A recent photograph of an area in the Rim Fire that burned in and near Yosemite National Park this summer. InciWeb photo.
A bill introduced by Representative Doc Hastings that passed the House would require in some cases salvage logging after fires, would eliminate or reduce environmental restrictions in those projects, and prohibit legal challenges. An editorial in the New York Times has come out against the bill and 250 fire, forestry, and ecology experts have signed a letter opposing it. Below is the first paragraph in the letter:
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“Open Letter to Members of Congress from 250 Scientists Concerned about Post-fire Logging October 30, 2013
As professional scientists with backgrounds in ecological sciences and natural resources management, we are greatly concerned that post-disturbance legislation addressed in HR 1526, which passed the House in September 2013, would suspend federal environmental protections to expedite and increase logging of post-fire habitat and mandate increased commercial logging of unburned forests on national forests. In addition, HR 3188, as currently proposed in the House, would override federal environmental laws to mandate post-fire clearcutting operations in national forests, Yosemite National Park, and designated Wilderness areas within the 257,000-acre Rim fire on the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park. Both bills ignore the current state of scientific knowledge, which indicates that such activity would seriously undermine the ecological integrity of forest ecosystems on federal lands…”
The objective as stated in the document was to “understand the rationale for the actions/decisions involved in the incident and then, if possible, to learn from them”.
Frequently at Wildfire Today we will write a summary and then our analysis of serious accident reports, but this particular document is very different from the traditional report. It adopts the new paradigm of leaving out conclusions and recommendations, a process that began to be etched into stone in August when the Serious Accident Investigation Guide was revised. This Learning Review claims that “conclusions can sometimes close the door on learning”. I would say on the other hand that they can more frequently open the door to an enhanced safety environment for firefighters. People can sometimes be hit by meteorites, but not often.
And like virtually every research paper, most of the recommendations are for additional studies, ensuring continued employment for academics and researchers.
Call me old school, but this document appears to be more useful for human behavior researchers than firefighters. How did we get to the point where language such as this is used repeatedly in a U.S. Forest Service funded official report about a wildland fire?
“Typical mission flow”
“Synthesis, analysis and sensemaking”
“Margin of maneuver”
“Sensemaking team”
“Single Loop vs. Double Loop Learning”
“Hoberman Sphere”
“Pressures and filters”
“Mind maps”
“Auditory signal”
“Signal detection”
The Learning Review does suggest that two additional products be prepared, one for “the field” and another for “the organization”. Maybe the field document, if produced, will be more useful for firefighters. And presumably the organization version will have conclusions and recommendations that will remain secret if the guidelines revised in August are followed.
I am not sure why the U.S. Forest Service paid the 22 people, plus multiple focus groups, to produce this study if they did not receive for their investment products usable by the field or the organization.
But I am old school when it comes to opportunities for learning lessons.
Margaret Click from the Department of Energy in Washington ignites vegetation in the white oak woodlands of Redwood National Park. Photo by Lenya Quinn-Davidson, Oct. 24, 2013.
Today we have an article written by guest authors, about a 40-person task force that conducted training and then executed 14 prescribed fires in northern California.
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Prescribed fire taskforce mobilizes for 14 days in northern California
By Jeremy Bailey, The Nature Conservancy, and Lenya Quinn-Davidson, Northern California Prescribed Fire Council
For the last two weeks, 40 men and women from across the U.S. and Spain traveled as a team and completed prescribed burns throughout northern California. Burning adjacent to homes (right up to the back porch in some cases) and in more remote areas, too, the firefighters on the taskforce experienced a wide spectrum of prescribed fire situations, including burning in a range of fuel types and learning how to communicate effectively with the media. By the end of the 14-day assignment these firefighters had burned 389 acres on 14 separate burn units on both federal and private lands. Sponsored by the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council (NCPFC), the taskforce was made up of students, municipal and wildland firefighters, researchers, scientists, photographers, managers, ecologists, private contractors, and even an air quality regulator. A year of planning and coordinating went into building the taskforce and working with the burn hosts, who completed burn plans and prepped control lines. The NCPFC provided the management team, nearly equivalent to a Type 3 Team. The Incident Commander was supported by Plans, Logistics, Operations and Training officers, and several additional burn bosses worked on the team to provide day-to-day burn leadership; in some cases, the taskforce was able to burn in multiple locations simultaneously.
The taskforce was organized as part of a Training Exchange (TREX), an experiential training where firefighters and practitioners learn by doing. Organized by fire leaders from The Nature Conservancy and the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council, and implemented through a collaborative effort of federal, state and private land managers, the Northern California Prescribed Fire Training Exchange blended classroom learning and field experience into a 14-day assignment. The TREX taskforce mobilized to four different locations and accomplished key burns in each place. Firefighters worked on position task books, such as Resource Unit Leader, Burn Boss, Firing Boss, and Fire Effects Monitor. Additionally, there were four firefighters who completed the online S-130 & S-190 coursework and finished their field day requirements on the controlled burns. As the crew t-shirt said, the group spent two weeks “Burning Together, Learning Together.”
Participants spent the first few days in the classroom learning from local scientists, subject experts and managers, and then practicing locally appropriate tactics and becoming familiar with their squad members and equipment. During the two-week assignment, the TREX taskforce burned at Redwood National Park, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Bar 717 Ranch in Trinity County, and numerous private parcels in the Klamath River basin near Orleans, CA. It was a great learning opportunity to go from the National Park Service sites to the private lands. All plans and operations met National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) standards and were led by Type 2 burn bosses. The firefighters brought or were provided the proper PPE. Landowners, neighbors, managers and other VIPs were encouraged to participate in daily briefings, line scouting and After Action Reviews. During the burning, unqualified staff, VIPs and guests were escorted and remained adjacent to safety zones.
There was a real push to prepare for media interactions; participants were trained in the use of key messages for interviews, and they rehearsed with flip phones and in practice interviews with TREX organizers. Their practice paid off when local reporters attended TREX burns. A TV reporter visited a burn in the Bald Hills of Redwood National Park, and participant interviews were included in a Friday night television broadcast. In Trinity County, participants were interviewed for a full-length newspaper story which was published this week in the local paper.
One of the primary principles that the cadre tried to instill is that “everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student”. One participant and former hotshot said it best when he wrote that the TREX provided “…an excellent balance of the science and application of Rx fire management, and a wonderful group of people to build working relationships with. I learned a ton…”
Las Conchas Fire, 7-14-2011. Photo by Andrew Ashcraft, Granite Mountain Hotshots.
The U.S. Forest Service has sent a $38 million bill to the electric cooperative that operated the power line that started the Las Conchas Fire in June, 2011. The blaze burned 156,000 acres and 63 structures in the Jemez Mountains west of Los Alamos, New Mexico near the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
An interagency investigative team led by New Mexico State Forestry determined that the fire was caused by a fallen tree that caught fire after coming into contact with nearby power lines, according to New Mexico State Forester Tony Delfin.
In addition to the USFS, others seeking compensation from the Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative include two pueblos, several insurance companies, and dozens of property owners. Some of the claims also name the USFS which granted the power company an easement for the power line.
This video featuring Adolf Hitler as a Planning Section Chief has been out for almost two years, but maybe some of the Plans folks out there have not seen it.
USDA awards $10 million grant to explore uses for beetle-killed trees
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a $10 million grant to a consortium to investigate methods for turning trees killed by beetles into biofuel. Led by Colorado State University, the group includes Cool Planet Energy Systems, Colorado State Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, University of Wyoming, University of Montana, Montana State University, University of Idaho, and the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station.
Red Skies of Montana on DVD
If you liked the historic film Watershed Wildfire about the 1955 Refugio Canyon Fire, you would probably enjoy the 1952 classic movie Red Skies of Montana, which was very loosely based on the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire that claimed the lives of 13 firefighters, including 12 smokejumpers. With the cooperation of the U.S. Forest Service, the Technicolor film was shot in and around Missoula, Montana and stars Richard Widmark, Constance Smith, Jeffery Hunter, and Richard Boone. I believe this movie is where the myth of exploding trees was created.
Cliff Mason, a veteran foreman of the Forest Service’s smokejumper unit, is called out with a crew on a fire, despite the fact that they have not rested in three days. Accompanied by R. A. “Pop” Miller and four other men, Cliff leaves the smokejumper base at Missoula, Montana to parachute into a nearly inaccessible area of Bugle Peak. Hours later, at base, superintendent Richard “Dick” Dryer becomes worried because Cliff is not answering radio calls. The next day, after the fire crowns, Dick flies by helicopter into the area and is stunned to find only Cliff, in shock and wandering through the devastated region. Cliff is rushed to the hospital, where he gradually recovers, although he cannot remember how he got separated from his men, or why he was the only one to survive.
And in other news about music related to fire, a video is available featuring a song titled “I See Fire” that will be in the upcoming Hobbit sequel The Desolation of Smaug, which will open in theaters December 10. The song was written and performed by Ed Sheeran, who played all of the instruments in the recording except for the cello. Earlier this week he tweeted, “Managed to learn violin for a day”.
Below is a screen shot from the music video, and below that, the video itself.
