Author: Kelly Andersson

Investigation report on May 2023 hard landing in Alberta

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has wrapped up its investigation into a hard landing on May 4 of an Airbus Helicopters AS350 B2. A Global News report back in May said the pilot walked away with minor injuries after he made a hard landing at the Edson Airport in western Alberta.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said officers were called just after 8 p.m. to the airport, about 180 kilometres west of Edmonton in Yellowhead County. The helicopter was helping fight wildfires; forestry officials also responded to the airport, along with emergency crews. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada was notified and planned to investigate.

The helicopter, registered to Range Helicopters Inc., was approaching the Edson Airport from a firefighting staging area to the east, according to a report by CTV News out of Edmonton.

According to the TSB report, as the helicopter approached from the east, another aircraft was approaching from the west. The pilot decided to change his typical route to the airport and approached from downwind and to the north of the runway. As the pilot neared the airport and reduced speed, he noticed a pair of airtankers at the fire base. Not wanting to overfly them, he slowed down even more, and the helicopter began an uncontrolled descent.

“The pilot applied collective to reduce the rate of descent; however, the rate of descent increased,” the report said. “This scenario is consistent with a vortex ring state (VRS).”

A VRS, sometimes called “settling with power” in the U.S., is a dangerous aerodynamic condition that can occur in helicopter flight when a vortex ring system engulfs the rotor and causes loss of lift. The helicopter hit the ground hard and flipped quickly onto its starboard side.

The pilot, who walked away with just minor injuries, held a commercial license and was up-to-date, including training for VRS.

In the seven days leading up to the incident, he had worked a total of 85.5 duty hours including 46.6 flight hours, but investigators do not believe that fatigue was a factor.

The report highlights the importance of approach planning and power management, especially when approaching a landing site from downwind. “It is critical that helicopter pilots remain aware of and avoid flight conditions that can cause VRS to develop,” it said. “Any potential time saved by attempting a downwind approach must be carefully weighed against the risk that it may represent.”

Maui agencies stall investigators

The Honolulu Civil Beat has reported that three county agencies on the island of Maui have been subpoenaed by the state attorney general’s office after failing to provide information needed for the state investigation into the August wildfires.

The hurricane-driven Maui firestorm was the worst fire disaster in the U.S. in over a century; the New York Times reported on August 13 that fatalities resulting from the Maui fires had surpassed that of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California; it was the deadliest wildfire since the 1918 Cloquet inferno in Minnesota killed hundreds of people. Both locals and experts were pleading with tourists from the U.S. mainland and elsewhere to cancel vacation plans and spare locals and emergency responders the drain on scarce resources. Hotels and other lodging options on Maui were scrambling to shelter evacuees and the suddenly homeless.

A local CBS affiliate reported that dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed on the western part of the island of Maui, the second largest and third most populated island in the state. HawaiiNewsNow reported that witnesses described apocalyptic scenes; residents said an overwhelmed fire force, fighting flames all day in powerful winds, could do little as flames ripped through and leveled most of the historic district of Lahaina.

Not quite four months later, the state investigation is focused on fire locations and a timeline of events, and it’s still lacking critical facts, according to the Fire Safety Research Institute, which was hired by the state’s attorney general. “Until that happens, this critical process cannot move forward,” said Attorney General Anne Lopez. She said some Maui agencies have cooperated with investigators, but that subpoenas were issued to the Maui Emergency Management Agency, the Maui Department of Public Works and the Maui Department of Water Supply. The Honolulu Civil Beat said it contacted all three agencies and got no response from any of them.

Mahina Martin with Mayor Richard Bissen’s office said the county has “cooperated fully” with the investigation but that the county has not shared everything investigators have requested. She explained that some items were submitted to investigators, about 20 more are pending, and another dozen require federal Department of Homeland Security clearance before they can be produced. She said investigators have finished more than 90 interviews of county personnel.

Civil Beat asked the attorney general’s office what information it is seeking through the subpoenas but they declined. In the aftermath of the historic fires, Civil Beat filed records requests with the Maui Emergency Management Agency — including text messages, emergency operations center activity logs, requests for assistance to the state and its continuity plan, and an outline of who is in charge if top leadership is absent, as was the case on August 8 when the fires started. MEMA has not provided any of these records.

A report by The Hill said the fires damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 structures and burned over 2,000 acres, according to FEMA records. The rebuilding could cost upward of $5 billion.

Other Maui agencies, meanwhile, have handed over requested information to investigators and the AG’s office. “We appreciate the cooperation of the Maui fire and police departments, and while we continue to work through some issues, their leaders and line responders have been transparent and cooperative,” Lopez said.

Hawaii Lahaina Maui

BCWS to train aviation staff for night helicopter operations

Aviation staff with British Columbia Wildfire Service will be offered night vision training, allowing for helicopter firefighting in the dark. Erika Berg, BCWS info officer, told Castanet News that the training had been planned for spring of 2023 but had to be delayed.

“We had quite an early start to the season so that training was postponed and it’s now being set for this upcoming spring,” said Berg. The BCWS tested helicopter night vision technology in 2019 and again in 2020, first on detection flights and then during bucket operations in the Okanagan.

Kelsey Wheeler, operations manager and pilot for Talon Helicopters, said the company secured a 5-year contract with Alberta Wildfire using night vision goggles (NVG) for helicopter operations. “The helicopter is an AS365,” said Wheeler. “We got them in 2018 when they joined our fleet and we upgraded them to NVG capability.”

A pilot on a training flight. The NVG-equipped AS365 flew several Alberta fires in 2023. Talon photo.

The Airbus AS365 flew several fires this year, including incidents near Little Red River Cree Nation, Edson and East Prairie Metis Settlement, dropping water on fires. Talon also flew them on recon flights and personnel transport.

Alberta’s now begun a 5-year contract to trial the helicopter, and Talon told the CBC News it completed a trial with BC Wildfire. Aaron Barnhardt, a provincial helicopter specialist with Alberta Wildfire, said it’s a very fast helicopter. “But the big thing is the night vision technology,” he said. “People in the helicopter have night vision goggles on. They amplify light up to 60,000 times, which allows us to navigate, see hazards, identify active parts of a wildfire.”

The AS365 is equipped with a 900-litre water tank (almost 240 US gallons), which can be filled in as little as 20 seconds, and its internal and external lighting has been modified to work with the night vision goggles. Barnhardt said flight crews require specialized training to use the NVG equipment.

Mike Flannigan, a Thompson Rivers University professor, said nighttime helicopter operations along with ground crews could be an optimal approach. “You can’t do it just with helicopters,” he said, “you need to use ground crews as well.”

AS365 Canada NVG Talon

Enviros sue Park Service over planting sequoias

The National Park Service plans to replant sequoia groves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, where fires in 2020 and 2021 caused lasting damage to sequoia groves on federal land, but environmentalist groups in California say it would set a legal precedent and be a huge mistake.

Four groups filed suit against the NPS on November 17, saying the agency’s efforts violate the law, because designated wilderness areas prohibit human involvement in the ecosystem — even if it includes planting trees.

Three fires in two years that killed giant sequoia trees. The darker green areas represent groves of giant sequoias.

Surveys of sequoias on NPS land found that in 2020 and 2021, almost 20 percent of all giant sequoias in their natural range that were over 4 feet in diameter or more were killed by fire (and neglect) or were expected to die in the next few years. In 2020, surveyors estimated that 10 to 14 percent of the entire Sierra Nevada population of giant sequoias over 4 feet in diameter were killed in the Castle Fire. The following year, the KNP Complex and the Windy Fire burned between 2200 and 3600 sequoias over 4 feet in diameter; those sequoias were killed or are expected to die within 5 years.

CBS News reported on the project a year ago:

The NPS announced the seedling-planting project and said it was “concerned that natural regeneration may not be sufficient to support self-sustaining groves into the future, particularly as the fires killed an unprecedented number of reproductive sequoia trees in the groves themselves.”

Chad Hanson, director of the John Muir Project, one of the groups that is suing, disputes that conclusion. Sequoias actually “depend on high-intensity fire in order to reproduce effectively,” Hanson told CNN. “Nature doesn’t need our help. We are not supposed to be getting involved with tending it like a garden.”

Advocates at Wilderness Watch, Sequoia Forest Keeper, and the Tule River Conservancy first sued the NPS in September to stop a separate project by the agency to cut and burn trees in the same designated wilderness areas, cutting on about 1000 acres of forest land and designating 20,000 additional acres as available to “manager-ignited fires and associated activity,” according to the complaint.

“Recently burned groves are RESTORING THEMSELVES — as they have done for more than one hundred centuries!” according to the Sequoia Portal, whose mission is to add existing roadless areas of the Sequoia National Park, National Forest, and National Monument to the National Wilderness Preservation System. “Millions of sequoia seedlings carpet these burned groves,” says the Portal. “Do they think the public is stupid enough to think that any agency can replace full-grown 3200-year-old red barked sequoias? ALL the iconic ancient giants started as tiny seedlings, and they are already growing — immediately seeded by their scorched giant sequoia parents! As it has always been in the groves. And the majority of the largest giants are NOT DEAD.”

The John Muir Project, a nonprofit focused on protecting federal forests, joined the lawsuit on November 17, amending it to include the sequoia replanting project as part of the complaint. The groups now jointly accuse the NPS of illegally encroaching on federally protected land in both of the projects.

Firefighter on the Windy Fire applies water on a burning giant sequoia tree. Photo uploaded to InciWeb Oct. 11, 2021. — Firefighter on the 2021 Windy Fire applies water on a burning giant sequoia. InciWeb photo

The complaint in U.S. District Court in Fresno is an addendum to a suit filed earlier this year that challenged the NPS for other work in wilderness areas of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. Besides planting seedlings, NPS crews have been thinning and burning around sequoia groves to reduce wildfire risk, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Both the fire-prevention work and the tree-replanting project followed in the aftermath of fires that wiped out unprecedented numbers of sequoias.

NPS staff declined to comment on the lawsuit, but confirmed that replanting had already begun in two sequoia groves back in mid-October, before the latter complaint was filed.

“The Park Service has to abide by the 1964 Wilderness Act,” said Kevin Proescholdt, conservation director at Wilderness Watch. “We should still allow these natural ecosystems to respond as they want to the changes brought about by the changing climate. The more that agencies will allow natural fire to burn and perform its role, the better these wilderness forests will be,” he said.

The groups claim the projects were approved after required processes of environmental review and public engagement were circumvented by declaring they were “emergency” projects that would not have to meet those requirements.

The NPS said in its project announcement it would replant only in areas that field surveys showed insufficient natural regeneration to successfully re-establish, as they would if they hadn’t experienced severe fire effects in recent fires.

timber

lawsuit NPS sequoias

San Diego County has new fire helicopter(s)

Fire photographer Ryan Grothe attended a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department press conference last week as officials showed off their new firefighting helicopter. Sheriff Kelly Martinez introduced the new fire helicopter and a patrol helicopter, a $21 million investment for the two, at the Aerial Support to Law Enforcement Agencies base in El Cajon.

The 2023 Bell 412EPX is equipped with a 375-gallon tank that can drop water or foam. The helicopter can seat 14 people. The crew will include a deputy pilot, a CAL FIRE captain, and a paramedic. There can be seven firefighters seated in the back for fires.

San Diego County's new helicopter — San Diego County’s new Bell 412EPX helicopter is equipped with a 375-gallon tank for water or foam fighting fires. Photo by Ryan Grothe

This is the newest helicopter for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. With a cruise speed of 230 km/h (142 mph) and a range of 672 km (417 miles), the Bell 412EPX has the capability for long-range duty at impressive speed.

Cost of the helicopter was $15.7 million, using the department’s budget and funds from Proposition 172 (PDF) — the Local Public Safety Protection and Improvement Act of 1993. Tony Mecham, County Fire and CAL FIRE San Diego Unit Chief, said the acquisition will improve response to both wildfires and remote area rescues.

The new patrol helicopter is the Bell 407GXi, which is dedicated to law enforcement operations 24 hours a day. It includes a flight deck with precision navigation to track and respond to incidents and is equipped with a bucket to help with water drops on a fire.

This begins the phasing out of the current fleet of three Bell 205s which were built in the 1960s. The county plans to order two more 412EPX helicopters in the future.

All deputy pilots will complete ground and flight training as well as safety and familiarization training with the new helicopter before the 412 begins flying next year.

San Diego County's new Bell412. Photo by Ryan Grothe. — San Diego County’s new Bell412. Photo by Ryan Grothe.

According to the manufacturer, the 412 is equipped with the Bell BasiX Pro™ Integrated Avionic System:

- - Garmin GTN-750 NAV/COM/WAAS GPS
  - Helicopter Terrain Avoidance Warning System (H-TAWS) capability
  - Power Situation Indicator (single indicator for quick pilot monitoring)
  - Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (NextGen, Standard ADS-B out, Optional ADS-B in)
  - LED cockpit lighting and panels

The 412 is a twin-engine helicopter that enables a pilot to land safely with a backup engine in the event of an engine failure. This is a key safety feature in fighting fires at night, which is planned for future operations. There is a contract in place with the City of San Diego for nighttime firefighting.

San Diego City Bell 412 — July 2022 in San Diego on the Margerum Fire — City of San Diego’s Copter 2, a Bell 412, making water drops. The fire threatened homes on Margerum Avenue near Navajo Road but was held to just 2 acres. Ryan Grothe photo

The Aerial Support to Regional Enforcement Agencies (ASTREA) base has provided support to the Sheriff’s Department and partner agencies across the county since 1971. ASTREA averages nearly 6,000 missions annually supporting patrol and fire and rescue calls throughout the region.

Bell 412 San Diego

Chinook helicopter rescues stranded CL-215

A small island on a lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) has been named “Duck Island” after a Canadair CL-215 scooper was stranded there for a couple of months till it was airlifted out by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter owned by Billings Flying Service.

Sometimes called “ducks” for their nimble maneuvering on water, the CL-215 scooper is a twin-engine, high-wing amphibious airtanker that is a staple of aerial firefighting operations. Canada endured a severe fire season this year, with more than 300 fires and over 4 million hectares burned — almost 10 million acres.

Vertical Magazine reported that a 1968 CL-215 belonging to NWT operator Buffalo Airways Ltd. was scooping water in late August from remote Mitchell Lake north of Yellowknife.

“We were at a low water cycle,” recalled Joe McBryan, founder of Buffalo Airways. “It was four feet lower than normal. We had scooped 78 loads off that lake, but this time the aircraft struck a rock reef.” The rock punctured the aircraft underbelly and caused a fast flow of water into the keel, rendering the plane inoperational. The pilots spotted a small island nearby and were able to taxi the CL-215 over and tie it to a small tree before they were rescued by helicopter.

“It was a little northern toothpick tree,” laughed Benjamin Tessier, a technician in aerospace engineering at Buffalo Airways. He was part of the crew who were sent in to prepare the scooper for an airlift, and McBryan then found the only helicopter that could possibly airlift the CL-215 scooper back to safety — a CH-47 Chinook.

Several support helicopters, including this Bell 212HP from Great Slave Helicopters, assisted in the project. Benjamin Tessier Photo — Additional support helicopters, including this Bell 212HP from Great Slave Helicopters, assisted in the project. Benjamin Tessier photo

Meanwhile, Tessier and five of his co-workers headed for the island. They had to somehow reduce the aircraft’s empty weight to a number between 18,000 and 18,500 lbs. — and get it out of the water.

The Buffalo crew had to use trees they cut down on the island to build a “pirate raft” that engines were craned onto, then they were lifted right off the raft by Bell 205s. Benjamin Tessier Photo — The Buffalo Airways rescue crew used trees they’d cut on the island to build a “pirate raft” that the engines were craned onto. They were lifted from the raft by Bell 205s. Benjamin Tessier photo

“We did everything in September to prepare for the takeoff,” Tessier told Vertical Magazine. “We took the engines and props apart and removed them, took all fluids out (oil, fuel, foam agent), got rid of the radios, pump systems — all to lighten it up. We removed 10,000 lbs. of equipment plus about 13 drums of fluids. All of that took about two weeks.”

Tessier said the props and engines were removed while the aircraft was still on the water. “We cut trees and built a raft that we craned the engines onto,” he recalled. “We supported all the weight of the engines on that raft and a Bell 205 helicopter lifted them from there.” SimpleFlying.com reported that the retrieval operation went smoothly, with Tessier shooting video and posting it online.

Recovering the aircraft involved weeks of careful planning — and even special government approval. The main concern for Buffalo Airways was the fast-approaching winter season. Once temperatures dipped below freezing, the aircraft would be frozen into the lake ice, making things infinitely more difficult. Two things had to happen before they could airlift the CL-215; they needed an exemption from Transport Canada to move the aircraft, which took a month to acquire. And the scooper’s weight had to be reduced enough to be lifted by the Chinook.

The CL-215 also had to be pulled out of the lake; its keel was full of water, which added a lot of weight — too much for the helicopter lift. It took three days, with six men taking turns to hand-crank the plane onto the lakeshore.

The CL-215 is a twin-engine, high-wing amphibious waterbomber, and a staple of northern aerial firefighting. Benjamin Tessier Photo — The CL-215 is a twin-engine, high-wing amphibious waterbomber, and a staple of northern aerial firefighting. Benjamin Tessier photo

The CH-47 Chinook, operated by Montana’s Billings Flying Service, flew in October 30. (Imagine that phone call — you want us to what??) Mechanics from Buffalo and Billings flew in, and they were accompanied by the general manager of Alberta-based Airborne Energy Solutions; their team provided support and guidance on risk management for the operation.

“It was so bizarre to see such a big machine in remote little Mitchell Lake on Duck Island,” said Tessier. “They didn’t waste any time at all. Everything the pilot did was deliberate. He positioned himself in the wind, cable already dangling. We had a 50-foot extension cable going from the plane to where he hooked on. As soon as tension was there, it just went up. The Chinook didn’t budge, didn’t seem to struggle; there was no noticeable change in engine noise.”

Buffalo CL-215 back home at Yellowknife — Buffalo CL-215 safely back home at Yellowknife

The CL-215 took a 45-minute ride and was delivered to Buffalo’s main base at Yellowknife Airport. They say it will take a few months of repairs to return the CL-215 to serviceable condition, but they expect it will be ready in time for the 2024 fire season.

The full story by Lisa Gordon is well worth the read — it’s online at Vertical Magazine.

~ Thanks and a tip of the hardhat to Jim for this heads-up.

Bell helicopters Chinook CL-215 NWT

Lomakatsi summit at Sun River focused on fire

Inside the Homestead Conference Hall at Sunriver Resort in central Oregon last week, six Native Americans sang, danced, and drummed with volume enough to rattle windows. The powerful performance by the Mountain Top Singers of the Paiute-Shoshone Tribe kicked off two days of panel discussions, networking events, and cultural celebration for tribal and nontribal guests at a Lomakatsi fire learning summit.

Leaders and youth representatives from 17 tribes in the Pacific Northwest were involved in the event, according to a Bend Bulletin report. Participants focused on improving ecological health of Pacific Northwest forests, mainly with the knowledgeable and responsible use of fire.

For more than a century, immediate suppression of wildfire was the go-to solution enacted by the Forest Service and other agencies after lightning ignitions or human-caused starts. Wildland officials and scientists now agree that over-suppression has caused forest health to decline and has set the stage for the megafires that now rage across the West, killing humans and destroying homes and burning huge swaths of land from Mexico to northern Canada.

Jefferson Public Radio recently reported that even people who disagree vehemently about the details of the best ways to manage forests can always find some ground on managing wildlands to be more fire resilient.

The Lomakatsi Restoration Project’s Tribal Ecological Forestry Training Program focuses on collaboration with tribes and tribal communities through ecological restoration initiatives. The Program is heavily involved in the restoration work required to make forests fire resilient, using both modern technology and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) from the region’s tribes, who for millennia used fire to manage the forests where they lived.

Lomakatsi film: Tribal Hands on the Land

Lomakatsi Founder and Executive Director Marko Bey and Tribal Partnerships Director Belinda Brown talked to Jefferson Public Radio about training and a film about it, and their expanding efforts to bring more indigenous people into the fold. Lomakatsi welcomes a new cohort of young tribal adults this fall, and is especially grateful to videographer Ammon Cluff for bringing this video to life.

Crew members also contributed to collaborative landscape-scale restoration projects across southern Oregon, including the West Bear All-Lands Restoration Project, Rogue Forest Restoration Initiative, Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project, and post-fire restoration Bear Creek, as part of the Ashland Creek Ponds Riparian and Ecocultural Restoration Project.

Lomakatsi operates programs across the ancestral lands of aboriginal peoples who lived and live in the watersheds of the Willamette River, Rogue River, Klamath River, Umpqua River, and Pit River, in what is now called Oregon and California. From sagebrush hillsides and mixed conifer forests, to oak woodlands and riverine systems, they offer respect, recognition, and gratitude to the past, present, and future inhabitants of these landscapes, to whom they dedicate this work.

“Tribes have for time immemorial carefully managed these landscapes with carefully applied fire, with Indigenous practices. The agencies have a real interest in that at this time,” said Marko Bey, founder and executive director of Lomakatsi, the nonprofit group that organized the event in Sunriver.

Bey said the summit was an opportunity to bring tribal members together to share different skills, traditions, and adaptive management strategies. He believes that tribes can play a central role in national management of forest health.

Representatives from all nine federally recognized tribes of Oregon attended the summit. Eight additional tribes with ancestral lands in and adjacent to Oregon were also present.

Myra Johnson-Orange, 74, an elder from the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, said she was pleased the conference brought together Native and non-Native people for joint learning panels.

“Sometimes, non-Native people need to understand better where we are coming from as Native people,” she said, “and how we understand the land and how we have taken care of it since time immemorial. We learn from agencies, but they are learning from Natives, too, how we need to be considered and consulted.”

Lomakatsi operates programs across the ancestral lands of aboriginal peoples who lived and live in the watersheds of the Willamette River, Rogue River, Klamath River, Umpqua River, and Pit River, in what is now called Oregon and California. From sagebrush hillsides and mixed conifer forests, to oak woodlands and riverine systems, they offer respect, recognition, and gratitude to the past, present, and future inhabitants of these landscapes, to whom they dedicate this work.

Lomakatsi Paiute rxfire

The firefighters pay cut may be averted. Or not.

A long-running effort to permanently boost pay — an effort that’s often felt fruitless and never-ending for thousands of federal firefighters — may be gaining traction in Congress, but it may very well be too little too late to prevent mass resignations in the coming weeks.

In Congress earlier this month, the House passed an amendment to extend a temporary pay increase of $20,000 (annually per firefighter) through next year, which was approved by President Biden. Another bill to make a pay hike permanent remains stalled, though, and NPR’s Morning Edition reported that this latest budget deal averting a federal shutdown will also — for now — avert a massive pay cut for federal firefighters that was expected by November 17 — today.

Wildland firefighters on the Spring Creek Fire in Colorado on July 2, 2023 — inciweb photo.

But how many times can individual firefighters and the fed employees’ union and the Grassroots Firefighters warn Congress about high-centering itself in managing wildfire crises?

“Basically this is like a band-aid. It’s not a fix. We need a fix,” says Mike Alba, a union organizer. Alba is an engine captain on the Los Padres National Forest.

Rookie firefighters now make only about $15 hour — which is (dismally) up from just $13 an hour after Biden approved a temporary increase back in 2021. Funds from the infrastructure law later gave many firefighters a $20,000 boost in pay. Tom Dillon, a captain for the Alpine Hotshots based in Rocky Mountain National Park, says everyone’s talking about their paychecks when they should be focused on firefighting tactics and safety.

“It’s kind of a slap in the face,” Dillon says. “The folks on Capitol Hill, some of them aren’t even aware of who we are and what we do and that there is a federal wildland firefighting workforce.”

Crews are now challenged with not only more severe and longer fire seasons, but also by flattening overtime pay, dwindling retention, suppressed hiring abilities, and growing mental health challenges. Alba says this onetime pay bump is a kind of a lifeline: he can spend a little more time with his kids. He will probably keep his higher pay for a while, but just till January — unless Congress actually manages to make the 2021 pay boost permanent.

But morale is low, and the union representing federal employees (a percentage of whom are firefighters) warns that at least 30 percent of the federal firefighter ranks will likely quit if pay isn’t permanently boosted — and soon. They are tired of sweating next month’s rent or living in their cars, and the struggle for a decent wage has worn out more than a few.

As The Guardian reported back in 2021, federal firefighters are often living out of their cars (!) because the job doesn’t pay enough for basic housing costs — even for a single person, let alone a young firefighter trying to help support a family.

The federal government — including at least five different agencies that employ wildland firefighters in the U.S. — fights and manages fires in all 50 states. Every major fire in the country relies on federal firefighters and the resources and funding and massive response that the federal government can and does provide. Federal agencies, however, now face a severe and costly retention problem with the wildland fire workforce. If Congress cannot fix this, and the federal firefighting forces continue to bleed fire crews and employees, what’s the backup plan?

Congress pay cut

Burners light up Nachusa Grasslands in Illinois

A Nachusa fire crew hit a 24-acre project area of the grassland Tuesday, November 14, for a prescribed burn on the prairie habitat. Fire has historically been an important and natural part of the prairie; clearing the ground cover stimulates new growth, and many native plants rely on wildland fire to open seed pods and regenerate. Sauk Valley Media sent their ace photographer to track the 10-person crew at Nachusa Grasslands as they worked to put in firebreaks, put down a water line, and ignite the grasses so the fire will burn in their planned direction.

Nachusa Grasslands RxFire — Conditions were just right for a prescribed fire on November 14 at Nachusa Grasslands in northern Illinois. Fire managers hope to do another burn at the end of the week. Photo courtesy Alex T. Paschal.

The 4,100-acre Nachusa Grasslands preserve consists of large remnant prairie, woodlands, and wetlands reconnected through habitat restoration to create one of the largest and most biologically diverse grasslands in Illinois. Including 4,000 acres of restored and remnant prairie, Nachusa Grasslands is home to 180 species of birds, more than 700 native plant species, and a herd of bison.

The Nature Conservancy purchased the core of the preserve in 1986, recognizing that Nachusa offered a terrific opportunity to restore a diverse native grassland.

Working hand-in-hand with Nature Conservancy staff, volunteer stewards collect and plant seeds, manage invasive species, repair wetlands, and conduct prescribed burns to preserve this ecosystem.

RxFire Nachusa — Prescribed burning: A volunteer fire crew sets a prescribed burn at Nachusa Grasslands preserve in Illinois. ©Andrew Simpson / The Nature Conservancy

The Friends of Nachusa Grasslands has a calendar online for its volunteer workdays; hunting season is scheduled in early December and the spring RxFire season will start up in March 2024. If you’re interested in volunteer opportunities, most workdays are scheduled on Thursday and Saturdays.

The Nachusa Grasslands and its visitor center are south of Rockford, Illinois and about a 2-hour drive west of Chicago.

The Friends organization is established to fund endowments for long-term protection of the Grasslands, conducting and encouraging stewardship, supporting science and education, and protecting the land here. Nachusa Grasslands is open from dawn to dusk, and visitors are welcome to hike in the non-fenced areas. Wildlife inhabitants include a herd of bison, which range across 1,500 acres and are often not visible from the Visitor Center or the roadsides. Almost 10 years ago, 30 bison were introduced to Nachusa Grasslands from three preserves owned by The Nature Conservancy in South Dakota, Iowa, and the Dunn Ranch in Missouri. Wind Cave National Park bison and elk, photo ©2013 Bill Gabbert

Originally part of the herd from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, these bison have been tested and show no traces of cattle genes. No hiking is permitted inside the fenced North or South Bison Units.

The bison and the grassland vegetation species all benefit from prescribed fire and the Nature Conservancy’s fire research, and this fire — like others at the Grasslands — was timed for weather and fuels conditions that would be conducive to a controllable prescription burn.

“Wind and dry air is what determines whether we can have a burn,” Nachusa Director Bill Kleiman on Tuesday told photographer Alex Paschal.

A light south wind pushed the flames and smoke north, so crews planned for locations of the firebreaks and road warnings for motorists traveling the area. The burn was roughly an “L” shape on Carthage Road, and two separate crew units started the process on either side — so the fire could burn together in the middle.

“If the side upwind doesn’t have enough of a firebreak,” Kleiman said, “it can jump it and burn the other side.”

Alex Paschal has a photo gallery from the burn [HERE].

Illinois Nachusa Nature Conservancy rxfire TNC

Appeals commission rejects British Columbia landowner’s claim of neighbor arson, sticks him with $450K bill

Clarke Matthiesen claimed his neighbors’ grandson caused the 2019 fire that originated on his property, and not his unregistered burn, according to the CBC News.

It took B.C. Wildfire Service crews two weeks to contain the fire that started as a holdover from Matthiesen’s debris burn. He’s now on the hook for about $450,000 after an appeals commission rejected his claim that his neighbors’ grandson started the fire. The Forest Appeals Commission dismissed his appeal, finding that his explanation was “both unproven and unlikely.”

Investigators had concluded that a holdover fire from an improperly extinguished open burn of Matthiesen’s was the cause. The burn covered around 224 square metres — under 2500 square feet — and a holdover fire can smolder underground for days or even months. “The burning of a large debris pile, as in this case, is inherently risky and can result in significant destruction if wildfires result from the burning. It is the responsibility of those engaged in such burning activity to ensure they have met the legislated requirements,” the appeals decision says.

The wildfire burned for about two weeks some 150 kilometres west of Quesnel, B.C. Matthiesen was ordered to pay $179,344 for damage to Crown resources, $260,369 for the cost of fighting the fire, $7,546 for reforestation costs, and a $2,350 administrative penalty.

Matthiesen hadn’t raised his arson theory with any officials or investigators in the four years before his appeal. He did not have a burn permit for the fire he started, and had no firefighting tools or water nearby as required. An investigator said Matthiesen’s burn pile included root wads from trees, which are often involved in holdover fires.

“The appellant was unaware of the degree of risk posed by holdover fires, the appropriate way to check for hotspots, or the need to maintain a fuel break even after the initial burning phase,” the decision says.

Matthiesen is one of the latest people ordered to pay huge fines under a section of provincial law that allows the government to recover suppression costs from those responsible for starting wildfires. In another recent case, another man was billed for another 2019 fire, according to another CBC News report.

A northwest British Columbia resident was billed more than $100,000 to cover the province’s cost of a fire that started on his property four years ago. Eldon Whalen was ordered to pay $100,688 for a fire that spread from a burn pile on his property in the Kispiox Valley northwest of Prince George.

The open fire was deliberately ignited, and if not for the response of the B.C. Wildfire Service, the impacts would likely have been even more widespread, according to the decision from B.C.’s Forest Appeals Commission.

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