Oklahoma: more photos from Chickasaw NRA

Prescribed fire at Chickasaw National Recreation AreaThe National Park Service has been consistently posting photos from prescribed fire activities at Chickasaw National Recreation Area over the last year. We have featured some of them here and here. The photo above is one of 18 that were posted Wednesday on their Facebook page, which were taken February 16-19 by Michelle Fidler and Dan Winings.

Colorado: bills introduced about prescribed fire and fire prevention

Two bills have been introduced in the Colorado state Senate that could affect fire prevention and the management of prescribed fires. The bills were inspired by recommendations made by the Lower North Fork Wildfire Commission.

SB 13-082, Wildfire Matters Review Committee, establishes a permanent interim committee to study wildfire prevention and mitigation policy. The committee will work with the Department of Public Safety and the State Forest Service, and will be comprised of ten legislators.

SB 13-083, Prescribed Burn Program, requires the Division of Fire Prevention and Control to establish a prescribed burn program. The program must have specific rules and standards, and there must be policy to address an escaped prescribed burn. The rules will specify that a state certified burn manager, or a nationally qualified burn boss, manage any prescribed burn.

Oklahoma: Prescribed fire at Chickasaw NRA

Prescribed fire at Chickasaw National Recreation Area

These five excellent photos were taken by M. Fidler during a prescribed fire project in Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma at the end of January and the beginning of February, 2013. The name of the prescribed fire was Cedar Reduction 2013. Many more pictures are on the National Park Service Fire and Aviation Management Facebook page.

Prescribed fire at Chickasaw National Recreation Area
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Mastication Treatments in Southwestern Forests

The Southwest Fire Science Consortium has produced a video that explains the advantages and disadvantages of masticating wildland vegetation, or fuels.

The video is very well planned and produced, cramming a great deal of information into an 11-minute presentation. The videography is first-rate, the speakers do an excellent job, and the sound, thanks to the use of a remote microphone, is high quality. My only suggestion for improving a very technical video like this is to ask the people that are representing their agency and presented as experts to wear their uniforms, and especially to ditch the coveralls and Hawaiian shirts. It could enhance the credibility and professionalism. Having worked for both the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, it is surprising how different the two agencies are about this. The USFS has virtually no policies that are enforced about how and when to wear their uniform in the field, while the NPS, at least in some parks, goes to the other extreme, even requiring ties for many of their employees as part of the winter uniform.

Is prescribed fire in chaparral “irrelevant”?

Prescribed fire near Pine Valley, California, 1987
Prescribed fire in chaparral, near Pine Valley, California, 1987. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

Some of the opinions of Jon Keeley, a fire ecologist with the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) at Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, are again in the news. A web site called OurAmazingPlanet has quoted him in a lengthy article about prescribed fire, titled “Fighting Fires: You’re Doing It Wrong”. While admitting that prescribed fire in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park “is extremely necessary”, he goes on to say:

In most of Southern California, [prescribed fire] is completely irrelevant. There is overwhelming evidence we’ve never come anywhere close to excluding fire on this landscape [through prescribed fire].

Mr. Keeley believes that manipulating the vegetation in chaparral-covered areas by masticating and prescribed fire, replaces the native vegetation with invasive species like cheatgrass. He thinks that instead, we should concentrate on planning and reduce the number of people that are put at risk.

This is not the first time Wildfire Today has written about Mr. Keeley’s opinions. In 2009 we covered his research that indicates it is unlikely that changing the age class of chaparral can prevent large fires. The details are in his papers HERE and HERE, and in a brief article by John McKinney HERE.

Conventional wisdom was that younger chaparral, less than 20 years old, had fewer tons-per-acre of vegetation than older stands, and also had a much different live/dead ratio, with fewer dead stems and plants. Less flammable fuels (higher green content with higher fuel moistures) meant fires would spread more slowly and should be easier to suppress.

Totally preventing or excluding fires in chaparral will never be feasible, but… it is hard for me to give up the idea that creating a mosaic of chaparral age classes does not have a significant effect on fire size and resistance to control.

Another report about Lower North Fork Fire offers recommendations

Lower North Fork Fire
Lower North Fork Fire. Photo provided by Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office

A special commission created by the Colorado General Assembly to investigate the Lower North Fork fire has released their report. The fire originated from an escaped prescribed fire southwest of Denver on March 26, 2012. It burned 4,140 acres and killed three local residents at their homes. The report offers a number of recommendations but did not place blame.

This is the second report about the fire. The first, released in April, 2012, was conducted by Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources. That 152-page report (a very large 11.8 MB file) only addressed the management of the prescribed fire, and did not cover the suppression of the wildfire, the three fatalities, or the controversial evacuation procedures during the wildfire.

The charter of the commission  which produced the second report was to investigate the following:

  • causes of the wildfire;
  • the impact of the wildfire on the affected community;
  • the loss of life and financial devastation incurred by the community;
  • the loss of confidence by the community in the response to the emergency by
  • governmental bodies at all levels; and
  • measures to prevent the occurrence of a similar tragedy

Their recommendations were on the following topics:

  1. Coordination among fire districts
  2. Raising the liability cap
  3. Wildland-urban interface and local land use egulations
  4. Funding for the federal FLAME Act (which is not fully funded by Congress)
  5. 911 capabilities
  6. A consistent revenue source for wildfire suppression
  7. Air emission permits
  8. Funding for the SWIFT Program

The Commission also recommends that four bills be introduced in the Colorado General Assembly:

  • Prescribed Burn Program in the Division of Fire Prevention and Control
  • Wildfire Matters Review Committee
  • Extend Wildfire Mitigation Financial Incentives
  • All-hazards Resource Mobilization and Reimbursement

You can read the entire report HERE.

 

Thanks go out to Gary