Wildfire Today

Letter from the Chief

Kelly AnderssonApril 3, 2024Firefighter paybudget, Chief, NLC15 Comments

It’s been my intention since becoming Chief to rebuild 50% of our non-fire workforce capacity after the 38% drop we experienced in the last 15 years. Our collective efforts have gotten us there – we have hired over 4,000 non-fire employees in the last two years. The hiring actions we undertook were necessary to rebuild the agency to core functionality – and to deliver on the increased expectations that the historic investment of BIL and IRA funds brought to the agency. These capacity increases have led to significant progress in achieving the objectives of major initiatives like the Wildfire Crisis Strategy; the Tribal Action Plan; the Climate Action Plan and the Equity Action Plan, as well as record levels of contracts, grants and agreements executed with a wide array of partners. We have renewed our commitment to equity in our work, working with tribes and underrepresented communities to enact meaningful projects in the communities we serve. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made and grateful to all of you for the incredible work you’ve done to get us here.

Now that we have our FY 2024 final appropriations, we need to make some adjustments in our operating procedures to live within the budget we’ve been given. I want to reiterate that Congress and the American people value the critical work the Forest Service does. We demonstrate our value each and every day. Congress also had to make some difficult decisions this year and those decisions impact the Forest Service. Overall, the agency’s appropriations are down some from last year. Outside of our wildland fire programs, this takes many of our programs back to FY 2022 levels. In addition, while I’m pleased that Congress provided cost of living adjustments for all federal employees at a 5.2% level, they did not provide the agency with funding to pay for those costs outside of wildland fire. As such, we must find ways to absorb the increases within our constrained budget. I also want to clearly acknowledge that our employees face critical challenges in increased costs in housing, utilities, food and other necessities.

While we continue to have supplemental funds like BIL, IRA and GAOA, we need to set ourselves up for the future where those funds will be waning or no longer available. We’ve always known we needed to plan for that eventuality, but the combination of a lower budget and unfunded cost of living adjustments means we are there sooner than we thought. We need to take concrete steps on hiring now to live within this new budget reality.

I want to clearly lay out the steps for a strategic hiring assessment here.

- We will temporarily stop processing non-fire permanent full-time hiring/staffing related actions as of now so we can get a clear understanding of exactly what is in the system including the number of new Forest Service employees we expect to onboard in the coming months. We will not withdraw any final offers that have already been made and will continue with onboarding activities associated with those offers.
- We will strategically assess current hiring actions and those planned by all Units for the remainder of the fiscal year.
- We will identify the hiring actions that can be filled by current Forest Service employees to ensure we are providing supervision and leadership for our employees as well as development and promotion opportunities.
- When the assessment is complete, we will collectively prioritize which positions will be allowed to move forward where there is a high likelihood that an external candidate might be selected (e.g. a new Forest Service employee) and which positions will be filled when they become vacant for the remainder of the year.
- We remain committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in our hiring. When our agency reflects the communities we serve, we are more equitable, effective and successful. Whether we are growing, stabilizing or decreasing in staffing, it is important that our hiring processes and outcomes foster a workforce that represents the diversity of our country.
- Fire hire will continue as most events are nearly complete for this fire year.
- Non-fire temporary and permanent seasonal hiring will continue as most of these activities are nearly complete for the upcoming season.
- Temporary promotions and details may continue but we ask that NLC members be prudent in their usage since the intent of the assessment is to have stability in the system.
- Other personnel actions such as (but not limited to) lateral reassignments; conversions of employees on Pathways, VRA and Schedule A appointments; career ladder promotions; within grade increases; and awards are not impacted by this strategic assessment of hiring and will continue.

I want to be clear that this is not a hiring freeze but a strategic assessment of hiring. To effectively do that strategic evaluation requires that we have some time where the system is stable. I expect these actions to be complete in no later than 30 days. We will resume

Texas hearings live

Kelly AnderssonApril 3, 2024April 3, 2024Insurance, Prevention, WildfireOsmose, Smokehouse Creek, Texas House investigation

Here’s a tip from Michael Archer’s “Wildfire News of the Day”

ABC 7 in Amarillo is livestreaming the Texas House Committee that’s investigating the deadly Panhandle wildfires; it resumes testimony today in Pampa.Before testimony began, Chairman Ken King, R-Canadian, said Osmose decided the company does not need to participate in the investigation. Osmose is a third-party contractor that inspects power poles for Xcel Energy. The company is named in some of the wildfire related lawsuits.

According to one of the lawsuits, the pole determined to be the ignition source of the Smokehouse Creek Fire should have been removed after it was inspected by Osmose earlier this year.

Day 2 of testimony in legislative hearings on deadly Panhandle wildfires:

One of the witnesses is explaining that without the many loads of water and retardant dumped on the Smokehouse Fire, his town would have completely burned to the ground. (Remember as you listen that the references to the “Forest Service” is not the federal USDA agency — it’s Texas A&M Forest Service.)

Here’s Day 1 of testimony, with a transcript:

Bring another round of brews …

Kelly AnderssonApril 2, 2024April 3, 2024Wildfirebrewery, Malofsky, Pale Ale, Scoopers, TCB, TransCanada1 Comment

This is the most-fun note in my inbox for at least a couple of months.
Likely more. [cheers]

Eric Malofsky with Trans Canada SCOOPER pale ale

From: Eric Malofsky 
Subject: Scooper Beer 
Hey y’all. Longtime subscriber here.

I just wanted to message you and share that Trans Canada Brewing up here in Manitoba took my suggestion to immortalize the venerable CL-215 by brewing an ale dedicated to fire aircraft -- it's the Scooper Pale Ale!

Not sure how far abroad availability will be, but I know for sure it will be well-received after alerts on tanker bases around here!
CHEERS, Eric

“Welcome to our newest seasonal series beer, Scooper Pale Ale,” says Trans Canada. “The CL-215, an iconic Canadian waterbomber commonly referred to as a Scooper, has been guarding the Canadian wilderness for decades. This pale ale boasts tropical and citrus notes with a refreshing bitterness to create a thirst-quenching finish.”

Trans Canada Brewing Co. also makes the FLYING OTTER Light Lager, complete with just about the coolest and most iconic and awesome brew logo EVER, so they can’t be all bad.

⇠ ⇠ Does the Flying Otter lager logo make you think of FirePirates, I mean fire pilots, who drove Twin Otters, I mean twatters, for smokejumpers ????? Yeah, me too !

Trans Canada has a brewery, a taproom, and a general store in Winnipeg’s southwest corner. The company is Manitoba-owned and 100 percent independent — and they’ve got some dandy vintage-style art on their website:

The more you look at that art the better you will like it.

I fully expect this SCOOPER pale ale will become just as iconic with firefighters as Moose Drool (and its family of seasonal delicious brews from Big Sky Brewing) became some years ago in the Northern Rockies fire region.

And the SCOOPER pale ale’s only “available seasonally,” so heads-up on when and where you’ll find it.

— and —

BIG CHEERS and un fuerte abrazo to Our Pal Eric Malofsky for suggesting in the nicest most persuasive way to Trans Canada Brewing Co. that they oughta make us a pale ale branded with a CL-215 ! He just happens to be a 215 mechanic.

(And BTW anyone who ships me a can or six of either one wins a bonus prize.)

This is awesome, thank you so much for the article! I'm glad you like it; we've had quite the response since putting this beer out into the market. I just shipped a case to Quebec to some of the pilots out there yesterday.

One thing about our brands is there is always some sort of easter egg hidden in the label. The Scooper label has an Otter plane in the background, and our Flying Otter label is modeled after a Royal Canadian Airforce recruitment poster. Thanks again, I'm going to share this article around the office!

Cheers,
Emma Houldsworth
Brand & Marketing Leader
Trans Canada Brewing Co.
1-1290 Kenaston Blvd., Winnipeg MB R3P 0R7

Burn boss trial moving from Grant County, Oregon to federal court

Kelly AnderssonApril 1, 2024April 9, 2024Prescribed Fireburn boss, Grant County, Oregon, Ricky Snodgrass22 Comments

Lawyers representing Ricky Snodgrass, the burn boss who was arrested by the sheriff in Grant County, Oregon, are working to move the arresting-a-federal-employee case to U.S. District Court in Pendleton.

Snodgrass had a scheduled appearance on the first of April on the reckless burning charge that followed the local district attorney’s indictment of the burn boss during a prescribed fire on the Malheur National Forest in the fall of 2022.

The D.A. was served with a notice about moving the case to federal court, where charges will likely be immediately dropped.

Kirk Siegler, in his Morning Edition report on NPR, explained that Snodgrass’s arrest and the (much) later indictment were based on a “reckless” burning charge when a spot fire somehow ignited in dry grass across the road from a planned and approved and publicized prescribed fire — grass on the property of the Holliday Ranch, an adjacent landowner. Some of the landowner’s family members and/or friends had been driving up and down the road between the ranch and USFS property, harassing the firefighters, before Snodgrass finally called police to report the problems.

[note: Though Siegler calls this a “reckless burn” charge, Ricky Snodgrass was charged with “reckless burning” by the sheriff.]

After Snodgrass phoned in the harassment and reckless driving by locals, the sheriff in John Day responded to the incident, found Snodgrass supervising the burn under way by federal and state and contract crews, and instead of citing the locals, arrested the burn boss.

Sheriff McKinley handcuffed him, arrested him for “reckless burning,” and drove him into town to the jail in John Day — where he was quickly released.

The burn boss arrest very quickly hit the news and ignited controversy — far beyond Oregon and the wildland fire community. The story was picked up by news organizations including the Washington Post, The Guardian, NBC News, ABC News, Reuters, and others. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore quickly vowed he and the agency would “not stand idly by” after this first-ever arrest, and that he and others would defend USFS employees.

Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter

The county D.A. Jim Carpenter in October of 2022 indicted the burn boss on a charge of so-called reckless burning.

Sheriff McKinley eventually completed his investigation and presented the case to Carpenter for review, and on February 2, 2024, the case was finally presented to a grand jury, which returned an indictment against Ricky Snodgrass for Reckless Burning, ORS 164.335, a Class A misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $6,250 fine.

In the State of Oregon, a person commits the crime of reckless burning if the person recklessly damages property of another by fire or explosion. Not long after Snodgrass’ arrest, Carpenter laid out what he said was the legal standard for determining whether a burn is reckless. “The risk must be of such nature and degree that disregard thereof constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation,” he said.

The head of the NFFE union said the sheriff had interfered with a federal employee in the course of his duties, and one or more of the firefighters under direction of the burn boss pointed this out to Sheriff McKinley on that day. Snodgrass was directing a federal project and supervising crews — not just USFS but also ODF and contract fire crews — on a large prescribed burn, one of a series of planned and approved and publicized burns on the Malheur National Forest.

To no one’s surprise, Sheriff Todd McKinley has declined interview requests.

Grant County officials told NPR the arrest is being overblown. “One man doing his job kind of caused the other one to have to do his,” said Scott Myers, the judge and CEO for Grant County in John Day. He claims the weather conditions that day probably weren’t favorable for a burn — despite the alignment with the specs in the burn plan — and he says the fire somehow “damaged” private property — though neigher Myers nor anyone else has actually claimed this publicly or explained what they’re talking about.

Despite the adjacent landowners’ talk, the slopover across the road blackened not quite 20 acres and was contained inside of an hour — even though the project supervisor had been removed — not by the ranchers but by the federal and/or state and/or contract crews assigned by the USFS to the RxFire.

The eastern Oregon region has a long history of mistrust of and antagonism toward the federal government. Local residents for years before that ranted about how the UN and NATO had a plot under way to take over all federal lands in eastern Oregon — somehow in cahoots, they said, with the Chinese Communist Party.

Trump won the county’s 2020 election with 76 percent of the vote. It’s a sparsely populated place, with just over 7000 people scattered over about 4500 square miles — averaging fewer than two people per square mile.

Grant County has a long history of tension with federal agencies and employees, despite the large number of locals employed by federal agencies in and around John Day. It’s the same kind of tension that stormed the National Capitol on January 06, 2021 — and back in 2016 took over and occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge about 100 miles south in neighboring Harney County.

Not quite 30 years ago, county voters approved a symbolic measure “prohibiting the federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service from owning and managing federal lands within Grant County.”

Grant County later asked Congress to grant the county title to all federal lands — about 60 percent of the acreage in the county.

During the 41-day armed occupation in 2016 of the Malheur NWR, several militia members led by Ammon Bundy (who has since disappeared after being successfully sued for defamation by a hospital in Boise) were driving to John Day to meet with supporters. They ran into a police roadblock, and LaVoy Finicum was fatally shot by law enforcement.

Scott Myers, CEO -- Grant County Oregon — Scott Myers, CEO and Judge, Grant County

Grant County chief executive Scott Myers claims that relations between the county and federal employees have since improved.

“We get labeled a lot to be a whole bunch of gun-totin’ pickup-drivin’ crazy maniacs out here, and I don’t really think we are,” he told NPR.

Trump "cartoon" in the Blue Mountain Eagle, John Day, Oregon — Trump “cartoon” in the Blue Mountain Eagle. Definitely NOT gun-totin’pickup-drivin’ crazy maniacs., nope.

Thanks and a tip of the hardhat to CARL for this story, but don’t bother looking for news updates from the paper in John Day, because their editor’s now “monetizing their content” behind a paywall.

their

Hit it hard and fast: not always best

Kelly AnderssonMarch 31, 2024ResearchNational Cohesive Strategy, suppression1 Comment

A report published this week by researchers in Montana indicates that century-old policies to suppress wildfires as quickly as possible is actually contributing to more severe and larger fires over time. The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Communications, examines what the researchers call “suppression bias.”

They identify “suppression bias” as the consequences of knocking down low- and moderate-intensity fires: Other fires will burn hotter and scorch broader areas of forest and land, and people experience more of the most destructive fires, according to a story in the Daily Montanan. “Over a human lifespan, the modeled impacts of the suppression bias outweigh those from fuel accumulation or climate change alone. This suggests that suppression may exert a significant and underappreciated influence on patterns of fire globally,” lead author Mark Kreider, a doctoral candidate at the University of Montana, said. “By attempting to suppress all fires, we are bringing a more severe future to the present.”

On the other hand, the researchers said less suppression of lower-intensity fires might make firefighting easier in the future. Kreider authored the paper along with four other UM researchers and professors and an ecologist with the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute in Missoula.

The Big Knife Fire outside of Arlee, Montana, on the afternoon of Sunday, July 30, 2023. (Photo by Nicole Girten, Daily Montanan)

They compare suppression bias when it comes to fire management to doctors overprescribing antibiotics. “In our attempt to eliminate all fires, we have only eliminated the less intense fires (that may best align with management objectives such as fuel reductions) and instead selected for primarily the most extreme events (suppression bias) and created higher fuel loads and more ‘suppression-resistant’ fires.”

The USFS estimates that 98 percent of wildfires are fully suppressed before they reach 100 acres in size – most of them within 72 hours. In Montana, fire managers try to contain fires as quickly as possible; Gov. Greg Gianforte said last year that crews kept 95 percent of fires in Montana to 10 acres or less in 2022.

Since the late 1800s and early 1900s, policies have largely focused on protecting timber and homes from burning.

Montana’s state fire policy, adopted in 2007, specifies that minimizing property and resource loss is the priority in fighting fire and is “generally accomplished through an aggressive and rapid initial attack effort.” The policy also says that forest management including thinning and prescribed fire improves forests and that inadequate practices to reduce interface risk could jeopardize Montanans’ constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.

But as more development, particularly in the West, encroaches on the wildland/urban interface, a century of fire suppression and climate change has ballooned federal suppression costs from hundreds of millions a year in the 1990s to an average of $2.8 billion a year from 2018-2022 (NIFC data). Total annual acreage burned has doubled, on average, from what burned in the mid-1980s, and traditional fire seasons have increased by a month in duration, according to federal fire managers.

But the new research suggests that reducing suppression for low-intensity fires and allowing them to burn when conditions are good could mean that fire managers won’t face so many extreme fires in the future.

A water scooper drops water on the Colt Fire in late July. (Photo courtesy Colt Fire Incident Management / Inciweb) — A Bridger Aerospace CL-215T scooper drops water on the Colt Fire in late July. (Photo courtesy Colt Fire Incident Management / Inciweb)

Last year, federal agencies updated the Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy to include more prescribed burns and more fuels treatments to reduce risk of wildfires and to better account for climate change when modeling future forecasts.

Philip Higuera, a co-author of the paper and a professor of fire ecology at UM, said it may seem counterintuitive, but the research shows that accepting that more wildfires should burn (when it’s safe) should be the main takeaway. “That’s as important as fuels reduction and addressing global warming,” he said.

~ Thanks and a tip of the hardhat to Dick for this one.

Anyone got a spare helicopter?

Kelly AnderssonMarch 26, 2024April 1, 2024Wildfireinternational assistance, Mexico4 Comments

Cuesta Colorada Ixmiquilpan Hidalgo — At least six active wildfires are burning in Hidalgo, according to a report by La Silla Rota, fires that have affected hundreds of hectares and also the civilian population, including the fire that started in Nicolás Flores and has spread to Cuesta Colorada, Ixmiquilpan.

From the plenary session of the local Congress, deputy Osiris Leines Medécido made a call to support fire victims.

Fires just north of Mexico City have evacuated residents and threatened towns.

Mexico fires -- Cuesta Colorada Ixmiquilpan Hidalgo north of Mexico City. — Mexico fires — Cuesta Colorada Ixmiquilpan Hidalgo north of Mexico City.

Osiris Leines Medécido talked about the fires in Hidalgo territory, and he emphasized the one that started in Nicolás Flores and has spread to Ixmiquilpan.

Fires in the community called Cuesta Colorada Ixmiquilpan Hidalgo

“In Cuesta Colorada, people have organized themselves to be able to fight this fire, the entire population, the delegates, those who represent spas and citizens have all organized, but the intervention of the authorities at the different levels of government is required; the situation requires professionals in the subject, with the appropriate tools and instruments,” he said.

Smoke just north of Ciudad de México, photo ©2024 Brian Okarski

Osiris Leines extended the request of his colleague Aarón Charrez Paloma, substitute local deputy for the District of Ixmiquilpan, to provide support for the people affected by this fire in the Mezquital Valley.

CuestaColorado Ixmiquilpan Hidalgo — facebook post about fires at Cuesta
Colorado Ixmiquilpan Hidalgo

The Associated Press reported that wildfires were burning in nearly half of Mexico’s drought-stricken states yesterday, fueled by strong winds; the National Forestry Commission reported 58 active fires in 15 states, including in protected nature reserves in Morelos, Veracruz, and Mexico states.

Strong winds and high temps have blocked the efforts of local volunteers to fight the fire

Mexico News Daily reported earlier this month that five residents of the town of San Lucas Quiaviní died while trying to fight a forest fire that threatened their village in the eastern section of the Central Valleys region of the state of Oaxaca, some 40 kilometers from the state capital of Oaxaca City. Villagers had tried to contain the fire but it quickly spread and the five men were overwhelmed by the fire.

In front of my father's house — “In front of my father’s house” Tuesday afternoon

State authorities were alerted as soon as the fire was spotted, but villagers say officials were slow to react.

The Oaxaca state government did not issue an emergency assistance plan until after the fatalities were reported, two days after they were alerted to the fire. By then, San Lucas Quiaviní had issued a call to neighboring municipalities to help combat the blaze.

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