Kiabab National Forest in Arizona, Government Prairie prescribed fire, January, 2014.
For Throwback Thursday, let’s take another look at an article published on Wildfire Today February 12, 2008 about a topic that is still an issue 12 years later.
Senator John Kyl, a Republican from Arizona, in an article on his web site criticizes the President’s proposed budget for 2009 which reduces the funds allocated for fuel treatments.
“With almost 48 percent of the proposed budget going toward fire fighting, the Forest Service might be more appropriately called the “Fire Service.”
I believe funding for fighting fires must be complemented by adequate funding for preventing them. Proactive management of our forests not only is the best tool in combating wildfires, it is critical to restoring forest health and improving habitats for diverse species.
Typically, there are two complimentary methods of treatment: mechanical thinning of brush and smaller diameter trees, and prescribed burning. These treatments open up forests so they are less susceptible to “hot” crown fires. More importantly, reducing competition for soil nutrients, water, and sunlight immediately enhances the health of the trees, allowing them to grow bigger and fend off diseases and deadly insects like bark beetles.”
Alberta Wildfire posted the above on November 3, 2020.
The Chuckegg Creek Fire in the northwest part of the province burned 820,000 acres according to Wikipedia. It apparently burned for about 18 months. Fires burning in heavy fuels can sometimes continue smoldering in roots or stump holes under a blanket of snow throughout the winter, then emerge in the spring or summer.
Satellite photo showing the location of wildfires in Northern Alberta May 28, 2019. Click to enlarge.
The National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued November 1 by the Predictive Services section at the National Interagency Fire Center predicts wildfire potential will remain above normal in parts of California through November. The potential in the Southern Plains is likely to be above normal December through February.
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.
“La Niña and current fuel conditions are the main drivers of significant fire potential through fall and winter. Drought conditions are expected to continue for much of California, the Great Basin, and the Southwest into the winter with drying expected to increase across portions of the southern Plains and Southeast. Offshore wind events will continue to be a concern across northern California in November and likely into December for southern California. Significant fire potential is forecast to be above normal in downslope and offshore wind favored locations in California during November. The focus will shift to southern California in December as precipitation is likely to quell large fire concerns across northern California by then.
“Over the winter, the expected warming and drying trend across the southern tier of the United States due to La Niña and other large-scale climate forcing will likely result in above normal significant fire potential in portions of the southern Plains. Drought intensification and expansion from the southern Plains into southern California is likely. Strong wind and low relative humidity events could occasionally increase fire activity in portions of the Great Basin and Southwest this fall into winter as well. However, outside of the southern Plains, significant fire potential will likely remain near normal for the rest of the United States.”
Temperature November, December, JanuaryPrecipitation November, December, JanuaryDrought Monitor
Smoke from the summer of 2019-2020 blocked sunlight from reaching Earth to an extent never before recorded from wildfires
Researchers with the University of Saskatchewan’s Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies are part of a global team that has found that the smoke cloud pushed into the stratosphere by last winter’s Australian wildfires was three times larger than anything previously recorded.
The cloud, which measured 1,000 kilometers across, remained intact for three months, travelled 66,000 kilometers, and soared to a height of 35 kilometers above Earth. The findings were published in Communications Earth & Environment, part of the prestigious Nature family of research journals.
“When I saw the satellite measurement of the smoke plume at 35 kilometers, it was jaw dropping. I never would have expected that,” said Adam Bourassa, professor of physics and engineering physics, who led the USask group which played a key role in analyzing NASA satellite data.
Prior to Australia’s “Black Summer,” which burned 5.8 million hectares of forest in the southeast part of that continent, the smoke cloud caused by the 2017 forest fires in Western Canada was the largest on record.
The international team was led by Sergey Khaykin from LATMOS (Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales) in France. Bourassa said the team’s findings provide critical information for understanding how wildfires are impacting the Earth’s atmosphere.
“We’re seeing records broken in terms of the impact on the atmosphere from these fires,” said Bourassa. “Knowing that they’re likely to strike more frequently and with more intensity due to climate change, we could end up with a pretty dramatically changed atmosphere.” Bourassa, his post-doctoral student Landon Rieger, and research engineer Daniel Zawada were the only Canadians involved in the project. Bourassa’s group has expertise in a specific type of satellite measurement that is very sensitive to smoke in the upper atmosphere. Their contributions were funded in part by the Canadian Space Agency. According to Bourassa, wildfires such as those in Australia and Western Canada get big enough and hot enough that they generate their own thunderstorms, called Pyrocumulonimbus. These, in turn, create powerful updrafts that push smoke and the surrounding air up past the altitudes where jets fly, into the upper part of the atmosphere called the stratosphere.
“What was also really amazing was that as the smoke sits in the atmosphere, it starts to absorb sunlight and so it starts to heat up,” said Bourassa. “And then, because it’s getting hotter, it starts to rise in a swirling vortex ‘bubble’, and it just rose and rose higher and higher through the atmosphere.”
Information collected by satellite, using an instrument called a spectrometer, showed smoke from the Australian wildfires blocked sunlight from reaching Earth to an extent never before recorded from wildfires.
The measurement technique, proven by Canadian scientists including Bourassa over a decade ago, measures the sunlight scattered from the atmosphere back to the satellite, generating a detailed, image of layers in the atmosphere.
The stratosphere is typically a “pretty pristine, naturally clean, stable part of atmosphere,” Bourassa said. However, when aerosols–such as smoke from wildfires or sulphuric acid from a volcanic eruption–are forced up into the stratosphere, they can remain aloft for many months, blocking sunlight from passing through, which in turns changes the balance of the climate system.
While researchers have a general understanding of how these smoke clouds form and why they rise high into the stratosphere, Bourassa said more work needs to be done to understand the underlying mechanisms.
Researchers will also be comparing their findings from Australian wildfires with satellite data captured from California wildfires this past summer and fall.
The plight of the approximately 15,000 federal personnel who fight wildland fires and how they are being mismanaged and underpaid by the land management agencies has been receiving more notice in the last two months. The government will not call them firefighters while they perform one of the most hazardous jobs in the world, except when they are killed in the line of duty, instead preferring the title “Forestry Technician”.
The latest national news article on the topic was published today by NBC News, “Federal wildland firefighters say they’re burned out after years of low pay, little job stability.”
The piece frequently refers to the U.S. Forest Service and mentions the Bureau of Land Management, but three other federal agencies are just as guilty of the same types of systemic malpractice — Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and National Park Service.
Legislation that has been introduced could help mitigate conditions for Forestry Technicians and would actually describe them as “firefighters.”
Wildfire Today strongly endorses the Wildland Firefighter Recognition Act, S.1682 and H.R.8170and the establishment of the wildland firefighter occupational series with a significant boost in their pay. These jobs are one of the most hazardous, and require a level of knowledge and skill that can take a decade or more to acquire and develop. Wildland firefighters are tactical athletes — special forces — some of whom work well over 100 hours a week with only a few days off each month, traveling around the country separated from their families missing birthdays, anniversaries, and soccer games. Recognizing them and paying what they deserve could improve retention which could enhance the overall quality of the workforce.
If you have an opinion about these pieces of legislation, contact your elected officials. If you support the Wildland Firefighter Recognition Act, feel free to borrow some of the words in the previous paragraph when you write to your legislators.
The unprecedented 2019-2020 bushfire season in Australia resulted in the devastating loss of life, property and wildlife across the nation. After the smoke cleared a Royal Commission was directed to work out not only how to prevent the severity of future bushfire seasons, but all natural disasters.
The Chair of the Commission, Mark Binskin, is a former Chief of the Air Force and Chief of the Defense Force. In the foreword to the report he wrote:
There are lessons for us all. Governments, essential service providers, insurers, charities, communities and individuals should consider what steps they must take across all phases of natural disasters to improve national natural disaster arrangements. It is undoubtedly in the national interest to do so.
The findings of the commission are extensive and comprehensive, as are the 80 recommendations in the 594-page report. During the 2019-2020 fire season, Australia experienced a live stress test of their system and identified lessons they learned, many of which can be also be applied to North America and the Mediterranean area where residents have to learn to live with wildfires.
Here are excerpts from the report.
National Emergency Response capability
Over 9,800 fire personnel were deployed on bushfires during the 2019-2020 season.
National resource sharing arrangements need to be strengthened to support resource sharing in times of crisis. We consider the development of a national register of resources would support situational awareness, and resource sharing, and inform national capability development.
We consider that states and territories should update and implement plans to achieve interoperable communication for emergency services. We also recommend expediting efforts to create Public Safety Mobile Broadband to improve communications capabilities for emergency responders.
Volunteers make up the majority of the fire and emergency services workforce in Australia. Volunteers need to be supported and enabled to participate in a way that respects the values of volunteerism, and considers the competing demands on their time. Increasing employment protections for fire and emergency services volunteers represents a way to support volunteer participation into the future.
Some states and territories use data modeling and forecasting, or are working on planning tools to forecast resource needs. In Victoria, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) and Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) have been working with CSIRO to develop a planning tool to forecast firefighting resources requirements for 2020 and 2050 for all fire regions in Australia based on the Forest Fire Index and two climate change scenarios. State and territory governments should have a structured process to regularly assess the capacity and capability requirements of fire and emergency services, in light of both current and future natural disaster risk.
Australian, state and territory governments should consider whether national training for incident management roles would assist to increase numbers of trained personnel and support interstate deployments. These governments should also consider the development of an appropriate base standard of training or competency for roles that would obtain automatic national recognition.
Australian, state and territory governments should conduct multi-agency, national-level exercises, not limited to cross-border jurisdictions. These exercises should, at a minimum: (1) assess national capacity, inform capability development and coordination in response to, and recovery from, natural disasters, and (2) use scenarios that stress current capabilities.
Fire and emergency service volunteers should not suffer significant financial loss as a result of prolonged periods of volunteering during natural disasters. State and territory governments should continue their work to support and recognize fire and emergency services volunteers, including self-employed volunteers. State and territory governments should continue to support, recognize and incentivize employers who release employees to serve as fire and emergency services volunteers.
Capabilities of national aerial firefighting
The Victorian Inspector-General for Emergency Management observed that, “The effectiveness of aerial firefighting resources and the deployment system in Victorian environments has not been extensively evaluated. A greater understanding of how aerial assets can support suppression efforts including first attack would allow Victoria to make more informed requests for aerial firefighting assets and ensure any assets provided are used to their greatest effect.” The governments of ACT, SA and Victoria also told us that they consider further research is required to improve aerial firefighting tactics, products and their effectiveness.
Aerial firefighting capabilities vary between the states and territories, with some jurisdictions, such as the ACT, not owning any aircraft. Other jurisdictions own aircraft. For example, NSW owns a fleet consisting of three helicopters and the ‘Marie Bashir’ LAT, and has purchased a further four aircraft (two fixed-wing and two helicopters) which are expected to be available in 2020. [Note from Bill: The LAT is a 737 air tanker recently purchased from Coulson Aviation. The two fixed wing aircraft are Cessna Citation Lead/Intelligence jets; the two helicopters are Bell 412s. More info.]
There is merit in considering what further benefits could be derived from even greater [interstate] collaboration in the use of available aerial firefighting resources.
We heard that the current terms of aircraft service contracts are a disincentive for some Australian-based service providers. The majority of the providers we heard from told us that short contracts and minimal work during the off season make it unviable to invest in expensive aviation equipment. Contracts traditionally engage providers for 84 service days (70 in Tasmania) within the fire season, but we heard that more contracted service days would allow providers to invest in more equipment and offer greater value for money to fire agencies.
The Aerial Application Association of Australia also told us that the length of contracts is insufficient to encourage industry to invest in aircraft and creates significant uncertainty in securing long-term finance. The Aerial Application Association of Australia also criticizes the short lead times for developing contract proposals with NAFC.
The limited availability of aviation support personnel in Australia during the 2019-2020 bushfire season limited the sharing of personnel between jurisdictions and led to a greater reliance on personnel sourced from overseas.
The optimal use of aerial firefighting is in the early stages of a bushfire. For an aircraft to provide effective assistance in the suppression of a bushfire it needs to be rapidly dispatched with minimal travel time and with necessary logistical support systems in place. Victoria, SA and WA each employ ‘pre-determined dispatch’-the purpose of which is to reduce the time for the aircraft to reach the fire -described as a ‘game changing system that should be adopted nationally’.
On some occasions during the 2019-2020 bushfire season states and territories were unable to call upon additional aviation services when needed.
Aviation services funded, in whole or in part, by the Australian Government should be shared between jurisdictions according to the greatest need.
The availability of overseas-based aviation services during Australian fire seasons, particularly LATs, may be reduced by the increasing convergence of fire seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres.
We also heard that Australian-licensed pilots were not licensed to operate foreign-registered aircraft used in Australia during the 2019-2020 bushfire season. For example, with the exception of the NSW-owned LAT, none of the LATs used in Australia during the 2019-2020 bushfire season were Australian-registered, and therefore Australian-licensed pilots were precluded from operating them.
The Australian Federation of Air Pilots told us that it has approximately 5,000 Australia-based members employed as commercial pilots. This suggests Australia may have the potential to recruit and train the necessary expertise to operate firefighting aircraft currently sourced from overseas, including LATs, if such aircraft were owned and registered in Australia.
Australian, state, and territory governments should work together to continue to improve Australia’s collective, Australian-based and operated, aerial firefighting capabilities. Though we see merit in the continued use of overseas-based aviation services and air crew in some instances, Australia’s current reliance represents a vulnerability, as demonstrated during the 2019-2020 bushfire season.
The development of a modest Australian-based and registered national fleet of VLAT/LAT [Very large Airtanker/Large Air Tanker] aircraft and Type-1 helicopters, jointly funded by the Australian, state and territory governments, will enhance Australia’s bushfire resilience. A standing national fleet would ensure that the states and territories have the necessary resources to call upon during periods of high demand, without the need to reduce the operational capabilities of other jurisdictions. This standing fleet should also include situational awareness and support capabilities which may benefit from a nationally coordinated approach. Australia’s sovereign aerial firefighting capability should be supported by ongoing research and evaluation to inform specific capability needs, and the most effective aerial firefighting strategies.
Australia’s sovereign aerial firefighting capability may be supplemented by overseas-based aviation services, where additional capacity is forecast to be required and available.
Role of Australian Defense Forces
Improve understanding of Australian Defense Force capabilities.
State and territory governments should take steps to ensure that there is better interaction, planning and ongoing understanding of Australian Defense Force capabilities and processes by state and territory fire and emergency service agencies and local governments.
The ADF has finite capacity and capability. The capacity and capability of the ADF to respond to natural disasters can be affected by its commitment to its priorities, both domestic and international. The ADF should not be seen as a first responder for natural disasters, nor relied on as such.
There should be greater representation by the ADF in state, territory and local government exercises, briefings, and planning for natural disasters.
State and territory governments should take steps to ensure that there is better interaction, planning and ongoing understanding of Australian Defense Force capabilities and processes by state and territory fire and emergency service agencies and local governments.
Evacuees are transported from Mallacoota, Victoria to awaiting ships as part of Operation Bushfire Assist. ADF photo.
