The lack of precipitation this fall, along with a prolonged period of warm, dry, and occasional windy weather has caused fuels to be extremely dry across portions of Southern and Central California.
Welcome to what may become the new normal — for a Fuels and Fire Behavior Advisory to be issued for an area in the Western United States hours before New Years Eve. The Predictive Services office in the Southern California Geographic Coordination Center issued one on Friday for the following areas:
Southern Sierra
Central Coast Interio
Central Coast
South Coast
Western Mountain
Eastern Mountain, and,
Southern Mountains
A similar Advisory that was issued two weeks ago reached its expiration date so it was reupped for another 14 days.
The programmatic Environmental Impact Statements would streamline approvals for projects
Above: A fuel break created along a road by mowing. BLM photo.
(Originally published at 9:55 a.m. MDT December 30, 2017)
In May the U.S. Geological Survey began an effort to study fuel breaks in the Great Basin to evaluate their effectiveness as well as the ecological costs and benefits. On December 22 the Bureau of Land Management announced the agency is proposing to develop two Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for BLM lands in the states of Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, California, Utah, and Washington. One will cover the construction of fuel breaks while the other is for fuels reduction and rangeland restoration.
The process is expected to result in two programmatic EIS documents that would cover projects region-wide to gain efficiencies in subsequent National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses. The blanket approval will mean that individual landscape-scale fuel breaks and fuel reduction proposals will only need minor additional environmental reviews to proceed.
Fuel breaks are intended to interrupt the continuity of vegetation making it easier to control or stop the spread of wildfires. There is no guarantee of success since wind-blown burning embers can be lofted hundreds or thousands of feet ahead of a flaming front, crossing the breaks.
An aircraft sprays herbicide on a BLM fuelbreak. BLM image.
Landscape-scale fuel reduction would slow the spread and reduce the intensity and resistance to control of a wildfire making it easier for firefighters to keep a small fire from becoming a megafire. Another goal of the vegetation modification is to restore the rangelands habitat in order to provide multiple use opportunities for user groups and habitat for plants and animals. The projects are designed to reduce the threat of habitat loss from fires and restore rangeland’s productivity while “supporting the western lifestyle”, the BLM said in a statement.
The public has until February 20, 2018 to submit comments related to the programmatic EISs by any of the following methods:
The tour was prior to deciding which monuments to shrink
Before Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke made his recommendation to the President about which National Monuments to shrink, he used wildfire preparedness funds appropriated to the National Interagency Fire Center office in Boise to pay for helicopter flights over sites in Nevada.
According to an article in Newsweek by Celeste Katz, the use of the helicopter on June 26, 2017, which cost taxpayers and the Bureau of Land Management $39,295, was unrelated to wildland fire. The account used for the flights is designated for fire personnel salaries and equipment.
Below is an excerpt from the article:
But after Newsweek questioned the line item, an Interior Department spokeswoman said this week that the chopper—listed in an accounting of Zinke’s travel as costing $39,295—“was charged to the account in error.” She added that the BLM would pay for the helicopter from “a more appropriate account.”
The official purpose of the round-trip helicopter trip was for an “aerial survey of objects and boundaries pertaining to the 704,000 acres in Basin and Range National Monument and the 300,000 acres in Gold Butte National Monument.”
From Newsweek:
Zinke ultimately recommended shrinking not only Gold Butte in Nevada but other Western national monuments, including Bears Ears in Utah and Cascade-Siskiyou in Oregon and California. His Gold Butte recommendation angered conservationists but was hailed by Nevada Senator Dean Heller and the head of a local water district.
The National Incident Management Situation Report published on June 27, 2017, the morning after the helicopter tour, showed two large wildfires burning in Nevada, the Cole Creek and Dolly Fires, but Secretary Zinke did not visit any fires on his trip. The report showed that in the Great Basin Geographic Area, which includes Nevada, 16 helicopters were working on 21 fires, with 54 helicopters in use nationally.
How effective were firefighters’ defensive actions in limiting the destruction?
The very detailed analysis below documents in a “story map” format the locations of structures that were completely destroyed or damaged when the Tubbs Fire ran through Santa Rosa, California October 8, 2017.
A primary emphasis of the analysis highlights defensive actions taken by firefighters or others. It shows structures that were only damaged on the periphery of areas that experienced total destruction. The conclusion is that the protected “boxed in” structures show successful halting of the worst effects of the fire due to exposure and defensive actions. That could be the case, however there are many factors that affect the spread of a fire in an urban environment.
We thank Geospatial Measurement Solutions, LLC who put this mapping product together. Derek McNamara, owner, said by email:
As our firefighters continue to put their lives at risk to protect all of us and fires continue to rage in Southern California, I thought it pertinent to show what they face in these situations, the consequences of their actions, and what might happen without them. I have observed that firefighters take these losses to heart and I hope this gives them some validation of their unbelievable efforts.
Above: The historic Jackson Magnolia can be seen on the left in this November 6, 2004 photo by William Phillips.
(Originally published at 12:30 p.m. December 27, 2017)
Firefighters who work in the woods, worry about hazardous trees, or double as arborists will be interested in what is happening to to a nearly 200-year old magnolia tree on the White House lawn. Planted by Andrew Jackson in memory of his wife who died days after the 1828 election, it is the oldest tree on the 18 acres surrounding the building.
For the last decade or two it has been literally on life support held up by a steel post and a network of cables. The attachment points for the cables are deteriorating and much of the interior of the two trunks are rotten. The tree is near the location where the press is penned in when covering the departure of the President on Marine 1, the large Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King helicopter. The reporters should be wearing hard hats, but that would not be enough protection if the rotor wash brings down the hazardous tree.
The Magnolia grandiflora, commonly known as the southern magnolia or bull bay, is native to the southeastern United States from coastal North Carolina to central Florida, and west to East Texas and Oklahoma.
Specialists from the United States National Arboretum were brought in to assess the once magnificent tree. Their report said in part:
The overall architecture and structure of the tree is greatly compromised and the tree is completely dependent on the artificial support. Without the extensive cabling system, the tree would have fallen years ago. Presently, and very concerning, the cabling system is failing on the east trunk, as a cable has pulled through the very thin layer of wood that remains. It is difficult to predict when and how many more will fail.
Screen shot from CNN video
While the President is away during this holiday week a large portion of the tree is being removed. One of the two trunks was cut down Wednesday morning. Both are rotten inside and the remaining trunk will eventually also have to be removed. Mrs. Trump, who assessed the condition of the tree and approved the removal, asked that the wood be saved.
From CNN:
The circle of life
However disappointing the removal of the Jackson Magnolia, the silver lining of its demise is that White House groundskeepers were prepared. For several months, at an undisclosed greenhouse-like location nearby, healthy offshoots of the tree have been growing, tended to with care and now somewhere around eight to 10 feet tall. CNN has learned the plan is that another Jackson Magnolia, born directly from the original, will soon be planted in its place, for history to live on.
“Kelley Whitelens hiked a steep hill toward the backyard of a home on Coyote Road in Santa Barbara, one hand wiping the sweat from her face, the other pulling up her sagging pants.
“Whitelens is the only female firefighter in a 19-person team from South Dakota fighting the fierce Thomas fire…
[…]
“For the last six months, Hannah Key, a firefighter with the Sierra National Forest and a fire captain on the Thomas fire, has gathered hundreds of surveys from female firefighters across the nation about their body measurements, firefighter gear and improvements they hope to see.
“Her efforts stemmed from an email she sent during the Cascade fire in the spring of 2016 complaining about the lack of fire gear made for women. “Within the hour, I had three people from the company on the phone with me telling me that they’d like to make equipment for women,” Key said.
“Since then, Key has been gathering testimonials from female firefighters in California, Oregon, Texas, Florida and other states, gauging their needs and issues they’ve encountered in the field.
“The response has been overwhelming,” Key said. “There’s a market for this.”