The 40,000-acre Woodbury Fire 12 miles east of the Phoenix suburbs is large, but it is nowhere near as big as the five largest in the recorded history of the state, according to the graphic prepared by the Phoenix office of the National Weather Service.
The researchers interviewed senior firefighters who worked on 13 wildfires in beetle-attacked areas of Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming between 2010 and 2012. Image from the research. Click to enlarge.
In 28 interviews of experienced wildland firefighters of seven different agencies in Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming researchers asked them about their observations of fire behavior in beetle-attacked lodgepole pine forests, with a focus on what they considered surprising from a fire behavior standpoint and how this in turn affected their suppression tactics. The interviews focused on 13 wildfires that occurred during the 2010 through 2012 fire seasons.
Below is an excerpt from a paper written by the researchers:
“The surprises in fire behavior experienced by firefighters during the red phase of post-outbreak forests included an elevated level of fire spread and intensity under moderate weather and fuel moisture conditions, increased spotting, and faster surface-to-crown fire transitions with limited or no ladder fuels.
“Unexpectedly, during the gray phase in mountain pine beetle-attacked stands, crown ignition and crown fire propagation was observed for short periods of time. Firefighters are now more likely to expect to see active fire behavior in nearly all fire weather and fuel moisture conditions, not just under critically dry and windy situations, and across all mountain pine beetle attack phases, not just the red phase. Firefighters changed their suppression tactics by adopting indirect methods due to the potential fire behavior and tree-fall hazards associated with mountain pine beetle-attacked lodgepole pine forests.”
3-D map of the Woodbury Fire mapped at 10:20 p.m. MST June 17, 2019. Looking west toward Phoenix. Wildfire Today. Click to enlarge.
The Woodbury Fire 12 miles east of the Phoenix suburbs has burned 40,557 acres, mostly in the Tonto National Forest in the 11 days since it started. The agency is not attempting to completely suppress it, but instead is using a variety of strategies.
(To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Woodbury Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.)
The weather forecast for the fire area over the next seven days looks very static, with high temperatures in the Tortilla Flat area around 100 degrees and no expectation of precipitation. The wind should be about 8 to 10 mph out of the south and southwest during the daylight hours.
Resources assigned to the fire include 18 hand crews, 34 engines, and 6 helicopters, for a total of 747 personnel.
The smoke forecast for 6 p.m. MDT on Tuesday shows the smoke plume from the fire being pushed off to the northeast, away from the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.
Forecast for the distribution of smoke from wildfires at 6 p.m. MDT June 18, 2019.
Below is a summary of Monday’s activities released by the Incident Management Team at 9 p.m. on Monday.
[Monday]: Early this morning helicopters used aerial ignition and began a low intensity fire in the Reavis Ranch area to reduce vegetation in front of the advancing fire. These efforts were taken to protect Mexican spotted owl habitat, some stands of ponderosa pine and an old apple orchard As predicted, the fire moved east through the area today from Iron Mountain/Angel Basin, creating a large smoke plume and dropping ash as far as the communities of Tonto Basin and Roosevelt. While increased smoke and ash will continue in coming days, at this time there are no evacuations in place for these communities. All evacuation notices, if needed, will come directly from the Gila County Sheriff’s Office.
Heli-rappellers and hotshot crews joined efforts to fight fire near Hewitt Ridge today. The hotshots will remain in the area overnight. Other hotshots completed suppression efforts in the Buzzard Roost area along the boundary of Forest and State lands. Retardant drops in the Coffee Flat /Valley Canyon area were effective in preventing fire spread; crews will be used to reinforce the line as needed. All of these suppression actions help tie together a contiguous line around the fire, and stop its spread southwest towards State and private lands, and local communities. Retardant and water drops were also used successfully in other areas of the fire.
Structure protection and fuels reduction efforts continue on the north boundary of the fire along State Highway 88, including mowing of roadside fuels in the road corridor and around power transmission poles. Heavy equipment is being used on the northeast and east sides of the fire to improve roads and protect the 500 KV lines that provide power for Phoenix. Protection for other infrastructure is in development.
Closures: State Highway 88 is closed from Needle Vista east to the junction of State Highway 88 and State Highway 188. This includes Tortilla Flat, Canyon Lake, Apache Lake, and campsites along State Highway 88.
Map of the Woodbury Fire mapped at 10:20 p.m. MST June 17, 2019. Wildfire Today.Satellite photo of the Woodbury Fire at 6:06 p.m. MDT June 17, 2019.
On June 11 we published an editorial written by a former high-level Forest Service employee, Michael T. Rains. Before he retired in 2016 Mr. Rains had been Deputy Chief of the Forest Service for State and Private Forestry in Washington, D.C. and Director of the Northern Research Station at Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Below, Mr. Rains expands on his earlier message, this time concentrating on what it will mean to transfer the Centers to the Department of Labor.
“I am writing again about the May 24, 2019 decision to “close” and “transfer” 25 Forest Service JCCCC’s.
“Recently, I was reading an article entitled, “Privatization of Trapper Creek Job Corps would ripple across forests, towns, schools.” The article focuses on the negative impacts of “transferring” the Trapper Creek Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center [JCCCC] to a private contractor through the Department of Labor.
“Because words do matter, I began to think about the words “closure”, “transfer”, “contractors” and “privatization.” “Closure” is clear. Everything ends. The Trapper Creek JCCCC is set for “transfer.” I suppose, clinically speaking, “transferring” something from point A to point B sounds pretty innocuous; no harm no foul, right? But then when I think about the words “contractors” or “private contractors” that lead to the “privatization” of an enterprise steeped in a specific culture; the word “transfer” takes on a much more profound meaning. Accordingly, it remains clear to me that a transfer to privatize will essentially end a success story of helping train students to care for the land. And, in these times when caring for America’s lands is so critical to protecting people and communities from disturbances – for example, wildfires – transferring to privatize the Forest Service JCCCC’s is a really ugly choice.
“It is clear that many are outraged about the “closures.” They should be. Let us also be outraged about the “transfer” of Forest Service JCCCC’s that will be “privatized” causing the legacy built by the Forest Service Job Corps teachers and students to be methodically lost. And, what a loss that will be. As a former Forest Service Job Corps employee during the mid-1960s so succinctly put it: “The fact this program is either being shut down or auctioned off to a mercenary group is a bloody disgrace.” Yes, words do matter. Moving from Point A to Point B may not seem like a big deal. But, with the Forest Service JCCCC’s, the word transfer will mean privatization and this essentially means closure. Do not let this happen.”
Students from the Blackwell Job Corps Center helped the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest Recreation Crew replace decking on the off-highway vehicle trail bridge over Riley Creek in Florence County, Wisconsin. The Blackwell Center is slated for closing by the Trump Administration. Job Corps photo.
More about transferring and closing the Job Corps Centers:
A guest editorial in the Missoulian by James Lee Burke, a best selling author who lives just outside of Missoula. In the 1960s he was a U.S. Forest Service instructor in the Job Corps Center in eastern Kentucky in the mid-1960s.
Official selection at the 2019 Wild & Scenic Film Festival
Screenshot from “Fire and Forest Health”
On a busy morning I read an email sent by the Public Affairs Officer for the Tahoe National Forest, Joe Flannery, about “… a short film on YouTube about wildland firefighters, wildfire, and forest health. I thought your audience might be interested; I get a lot of feedback from Wildland firefighters who really enjoy it.”
Here is how it was described:
Fire and Forest Health showcases wildland firefighters, biologists, foresters, and fuels specialists as they work together to stop catastrophic wildfires and increase forest health. This film was shot on location within the Tahoe National Forest and features Tahoe National Forest employees.
“At its heart, this is an educational film. Within a few short minutes audiences can learn how wildland firefighters prepare for the upcoming fire season and also how the US Forest Service is working to prevent catastrophic wildfires through the planning and implementation of forest health projects,” said Eli Ilano, Tahoe National Forest Supervisor. “We hope this film will be shared far and wide by educators, community groups, social media users, and anyone interested in wildfire prevention, forest health, and modern National Forest land management.”
I thought that sounds interesting, a video produced at the local level by a National Forest — I figured I’d view it quickly and if it looks decent probably embed it in a short article on Wildfire Today and move on to the next project.
But after clicking the play button I was immediately interested. The opening seconds showed beautiful scenes and then there was a graphic:
Fire & Forest Health Your Tahoe National Forest Official selection at the 2019 Wild & Scenic Film Festival
As the video unfolded showing the Tahoe Hotshots, engine crews, and forest management personnel, I thought, wow, these Forest Service employees who filmed this are very good. Then there was drone footage, motion graphics, scenes that appeared to be shot from a dolly or steady-cam, and then more images from drones. The quality of the cinematography was professional level — so good that it was almost distracting, at least to someone who often has a camera in his hands.
It may not have been inexpensive to create, but the quality level could enhance the chances of the fire management message being distributed in many venues and social media posts.
The 11-minute film was written, directed, and produced by Mr. Flannery in association with the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, with cinematography and editing by Gigantic Film Company and Origami Rocket. It can be viewed in quality up to 4K (2,160p).
The video can also be viewed on Vimeo and YouTube.
Swan Lake Fire in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, June 12, 2019, 5 miles east of the community of Sterling, Alaska. InciWeb photo.
From the National Association of State Foresters
The National Association of State Foresters is calling on Congress to introduce and pass legislation that will allow resource sharing among states and Canadian provinces for the express purpose of fighting wildfires.
“To better protect Americans from wildfire, our states need Congress to enact federal legislation to address liability concerns for Forest Fire Compact resource exchanges,” Alaska State Forester Chris Maisch told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Thursday. “Current federal and state legislation doesn’t provide adequate liability protections to compacts so that they can freely exchange emergency response personnel and resources like firefighting aircraft. In effect, some states are unable to mobilize critical resources across compact boundaries.”
Chris Maisch, Alaska State Forester, testifies before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee June 13, 2019.
Across North America, there are eight operating Forest Fire Compacts. Each compact includes several state members, and a few even include Canadian provinces. Within each compact, wildfire fighting resources and personnel can be deployed quickly and efficiently from state-to-state to suppress wildfires. But under current legislation, compact-to-compact sharing of resources is limited.
For example, the Southern Forest Fire Compacts are reluctant to accept resources from the Northeast and Northwest Forest Fire Compacts because the latter compacts don’t have inter-compact liability protection language in their statutes. The Northwest Compact does not accept or export any resources on a compact-to-compact basis for the same reason. This lack of compact-to-compact liability protection means that half of states (and several Canadian provinces) aren’t able to share wildfire fighting resources, even in times of extreme emergency.
“The first Forest Fire Compact was established in 1949 as a way for states to share firefighting resources crucial to managing wildfires efficiently,” said Jay Farrell, NASF executive director. “NASF and the Alliance for Forest Fire Compacts are urging Congress to give these compacts a fix, allowing more life-saving resources to be deployed for wildfire response.”