File photo of new CAL FIRE Firefighter 1 hand crews, August, 2020. CAL FIRE photo.
California Governor Newsom has approved $80 million to hire or bring on earlier than usual a total of 1,399 additional firefighters to bolster CAL FIRE’s fuels management and wildfire response efforts the rest of this fiscal year which ends June 30, 2021.
This Emergency Fund authorization includes a surge of 1,256 seasonal firefighters. This funding will provide fire crew and fire engine staffing, augments eight currently understaffed existing fire crews ahead of the summer, and allows the early hiring and training of fire crews for fuels management. The funding would also provide twelve new CAL FIRE crews, and twelve new Conservation Corps crews.
Further, the state will onboard 24 seasonal firefighters for California National Guard hand crews who support CAL FIRE’s fuels management work.
The funding will also create the opportunity to bring on 119 helitack firefighters earlier than usual this year to allow them time to train and be operationally ready by May, 2021. This includes the orientation and operation of the new S-70i CAL FIRE Hawk helicopters that will operate from four helitack bases.
Proposals for the next fiscal year
For the Fiscal Year that begins in July, 2021 the Governor proposes a $143 million General Fund to support 30 new fire crews, and also includes $48 million to continue phasing in the new S-70i helicopters and large air tankers.
The Governor proposes $1 billion to support California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan. The initiative sets forth a strategy to increase the pace and scale of forest and wildland management to meet the state’s target of completing projects on 500,000 acres annually by 2025 and expanding the use of prescribed fire. The plan centers on building fuel breaks around vulnerable communities, expanding home hardening, defensible space and preparedness planning to create wildfire-adapted communities, and sustaining the economic vitality of rural forested areas.
The article was modified to indicate that the twelve new Conservation Corps crews being established are not Conservation Camp (inmate) crews.
Wildfire potential to remain high through June in the Southwest and Southern Plains
Drought Monitor, issued March 23, 2021.
The forecasts for wildland fire potential issued April 1 predict wildfire potential will be higher than normal in Florida, the Southern Plains, and the Southwest through June, 2021. High potential is also expected during April in North Dakota and portions of the state’s neighbors, Montana, South Dakota, and Minnesota.
According to the Drought Monitor issued on March 23 all of the 11 western states have areas with severe drought, and all of them except Washington have areas of extreme drought. Very large sections of exceptional drought, the highest category, are in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
The data from NIFC shown here represents the cumulative forecasts of the ten Geographic Area Predictive Services Units and the National Predictive Services Unit.
Below:
An excerpt from the NIFC narrative report for the next several months;
More of NIFC’s monthly graphical outlooks;
NOAA’s three-month temperature and precipitation forecasts;
Drought Monitor;
Keetch-Byram Drought Index.
“Climate outlooks indicate warmer and drier than normal conditions are likely for much of the Plains and Intermountain West through spring into early summer continuing and exacerbating drought there. A Fuels and Fire Behavior Advisory is in effect for northwest Minnesota for the potential of rapid rates of spread due to high fuel loading and fire carrying in all fuel types, including peat. Active fire seasons are anticipated for much of the Plains, especially the northern and southern Plains, and for the Southwest this spring.
“Above normal significant fire potential is expected across the northern Plains into northern Minnesota through April into early May. Depending on weather spring precipitation, this may extend farther into May before green-up. Additionally, much of the southern Plains is forecast to have above normal significant fire potential through May before green-up. Recent and continuing dry weather in Florida is likely to contribute to above normal significant fire potential through May with conditions returning to normal by late June.
“The Southwest is forecast to have above normal significant fire potential during most of April through June before the Southwest Monsoon arrives in July. Above normal significant fire potential will expand northward into the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain Geographic Areas May through July. Additionally, central Oregon and central and southeast Washington are likely to have above normal significant fire potential beginning in June with portions of the Coast Ranges, Sierra, and Cascades in California increasing to above normally by July.”
Temperature outlook for April, May, and June, 2021.
They want to reclassify more seasonal federal firefighter positions as permanent
Elkhorn Fire on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in northern California, September 15, 2020. Photo by Mike McMillan.
A group of 23 United States Senators and Representatives signed a letter Wednesday urging the Biden administration to transition to a year-round federal firefighting workforce.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla and Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Scott Peters and Jimmy Panetta initiated the effort along with Representatives Julia Brownley, Salud Carbajal, Jim Costa, Mark DeSaulnier, Anna G. Eshoo, John Garamendi, Jared Huffman, Sara Jacobs, Barbara Lee, Ted W. Lieu, Alan Lowenthal, Jerry McNerney, Grace F. Napolitano, Adam B. Schiff, Brad Sherman, Eric Swalwell, Juan Vargas and Pete Aguilar — all from California.
While all of the signatories were from California, the message does not specify that a change in the workforce would only apply to that state.
The full text of the letter sent to the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior is below:
March 29, 2021
We write to you today to request that your agencies transition to a year round wildland fire workforce, which should include reclassifying more seasonal federal firefighter positions as permanent positions. We ask that you let us know if you need additional resources to fulfill this request.
As California and the West continue to contend with historic and destructive wildfire seasons, it has become clear that we are entering a “new normal” in which increasingly intense wildfires wreak havoc during a nearly year-round fire season. Last year, California had over 9,900 wildfires, which burned a record-setting 4.25 million acres, killed 33 people, and destroyed nearly 10,500 homes and structures. And this year, we are already well above average for both the number of fires and acres burned. Because the federal government owns 57% of the forest land in California, and climate change all but ensures an ever-expanding fire season in the years to come, we must begin to adapt our federal resources to better align with needs on the ground.
Transitioning to a larger, full-time workforce would add immediate capacity to fight wildfires and conduct prevention work nationwide, allow for greater flexibility in shifting personnel between regions when needed, support increased staff capacity to perform actions outside of the fire season that reduce fire risk, provide more stable work opportunities and employee benefits, increase employee retention, and reduce agency costs and burdens associated with the seasonal hiring process.
We appreciate your attention to our request, and stand ready to help however we can.
In a late night update fire officials said one home and two outbuildings are confirmed to have been destroyed by the Schroeder Fire west of Rapid City, SD.
Firefighters are working during the night in the Cleghorn Canyon, Nameless Cave, and Blessed Sacrament Church areas where they are patrolling and securing structures, in addition to the rest of the fire perimeter.
Updated at 9:22 p.m. MDT March 29, 2021
Map of Schroeder Fire, from a mapping flight at 7:30 p.m. March 29, 2020. Map provided by Schroeder Fire Information.
The Schroeder Fire just west of Rapid City, South Dakota was mapped at 1,905 acres at about 7:30 p.m. MDT March 29.
Fire officials said the blaze was reported Monday at 9:22 a.m. in the Schroeder Road subdivision, skipped across the canyon into the Westberry Trials subdivision and the footprint of the Westberry Trails Fire of 1988 .
A cold front with very strong winds came through around noon and pushed the fire south into the neighborhoods of Cleghorn Canyon, Nameless Cave, and Pinedale Heights.
Incident Commander Rob Powell said Monday afternoon that he was optimistic that they can keep the Schroeder Fire from crossing Highway 44.
The fire is human-caused and still under investigation, but that simply means it was not caused by lightning. Firefighters will staff the fire overnight. Suppression of the fire is a state responsibility, rather than federal.
“We are at record-dry conditions along with high winds playing a major factor in this fight,” said Jay Esperance, Division Director for South Dakota Wildland Fire.
Helicopters and a fixed wing air tanker have been ordered and will be used as needed when weather conditions allow. They can’t be used safely or effectively during strong winds, but a National Guard helicopter was used Monday afternoon after the wind speeds decreased. The Rapid City Air Tanker Base has been activated.
Originally published at 7:25 p.m. MDT March 29, 2021.
Map showing wildfires in the Black Hills, data from 2:36 p.m. MDT March 29, 2021.
At least three wildfires broke out Monday in the Black Hills of South Dakota. (see the map above)
The largest is the Schroeder Fire just west of Rapid City. Heat detected by a satellite at 2:36 p.m. MDT on Monday showed it to be at least 1,000 acres and primarily between Highway 44 and South Canyon Road. Evacuations are in effect. Officials said between 400 and 500 homes have been evacuated in Rapid City and one home and two outbuildings have been destroyed. A map showing evacuation areas is available at the Pennington County website. Suppression of the fire is a state responsibility, rather than federal.
Schroeder Fire map, data from 2:36 p.m. MDT March 29, 2021
At 2:36 p.m. Monday, another fire, the 244 Fire, was less than a mile northeast of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and about a mile southwest of Keystone. It has burned 75 to 100 acres and the Memorial is closed. Suppression of the fire is a federal responsibility, rather than state.
A third blaze, the 15-acre Keystone Fire, is about 1.5 miles south of Keystone. It is being suppressed by the state.
Highway 244 is closed at the west boundary of the Memorial, and the Highway 16A entrance is closed at the Keystone and Iron Mountain Boundary.
The fires were driven by low humidity and very strong winds out of the west at 18 to 35 mph. Gusts above 50 mph were recorded at the weather station at Mount Rushmore.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
A firefighter conducts a burnout on the 244 Fire near Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills, March 29, 2021. Photo courtesy of Great Plains fire information.The 244 Fire in the Black Hills near Mount Rushmore, March 29, 2021. Photo courtesy of Great Plains fire information.
Using observations from crowdsourced science and weather location data, researchers concluded that wildfires caused a mass die-off of birds in the western and central United States in 2020.
By Joshua Rapp Learn
After an abnormally large number of migratory birds turned up dead in people’s backyards in Colorado and other parts of western and central U.S. states, locals began to document their observations on a crowdsourced science platform called iNaturalist. Within the app, a special project was set up specifically for this die-off, which occurred in August and September 2020, so that records of the dead birds could be compiled together.
Around the same period as the birds’ deaths, more than 3 million hectares (7.8 million acres) of land burned, which resulted in habitat loss and the emission of toxic compounds that threaten the health of both avian species and humans. In addition, snowstorms struck parts of the Northwest in early September while these birds were in the midst of their annual migration. Some areas experienced temperature drops of as much as 40°C (72°F) in just a few hours.
Mountain Bluebird, male. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
Researchers heard of this die-off event and wanted to see whether there was a link between the birds’ deaths and the other major events (wildfires and snowstorms) occurring in the United States at the time. In a new study published in GeoHealth, Yang et al. used the iNaturalist data, which included recordings of a number of migratory species such as warblers, geese, hummingbirds, swallows, flycatchers, and sparrows. The scientists also studied map readings that showed where observations were taken on iNaturalist to compare the locations of the birds’ deaths with the locations of the wildfires and storms.
Their findings were starkly clear. “The wildfire and also the toxic air were the two factors that influenced the birds’ mortality,” said Anni Yang, a postdoctoral fellow in spatial ecology at Colorado State University and one of the study’s authors. There was a strong correlation between the observations of dead birds and wildfires and the toxic gases they produced, but not with the early winter storms.
“The birds are sensitive to the environment,” Yang said. The respiratory system of avian species in particular easily can be damaged by air pollution. Although wildfires have always occurred and birds have evolved to cope with them in some measure, the combination of climate change and decades of fire suppression in parts of the United States has led to fires that burn far hotter and larger than fires that burned in centuries past. The larger fires could cause problems that birds nowadays aren’t capable of dealing with.The researchers also discovered that there were some differences in local areas. In parts of California, for example, more bird deaths occurred farther from the wildfires. The reason could be secondary impacts of the fires affecting humidity levels, which could lead to the deaths of birds in hot, humid air over the ocean.The researchers also noticed other trends. Land cover had an impact on bird deaths; the data showed that more birds died in urban areas. According to the authors, the reason could be known issues that affect birds, such as building strikes. But Yang noted that this correlation may be slightly biased because of quarantining due to the pandemic. In other words, people were spending more time in urban areas and perhaps paying more attention to dead birds around their homes, which inadvertently may have boosted the numbers in cities compared with rural areas.Yang also suggested that the lack of correlation between bird deaths and the snowstorms could be explained by shortcomings in the crowdsourced science application. In that case, fewer people may have been going outside during the bad weather, which could translate to fewer observations of dead birds.
Yang said other local factors might have played roles in the deaths of some species. The researchers looked at all bird deaths equally, but different species could be affected in different ways by climate events like wildfire smoke or a snowstorm.
Rongting Xu, an ecosystem modeler at Oregon State University and another of the paper’s authors, said that it would be great to run the same study over multiple years, comparing the summer of 2020 with previous summers, for example, to see whether wildfires or early snowstorms in other years caused similar die-offs. Such long-term examinations could also reveal whether factors like climate change are playing a role in bird deaths, she said. (GeoHealth, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GH000395, 2021)
This article first appeared at EOS, Science News by AGU.
Citation: Learn, J. R. (2021), Mass bird die-off linked to wildfires and toxic gases, Eos, 102, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EO156447. Published on 26 March 2021.
Long Draw Fire in Oregon. Photo by Kevin Abel, BLM.
By Steve Shaw, BLM Fire Operations
The perfect harmony of 20 souls. Each one with just a bit more sweat and grit as the one before. The simple gratification of achievement, thanks only to the will and power of heart, mind and muscle.
The Bureau of Land Management Fire hand crew program consists of 19 crews spread across BLM’s diverse landscape, from Fairbanks, Alaska to Bakersfield, California, to Worland, Wyoming, and to Jackson, Mississippi. Each location offers hand crew members endless opportunities for professional and personal growth along with direct access to some of the best recreation on the planet. The hand crew program consists of Interagency Hotshot Crews, or IHC, and the only federal hand crews specifically established to provide opportunities for our nation’s military veterans.
The 2021 fire year starts in Jackson, Mississippi with the Jackson Interagency Hotshots. Established in 1997, the crew is the BLM’s first and only wildland fire resource east of the Mississippi River, with a mission that includes providing employment opportunities for students at historic black colleges and universities. The Jackson IHC typically spends the first half of the fire year in the eastern states assisting interagency partners with prescribed fire and wildland fire suppression. The latter half of the year, Jackson makes the annual trek west to join western firefighting forces for the normal peak of the fire year.
Silver State Interagency Hotshot Crew igniting the 2016 Airport Road South Prescribed Fire in Nevada. BLM photo.
Interagency Hotshot Crews are some of the nation’s most highly trained, experienced, and physically conditioned wildland firefighting resources. The first IHCs were established in southern California in the 1940s by the USDA Forest Service and have since multiplied to near 110 total crews between all federal agencies and three IHCs hosted by Utah and Alaska. All IHCs meet the requirements found in the Standards for Interagency Hotshot Crew Operations. BLM’s IHC program began in the late 70s with the Silver State IHC in Nevada. Silver State’s home base and fire station is tucked on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, just south of Carson City. The Silver State fire station was built in 2012, purposely designed and constructed to house the diverse gear, equipment, and employees assigned to IHCs. Additional IHC hand crews with purpose-built IHC fire stations are the Diamond Mountain IHC in Susanville, California, Ruby Mountain IHC in Elko, Nevada, Craig IHC in Colorado, and Snake River IHC in Pocatello, Idaho.
In southern Arizona, BLM’s newest hand crew, the Aravaipa Veteran IHC, also begins the annual fire year in March. Joined by Lakeview Veterans IHC in Klamath Falls, Oregon, they comprise the only two hotshot crews that blend traditional IHC traditions with an environment and atmosphere for military veterans. The two hand crews meet all IHC standards but add a mission that strives to be comprised completely of veterans. Aravaipa’s home base is uniquely situated on the Fort Huachuca U.S. Army Installation in Sierra Vista, a location that benefits both the Army and the BLM.
Devils Canyon Veteran Hand Crew in 2017. Photo by Bryan Nealy, BLM.
The BLM Veteran hand crew program began in 2012 with the establishment of the Vegas Valley Hand Crew in Las Vegas, stationed in the picturesque Red Rocks National Conservation Area. Like all BLM hand crews, Vegas Valley spends the summer months crisscrossing the western states in a fleet of specially designed wildland fire vehicles. The fleet includes two pickup trucks and two custom built crew carriers, designed by the National Fire Equipment Program at NIFC. The crew carriers become the adhoc home for each crew member, each with a specific seat and window to thousands of miles of the country. The BLM Veteran hand crew program also includes the Folsom Lake Veteran Hand Crew in Placerville, California, Medford and Spokane Hand Crews in Oregon/Washington, Montana’s Billings Hand Crew, and Devils Canyon Hand Crew in Worland, Wyoming. While all hand crews meets the same National Wildfire Coordinating Group, or NWCG, standards, each one brings their own diverse skillsets, specialties, and traditions.
As the fire year trends towards the hottest months, the remaining BLM IHCs begin their fire year in early May. Joining the above mentioned IHCs are the Kern Valley IHC in Bakersfield, California, Vale IHC in Oregon, and Bonneville IHC in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two remaining BLM IHCs are jointly stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Midnight Sun and Chena IHCs were established in 1985, both hosted by the BLM Alaska Fire Service. Both IHCs spend the first half of the fire year suppressing wildfires across the Last Frontier. These IHCs commonly travel via airplane and helicopter through the Alaskan tundra and spend up to 21 days in remote fire camps. Summer rains in Alaska see both IHCs fly to the “Lower 48” and retrieve crew vehicles at NIFC before joining summer firefighting efforts.
The BLM Jackson Interagency Hotshot Crew at the 2018 Spring Creek Fire near Blanca, Colorado. Photo by Jamie Schnick, BLM.
BLM hand crews find closure in October with seasonal employees embarking on well deserved time off and permanent employees starting the annual refurbishing of gear and equipment and starting planning and hiring for the next fire year. The application period for crew member positions begins in early fall, with most selections made in February. Permanent hand crew positions are rare and are advertised on usajobs.gov.
Whether a single fire year or an entire career, BLM’s hand crews provide much more than a modest paycheck. The real value lives in the lifelong memories, friendships, and sweat soaked footsteps across some of the most remote and stunning corners of our beautiful planet.
For more information visit nifc.gov/careers to learn more about #FireJob opportunities. It’s #NotYourOrdinaryJob.
Photo by the BLM Folsom Lake Veteran Hand Crew in 2016.
Note from Bill: The title of the article was edited to correctly indicate that not all of the BLM crews are Interagency Hotshot Crews.
