California wildfires would be worsened under Cal Fire’s plan, court rules

A Cal Fire plan aimed at addressing Southern California’s wildfire crisis would actually make it worse, according to the San Diego Superior Court.

The court found the agency’s plan to reduce wildfire risk in the region by clearing vegetation would heighten wildfire risk, according to journalist Noah Haggerty with the Los Angeles Times. The judgment was delivered after a 5-year-long legal action filed by the California Chaparral Institute and the Endangered Habitats League against Cal Fire’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The agency’s Vegetation Management Program, in part, focuses on cutting fuel breaks in Southern California’s native chaparral ecosystems, according to the report. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that the plan would let non-native and fast-growing plants take chaparral grasses’ place.

Cal Fire argued that it addressed this issue in its environmental impact review, but the plaintiffs said the agency didn’t take into account that the invasive grasses that take chaparral’s place are much more flammable and subsequently increase fire risk.

The court ordered Cal Fire to address the potential for plant type conversion to worsen wildfire risk and, until it does, it won’t be able to rely on its blanket environmental review to comply with the state’s environmental quality act.

Click here to read the full article.

Wildfire threatens ‘Lungs of Iran’ World Heritage Site as critics blame government negligence

A wildfire burning for nearly a month inside the locally described “lungs of Iran” is threatening a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which critics attribute to poor government management.

The Hyrcanian Forests which stretch along the southern Caspian Sea coast have “outstanding universal value” and are home to more than 3,200 plant species, 180 species of birds, and 58 mammal species, according to UNESCO. The forest dates back to 25 to 50 million years.

A wildfire that broke out in the forest on Nov. 1 reignited on Nov. 15 and has since grown in intensity after a severe drought in the region, according to Iraq-based Shafaq News and Reuters. The nation’s government has deployed two Ilyushin firefighting aircraft, seven helicopters, and around 400 firefighters. Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah recently announced the government made the rare request of asking nearby countries for help, including Turkey and Russia.

“Due to the lack of fire containment and to prevent the fire from spreading to the surrounding forests, coordination has been made to quickly request assistance from friendly countries,” the vice president said in a social media post.

The vice president also described the wildfire as a “grass fire” rather than a forest fire, which caused pushback online and led to accusations that government officials didn’t understand how to handle the wildfire.

The criticism was amplified by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian dissident political organization that advocates for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the establishment of a democratic government.

The organization referenced the wildfire’s handling, a lack of wildfire resources preparation, and missing forest budget expenses as repeated examples of the government’s negligence. It also warned that local environmental groups have estimated that as many as 90% of wildfires are set deliberately for land grabs and illegal construction projects.

The Council quoted the head of Iran’s Forests Organization on its website: “Reza Aflatouni, head of Iran’s Forests Organization, told state media that initial findings in the Elit case ‘strongly suggest a human cause‘ and that investigators are examining ‘possible connections between the fire and efforts to rezone forest and farmland for private construction’.”

The Council concluded: “Fire, in this context, becomes not just a tragedy but a convenient eraser.”

Nearby, the forested Chalus area in northern Iran has witnessed wildfires over the past few days, while the authorities are trying to extinguish the fire using different methods, including this Ilyushin firefighting aircraft.

Extreme heatwave causes 60 wildfires across Algeria as residents discount climate as a major factor

A multi-year drought and unusually warm temperatures helped drive the spread of 60 wildfires in Algeria over the weekend, prompting mass evacuations.

The sudden and large-scale wildfires were fueled by a heatwave, causing temperatures to reach 88°F (31°C) in Algiers, according to the Turkey-based Anadolu Agency. The Mediterranean coastal city historically sees much cooler temperatures and even snowfall in nearby mountains during this season.

Anadolu Ajansi reports that all fires have now been extinguished by the Algerian Civil Protection Agency, with hot spots still being monitored.

DZWatch – Algeria Insights reports the Civil Protection Agency has emphasized the rapid response and coordinated efforts that contributed to the successful containment of many fires, preventing further damage to forests and populated areas.

“Our teams have been deployed strategically across the affected areas, working around the clock to suppress these fires,” a spokesperson for the Civil Protection was quoted as saying. “We are committed to protecting our natural resources and ensuring the safety of our citizens.”

The country’s central and western regions have been gripped by a severe drought for over six years. Repeated droughts during the summers of 2021 and 2022 burned over 100,000 hectares of forest and killed dozens of people.

The events were some of the most severe environmental disasters in the country’s modern history and drove University of Bouira – Algeria researcher Hocine Bousalah to investigate how the events shaped the perception of wildfires in the country’s residents.

Despite a broad scientific consensus on climate change’s role in intensifying natural hazards like droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires, Bousalah said public discourse on wildfires in Algeria is centered on human and social causes like negligence, arson, or conspiracy. He aimed to gather quantitative data on what residents within Algeria’s most wildfire-prone areas considered to be the most significant causes of wildfires.

“The results demonstrate that the absence of specialized and sustained environmental messaging in Algerian media has weakened public understanding of climate-induced hazards,” Bousalah said. “The fact that many respondents did not identify climate change or poor forest management as primary causes of wildfires reveals structural deficiencies in environmental media education and limited integration of sustainability perspectives into national narratives.”

Click here to read his full research study.

Nominations open for 2026 Wildfire Mitigation Awards

wildfire mitigation award

The National Association of State Foresters announced that the nomination period for the 2026 Wildfire Mitigation Awards has opened.

The award program, established in 2014, recognizes outstanding mitigation projects and their significant impact on community wildfire preparedness, the association said on its website.

Wildfire Today reached out to the International Association of Fire Chiefs for confirmation on whether the awards accept nominations from programs outside of the United States. We will update this article when we get a response, but until then, it may be safe to assume it is US only.

The program includes the National Wildfire Mitigation Award, the National Mitigation Hero Awards, and the Wildfire Mitigation Legacy Award. The winners will be honored at a ceremony during the 2026 Wildland-Urban Interface Conference in Reno, Nevada, in March.

Award winners from the 2025 ceremony included Wildfire Mitigation Specialist Aaron Johnson from Ridgway, Colorado, the Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization, Fire Hazard Mitigation Program Manager Tyre Holfeltz in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist Aleese Maples in Southport, Florida, and North Florissant, Colorado Fire Mitigation Posse founder Don Moore.

The awards are sponsored by the Association along with the National Fire Protection Association, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the USDA Forest Service. The sponsors will cover a portion of the travel and hotel costs, along with the full registration costs for the awardees.

“Effective community fire adaptation efforts can take many shapes,” according to the National Fire Protection Association’s website. “Creating a local mitigation coalition, implementing community wildfire protection plans, conducting community-wide assessments, promoting defensible space and home hardening, treating for hazardous fuels, and engaging fire departments and building code officials to reduce wildfire risk are all great examples of wildfire mitigation work.”

Nomination guidelines and selection criteria at the National Association of State Foresters’ website. All nominations must be submitted by January 7, 2026.

Only the most extreme climate models should be used to plan for future wildfire risk, study finds

Gospers Mountain Fire 2019 NSWRFS

The wildfire action plan signed by 50 nations at COP30 in Brazil this month may already be outdated, according to a newly released study.

Carbon project insurance company Artio used data from three major wildfire events from across the globe, specifically the 2020 Pantanal fires in Brazil, the Gospers Mountain fire during Australia’s Black Summer in 2019-2020, and the record-breaking 2020 wildfire season in the United States.

The firm found that the amount of area burned in each of the fires was only predicted by severe warming scenarios. More moderate climate warming scenarios missed around half of the land that ultimately burned during the incidents.

The finding underscores how projects working to lessen wildfire severity globally may already be outdated, according to Artio CEO and Co-Founder Bilal Hussain.

“The main risk is that projects are designed for a climate that no longer exists,” Hussain told Wildfire Today. “Using outdated assumptions can result in projects being sited in areas that are now far more fire-prone, threatening the permanence of stored carbon and the credibility of nature-based solutions as meaningful climate tools.”

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 50 countries sign wildfire call to action at global climate summit

Hussain said that even the Wildfire agreement, recently signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, relies on moderate climate outlooks than severe ones. The agreement recognizes that climate change is worsening fire risk and calls for stronger prevention and adaptation, but Hussain said it doesn’t reflect that our extreme reality is already the norm.

Officials should begin prioritizing regions with lower exposure to compound heat and drought, or those with naturally fire-adapted ecosystems that can recover without total biomass loss as a result of Artio’s study, according to Hussain. Adaptive fire management strategies should also be considered standard project design features, and risk models should be continuously updated to reflect ever-changing ground and climate conditions.

“Our study suggests that, for such frameworks to be effective, they must assume severe climate scenarios as the default and integrate the data driven tools and modelling now needed to plan for those conditions,” Hussain said.

Artio provides early-stage insurance for investments in carbon projects and is incorporated as a company in England and Wales.

Click here to see the study’s details.

50 countries sign wildfire call to action at global climate summit

Over 50 countries and high-level organizations signed a global call to action focused on wildfires at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, which is happening in Belem, Brazil this week.

The agreement, called Call to Action on Integrated Fire Management and Wildfire Resilience, aims to elevate integrated fire management practices like empowering land actors, reforestation, and global wildfire monitoring.

“We affirm our commitment to promoting a global transition from reactive fire suppression toward proactive, prevention-driven, inclusive and ecological fire management strategies that strengthen adaptation and contribute to mitigation, protect biodiversity and combat desertification, through risk-informed planning and implementation covering the entire fire cycle (prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and ecological use of fire),” the signatories said.

Notably absent from the call to action’s signatories were the United States, which didn’t send a delegate to the conference, and Australia. The signatories included:

Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People`s Republic of Korea, Dominica, Ecuador, Federal Republic of Germany, France, Gabão, Ghana, Georgia, Greece, Guine Bissau, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Philippines, Peru, Portugal, Republic of Guinea, Republic of Korea, Republic of the Sudan, Ruanda, Russia, Spain, St. Vicent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Zambia, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Click here to read the full call to action.

British Columbia faces historic fine for failing to protect wildland firefighters

Two 2023 fireground incidents – one involving an entrapped crew in a high-risk planned ignition, the other a firefighter death in a vehicle – has triggered the British Columbia worker safety agency to levy a record-high fine against the province’s government, the second such fine in the same number of years.

WorkSafeBC began considering the most recent fine in May of this year after a planned ignition in 2023 trapped a team of five Brazilian firefighters and forced other crews involved in the burn to navigate off-road when their escape route was compromised, according to the agency’s penalty summary. The agency blamed a lack of planning, training, and communication for the incident, along with supervisors not following the employer’s safety program and operations manual.

A separate 2023 incident was also added to the penalty, where a firefighter died and another was injured when their UTV went over a steep embankment. The agency said neither worker was wearing a helmet, the passenger wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, and the passenger-side retention netting had previously been damaged. Inadequate supervision, a lack of safe work procedures, and a lack of pre-use inspection of the UTV were all contributing factors.

The combined fine was imposed is $759,368.84 (CAD). The fine is the largest that the agency has ever levied, second only to the $710,488.79 penalty it also issued against the BC government in 2023 for unsafe wildfire mitigation work. That fine was ultimately cancelled in 2024.

“Administrative penalties are fines imposed on employers for health and safety violations of the Workers Compensation Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, and/or orders of WorkSafeBC, and for failure to take sufficient precautions to prevent workplace injuries or illnesses,” the agency said on its website. “Penalties are published as a deterrent and to highlight the importance of making workplaces safe.”

The record-high fine caused the B.C. General Employees’ Union, which represents over 2,000 wildland firefighters, to demand the province’s Wildfire Service address its alleged inadequate supervision, training and risk assessments to protect its wildland firefighters. The Union has previously pressed the Service to address high turnover and inconsistent safety practices.

“This decision confirms what our members have been saying for years, that systemic safety issues within the BC Wildfire Service are putting workers at risk,” said Union President Paul Finch in a press release on Friday. “We welcome WorkSafeBC’s direction to bring the employer into compliance with basic health and safety obligations. Every worker deserves to come home safe at the end of the day.”

The 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive in B.C.’s history, with over 7 million acres burned, hundreds of homes destroyed, and tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate. The fires stressed local economies, infrastructure, and local ecology, but also had an unquantifiable impact on the province’s firefighting force, partly caused by the deaths of six wildland firefighters.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: BC Wildfire Service looks back at tragic, historic 2023 fire season

Australia ‘more efficient’ in prescribed burns than US, researchers say

Prescribed fire at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

A joint research paper from researchers in California and New South Wales examined the similarities and differences between prescribed fire management in the United States and Australia, and found that Australia is much more efficient in the practice compared to the U.S.

The conclusion stemmed from Australia’s comparatively quick burn implementation process, the paper published in the Fire Ecology journal said. While setting up a prescribed burn on federal lands can take years in the U.S., Australian officials can often plan and set a burn in the same year with specialist feedback.

“The idea that you could plan and implement a burn in the same year, including incorporating specialist feedback and comply with various laws/statutes aimed at environmental protection, is rare in US federal and state agencies,” the paper said. “Australia has streamlined the process to facilitate implementation. Additionally, the responsibility to manage public lands in Australia is primarily the responsibility of states and territories, with the few exceptions of a small number of parks and other lands utilized by the Australian Government agencies and the Department of Defence.”

The U.S., however, has numerous sources of institutional education that Australia lacks, according to the researchers. The U.S. has numerous prescribed fire courses, training centers, and a collection of fuel moisture history, many of which land managers in Australia have learned from and implemented in their nation’s burn programs. Australia, in contrast, mainly relies on a dwindling volunteer workforce supplemented by land managers without dedicated courses that teach ignition patterns or techniques.

“Practitioners across Australia implementing complex burns could benefit from the US learnings, prescribed fire training centers, and firing boss taskbooks which include ignition patterns and techniques,” the paper said. “Prescribed burns are implemented with good success in Australia; however, there can be a lack of efficiency (not maximizing the burn window) or higher severity burns can occur when ignition patterns are not adjusted for the conditions.”

The paper, “Australia and the United States have many similarities and differences in prescribed fire management: learning from each other” is by Brian Levine, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and Scott Stephens, University of California.

Wildfire Today reached out to paper co-author Stephens for further comment on the research. He deferred to the published paper.

Click here to read the full paper.

USFS far behind usual hazardous fuel treatments nationwide, due to DOGE cuts

American Elk prescribed fire Wind Cave National Park

Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an advocacy organization made up of current and former federal firefighters, recently published a new analysis showing that the U.S. Forest Service, under the President Donald Trump Administration, has massively reduced hazardous fuel treatments.

The analysis found hazardous fuel reduction work across National Forest lands was down 38% in 2025 compared with the same period over the previous four years, according to the analysis. Fuel reductions between June and August were barely half of what it was compared to previous summers.

Mitigation work was the furthest behind schedule in Idaho and Montana, where fewer than 30% of average treated acres have been managed in 2025. Oregon, Washington, California, and Nevada all fall under 40% while Arizona and New Mexico barely surpass half of the amount of land mitigated in recent years.

The organization blamed the personnel and budget cuts to the USFS that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, made at the start of the new administration. Around 6,000 United States Department of Agriculture employees were terminated on Feb. 13 before an independent federal court ordered the department to rehire all 6,000 employees a month later. Grassroots previously told Wildfire Today that around 75% of the temporarily terminated employees had secondary wildland fire duties.

Grassroots said the USFS’s recent assurances that the Service is fully staffed are contradicted by the reality.

“Funding cuts have already led to a steep drop-off in forest mitigation projects across the West,” said Bobbie Scopa, a retired firefighter with 45 years of experience and Executive Secretary of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters. “This is basic work that must be done, year after year. Without the prescribed burns, fuel break and fireline construction, and brush clearing that the firefighters rely on, wildfires will be harder to contain, and our firefighters and communities will be at greater risk.”

Click here to read the full analysis.

More extreme wildfires are headed for New Mexico, tree stress shows

Moisture within Ponderosa pine trees is a significant indicator of future extreme wildfire forecasts, according to new study published in the Fire Ecology journal.

Researchers with the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Texas at Austin recently studied New Mexico’s Bandelier National Monument and found that moisture stress within the trees is projected to extend fire seasons annually in the area.

The national monument was the site of the 2011 Las Conchas Fire, which became the state’s largest wildfire before being surpassed by the Whitewater-Baldy Fire in 2012, the Black Fire in 2022, and the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire in 2022. The Las Conchas Fire burned over 156,000 acres after it was ignited by a tree falling onto a power line above extremely flammable vegetation, according to the National Park Service.

Live fuel moisture content, or the amount of water in living plant tissues, is crucial to the prediction of climate impacts on fire regimes, according to the researchers. Higher moisture content typically corresponds to lower flammability, due to the energy required to evaporate the moisture before the plants can combust.

“Traditional fire risk indices are calculated through empirical relationships derived exclusively from weather and seasonal timing,” the researchers said. “While these have been used to estimate the change in future fire risk, they do so without considering the crucial thresholds that plants may cross. Key to predicting fire behavior is an understanding of how the plant carbon and water cycles alter fuel availability (live or dead vegetation available to burn) under non-analog climate conditions.”

The researchers used Ponderosa pine trees as their focus because they’re widespread throughout the Rocky Mountains, ranging from Montana to northern Mexico and east to Texas. They then built a model to simulate how future moisture stress in the trees would be affected by projected climate changes.

They determined that the number of days that the trees experience stress is projected to significantly increase under multiple climate scenarios. The increase is expected to extend the state’s usual fire season into later in the year.

“The overall increase in plant water stress (as represented by loss of hydraulic conductivity and leaf water potential) and lower live fuel moisture appear to be driven by reduced precipitation during late summer monsoons typical of the region,” the researchers said. “We predict increasing variability in the P. ponderosa wildfire regime under both climate projections driven by changing productivity, rising mortality, and an overall decrease in live fuel moisture.”