with many incredible fire crews over the years. But I must say, the crew of young wildland firefighters I had the opportunity to work with this past fall was truly exceptional.
Biden’s “Burn Back Better”
“The United States has a vast area of public forest that needs to burn. Wildfires chip away at these hundreds of millions of acres of decadent forest every year. Still, nationally the area that needs to burn to restore wildlife habitat and protect towns is staggering. Finally, the Biden administration
Changing Fire's Story from a Source or Symptom of the Climate Crisis to One of its Solutions
“Since it was first sparked on land 420 million years ago, fire has played a major evolutionary role in ecosystems and human societies. Indigenous peoples used fire to nurture habitats for a wide diversity of species that provided them with foods, fibers, and medicines, and their cultural burning protected their villages from unwanted wildfires.
Question Suppression: Getting the Whole Story about Fire Suppression Operations
“Question Suppression: Getting the Whole Story about Fire Suppression Operations” is a tipsheet for reporters who cover wildfire designed to aid them in asking the hard questions. It offers advice and examples to uncover how the fire is actually being managed.
Caldor Fire Story Maps by Courtney Kaltenbach and Maxwell Spiegel
“I’ve never seen a retardant drop successfully contain fire spread and I often see areas of burned forests coated in powdery pink retardant that I know is going to seep into the soil and poison the areas watershed. Aggressive fire-suppression tactics are becoming more futile and more dangerous in the face of climate change. The impacts of the Caldor Fire on Lake Tahoe is an illuminating example of the harm of fire suppression.”
Check out the story map below to learn about the suppressive firefighting tactics used during the 2021 Caldor Fire and their impacts on Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area.
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.
BIGHORN FIRE: A Big Fire Management Success
Managing wildfires with ecological fire use in the age of Covid-19
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.
Wildfire Guidelines for Archaeologists (USFS)
This document briefly synthesizes some of the technical information available on the effects of fire on cultural resources. This synthesis should assist cultural resource specialists with their contributions to fire management planning, compliance for prescribed fire projects, and participation in wildland fire use or wildfire events.