Wildfire briefing, June 28, 2013

West Fork Complex, June 25, 2013

Former volunteer firefighter sentenced for arson

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a former volunteer firefighter was sentenced to a total of two years in jail for setting fires in the northern California counties of Sonoma and San Mateo. Our original story on the charges is here, and the Chronicle has the details about Friday’s sentencing of Nathaniel Ridgway Schmidt, 20, of Cazadero, California.

Extreme heat forecast for some areas in the West

This weekend and the first part of next week some areas in the west will experience extremely hot weather. The temperature for Death Valley was expected to reach nearly 130 on Friday — just short of the 134-degree reading from a century ago that stands as the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth. More details.

This is a good time for firefighters to review the video on Heat Related Illness.

Heat wave map NWS 3-7 day outlook
Much above normal temperatures are forecast for parts of the West on July 1-3, 2013. Map: NOAA and FEMA.

Helicopter crashes into river near Missoula

A helicopter made a crash landing into a river Friday while recertifying for water bucket operations near Missoula, Montana. Both the pilot and a passenger survived, according to an article in the Missoulian. More details are at Fire Aviation.

Colorado: West Fork Complex Fire

West Fork Complex, June 25, 2013
Smoke from the West Fork Complex at sunset, June 25, 2013 by @PagosaCabin

The Papoose Fire, part of the West Fork Complex of fires in southern Colorado, was extremely active Thursday night and early Friday morning, running for four miles and creating new spot fires 1 to 1.5 miles ahead. More details are in our main article about the fire.

New York Times on smaller budgets for fuel management

The New York Times is the latest news organization to run a major story on how the federal government is reducing the budgets for prescribed fire and other types of fuel mitigation which lower the fire risk by removing accumulations of thick vegetation in forests and in wildland-urban interfaces near populated areas. Here is an excerpt from their article:

The government has cut back on programs to reduce fire risks in areas where homes and the wilderness collide. The United States Forest Service treated 1.87 million acres of those lands in 2012, but expects to treat only 685,000 acres next year. Conservation advocates say that is likely to mean fewer people working to prevent runaway fires, fewer controlled burns and fewer trucks hauling away dry brush and tinder.

Trimming trees and clearing brush can make blazes less destructive, and the Forest Service said it had treated more than 26 million acres since 2000. But as the government spends an increasing amount to battle wildfires, critics say it makes little sense to cut back on prevention.

“There is a growing consensus in the West that dollar for dollar, these kinds of prevention efforts are paying off,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “And when the big fires break out, the bureaucracy steals money from the prevention fund and the problem gets worse. The Forest Service has become the fire service.”

Senators write letter about cuts in fuel treatments

More Senators have written another letter about cuts to fire budgets. The AP reports:

A bipartisan group of Western U.S. senators on Friday urged the Obama administration to focus more on preventing wildfires rather than taking money from programs that clear potentially hazardous dead trees and brush to fund efforts to fight the increasingly destructive blazes.

It is easy to write letters. Politicians tend to look the other way when it comes to actually DOING SOMETHING MEANINGFUL to correct the problem, such proposing and passing budget legislation. (sigh)

Wildfire smoke closes George Parks Highway in Alaska

Smoke from the Skinny’s Road Fire, which is named after a nearby bar, forced officials to close a section of the George Parks Highway between Nenana and Fairbanks on Wednesday. It reopened Thursday but travelers had to be escorted by pilot cars through the smoke. The highway is the main route between between Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska.

Lightning in the Yukon starts 23 fires

Fire managers in the Yukon Territory asked the British Columbia government to send 62 more fighters to help put out 23 new fires started by lightning Thursday. They will join the other 45 firefighters that B.C. sent to help out earlier.

Below is an excerpt from an article at CBC.com:

“Obviously, the emphasis right now is the protection of life and property, while maintaining the safety of our staff,” said Fire Information Officer George Maratos.

“Given the intense fire behaviour on some of these fires, the safest and most effective response was from the air with air tankers and helicopters.”

One of the priority fires is burning 18 kilometres east of Faro. Two are near Carmacks: one 45 kilometres east of the community near Little Salmon River and another 16 kilometres northwest near Free Gold Road. The fourth is 36 kilometres northeast of Mayo.

Environment Canada is forecasting more thunderstorms in the area for Friday.

Los Alamos National Laboratory criticized for wildfire preparedness

A report issued by the Department of Energy’s inspector general said the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has not done enough to protect the facility from wildfires and other natural disasters. The inspectors were concerned about what would happen if an earthquake or fire caused damage that could lead to exposure from some of the radioactive waste stored at the lab.

On May 10, 2000, a fire that began as a prescribed fire in Bandalier National Monument burned into Los Alamos. The Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire was carried by very strong winds, with embers blowing a mile or more across the fire lines to the north, south, and east. The towns of Los Alamos and White Rock were in the fire’s path and more than 18,000 residents evacuated.

By the end of the day on May 10, the fire had burned 18,000 acres, destroyed 235 homes, and damaged many other structures. The fire also spread towards the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and although fires spotted onto the facility’s lands, all major structures were secured and no releases of radiation occurred.

Washington: Soap Lake fire department quits

The Columbia Basin Herald reports that after the Mayor of Soap Lake, Washington (map) fired the Fire Chief, 11 volunteer firefighters resigned from the fire department, leaving the town with no fire protection. This mess began from a fund raiser to replace the water tank on a wildland fire truck.

Oregon drought worries ranchers and firefighters

A severe drought in southeast Oregon has firefighters concerned and has forced the Bureau of Land Management to haul water to herds of wild mustangs and pronghorn antelope.

Mount Rushmore cancels July 4 fireworks show

Mount Rushmore has again cancelled the July 4 fireworks extravaganza, which rains down large quantities of fireworks debris into the forest and rocky slopes around the sculpture. Previous fireworks at the Memorial have caused over twenty small fires. The Park Superintendent, Cheryl Schreier, cited the fire hazard in the nearby beetle-damaged forest as the reason for the cancellation.

 

Thanks go out to Dick and Kelly.

Black Forest Fire, before and after

Black Forest Fire, Denver Post, before-after
Black Forest Fire, Denver Post, before-after
Black Forest Fire, Denver Post, before-after (this is an example, and will not slide back and forth)

The Denver Post has put together some before and after photos of the area where the Black Forest Fire is burning near Colorado Springs, CO. The before photos were harvested from Google Earth, and the after photos were taken within the last day or two. After you go to the site (don’t try it on the sample above), with your mouse, grab the slider and move it back and forth. The photos don’t always line up, but it’s a good way to see where crown fires took out all of the trees, and to get an idea of how much fuel (vegetation) was close to the structures.

 

Thanks go out to Dick

Fuel treatments, before and after

I like before and after photos. The images below show the community of Silver City, South Dakota (map) before and after a fuel treatment which qualified them for official recognition from the National Firewise Communities Program.

Silver City before
Silver City before
Silver City after
Silver City after

A recognition ceremony will be held at the Silver City Community Hall on Saturday, June 8 at 7:00 p.m in which community members will be presented an award.

Silver City worked with the South Dakota Wildland Fire Division, the Black Hills National Forest, Pennington County Fire Administration and the Silver City Volunteer Fire Department to conduct a wildfire hazard assessment and develop a plan to address safety concerns. Residents then worked together to implement a detailed plan.

The photos are from The South Dakota Wildland Fire Division’s Twitter account, @SDWildlandFire.

Wildfire mitigation: saw and slaw

On National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation program this week the host, Ari Shapiro, interviewed Grist staff writer Susie Cagle about living in wildfire country, and took calls from listeners. Reading the transcript or listening to the recording is interesting. The “saw and slaw” described below could be a model that would work in other communities.

Below is a excerpt. We’re taking a call from Dave who lives in Colorado between Boulder and Golden.

****

(DAVE IS SPEAKING:) …”So we decided in our canyon here to do something about it as far as fire mitigation, and we started a program called saws and slaws.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: What does that involve?

DAVE: And we have – we get together as a community and we work in the morning. And then everybody brings a potluck…

SHAPIRO: So you saw down the trees and then you eat coleslaw?

DAVE: Exactly. That’s the idea. Everybody brings a potluck lunch and we just have a great time. But we have – we offer chainsaw safety training classes. And this is our third season. And we’ve done I don’t know how many acres total, but it’s made a significant difference in our canyon and just helped to build community also (unintelligible).

SHAPIRO: Are you specifically trying to get rid of the invasive trees, or are you just clear-cutting whatever you can so there’s not much more to burn?

DAVE: Well, we have a forester that comes out to the property, and usually there’s a few households that get together, a few property owners. And then we have a forester come out and mark the trees. We do have pine beetle effects here…”

 

 

Thanks go out to Dick

Senator blasts agencies for accomplishing fewer fuel treatment projects, fails to look in mirror

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is criticizing the federal land management agencies for not accomplishing enough hazardous fuel treatment projects, saying “the federal government can’t get this right”, and:

The message has not gotten through with respect to the choice: You can spend more modest amounts on the front end, with preventive kinds of efforts, or you can spend your time investing substantially more money trying to play catch-up as these infernos rip their way through the West.

The Senator is right, in that money spent up front to remove or reduce hazardous fuels can reduce the amount of money spent on fire suppression and minimize damage done to private property and infrastructure. It can also save lives.

In Colorado alone last year, six people were killed by wildfires, an issue we rarely hear being discussed as wildfire budgets are debated. When we’re talking about saving money and acres, how many dollars is a human life worth? Is it the Forest Service’s or BLM’s mission to manage fuels and fire management organizations with a primary objective being to prevent lives being lost in wildfires? It is a complex question, with plenty of responsibility and blame to be distributed to federal, state, and local agencies… and Congress.

The federal agencies know that fuel treatments can save money and help protect private property. And the Senator knows they know this. He should look in the mirror to discover part of the problem. The Senate and the House establish funding levels for the federal government, and the President signs the legislation. The agencies would love to accomplish more fuel reduction projects, but as the amount of money approved by Congress decreases, the first things to fall off the table are fire prevention and hazardous fuel treatments. After those are cut to the bone then the agencies have to start looking at furloughs, reductions in force, staffing fewer fire engines, and cutting back on the number of seasonal firefighters — some of which are occurring this year.

I don’t have any patience with politicians who issue strongly worded press releases (probably written by an intern) that blame an agency for cutting back on services while the politicians cut the budgets that caused the reduction in services.

The video below shows 16 minutes of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s June 4 hearing about wildland fire management. It features Senator Wyden and Chief of the Forest Service Tom Tidwell discussing budgets, fuel treatments, and next generation air tankers. It was edited to highlight Senator Wyden’s participation in the hearing. A video of the complete almost two-hour hearing can viewed on the Committee’s web site.


Below is the complete text of Senator Wyden’s strongly worded press release, including the bold highlights as it was written:
Continue reading

Effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments

Wallow fire, two burn areasA report has been released that had the objective of determining if fuel reduction treatments are effective in reducing the severity and cost of wildland fires. It was prepared for the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Wildland Fire by the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University. The reason it was written is interesting, according to the report: (emphasis added)

The Office of Management and Budget, Government Accountability Office and the United States Congress have repeatedly asked the Office of Wildland Fire in the Department of Interior and the United States Forest Service to critically examine and demonstrate the role and effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments for addressing the increasing severity and cost of wildland fire. Federal budget analysts want to know if and when investments in fuel reduction treatments will reduce federal wildland fire suppression costs, decrease fire risk to communities, and avert resource damage.

The report has a catchy title: The efficacy of hazardous fuel treatments: A rapid assessment of the economic and ecologic consequences of alternative hazardous fuel treatments: A summary document for policy makers.

Here are a few of the conclusions reached by the 12 authors and researchers:

  • Studies that use the avoided cost approach to examine the cost of fire demonstrate that treatments result in suppression cost savings.
  • Modeling studies that evaluate the effectiveness of fuels treatments in terms of changes in wildland fire size, burn probabilities, and fire behavior demonstrate that fuel treatments applied at the proper scale can influence the risk, size, and behavior of fire therefore reducing suppression cost.
  • Modeling demonstrates that fuel reduction treatments are effective at reducing fire behavior (severity) where implemented, and can successfully reduce fire risk to communities.
  • Although few studies exist on the topic, fuel reduction treatments significantly enhance the price of adjacent real estate, whereas homes in close proximity to a wildfire experience lower property values.

 

Video: the current state of wildfire and fuel management

Steve Smith told us about this video that he created with Walter Gallacher. It is very well done, with good images and a thoughtful narrative. It summarizes the state of wildfire and fuel management, or the lack thereof, in the United States.

WILDFIRE, Forest fires in the American West from Steven G. Smith on Vimeo.

Below is the description of the video, from VIMEO:

An environmental multimedia story on forest fires in the American West.

Ever since we seized fire from nature at the dawn of our civilization it has defined us. We have prided ourselves on our ability to control it and shape it to our needs. But the same fire that fuels our internal combustion engines and powers are industry is overheating our planet. Earth’s rising temperature is stressing our forests and our wildlands and spawning catastrophic wildfires around the globe.

In our effort to tame fire it seems we have made it more feral. Rising spring and summer temperatures in the West have created a fire season that lasts ten weeks longer than in the 1970’s and results in larger and more frequent blazes.

These new blazes known as “megafires” are erupting at a rate seven times greater each year in the past decade and are burning upward of 10,000 acres and sterilizing the earth with their intensity.

Utilizing powerful images of these megafires this film reflects on our relationship with fire, past and present, and wonders how fire will define our future.

Script and narration by Walter Gallacher
Produced and photographed by Steven G. Smith

We asked Mr. Smith about his involvement with fire and his motivation for making the film. Here is his response:

I began to photograph wildfires as a staff photojournalist about fifteen years ago, I was stunned by the devastation and power of these disasters. Last year I decided that I wanted to do more than just document these as individual events. I teamed up with Walter Gallacher to create an educational multimedia piece. Our goal was to create a short film designed to increase awareness and hopefully effect change.

Over the years I have been truly overwhelmed by the commitment and dedication of the many wildland firefighters that I worked with. This story is dedicated in their honor.

Agencies object to CAL FIRE’s draft vegetation treatment plan

At least two agencies have filed criticisms of a draft Environmental Impact Report developed by California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The plan for the California Statewide Vegetation Treatment Program determines how vegetation would be managed to lower the risk of catastrophic wildfires on 38 million acres of state responsibility land. After it is approved, individual thinning, herbicide, or prescribed fire projects would not have to obtain separate approvals under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Below is an excerpt from an editorial in the LA Times:

…For all its length, though, the report is disturbingly vague about what the state proposes to do and where. Many wildfire experts say the study is outdated on the science of fire ecology and treats very different natural landscapes as though they were the same. The state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife responded to the report with serious criticisms, saying among other things that the plan could cause substantial environmental damage. A letter from the National Park Service is downright scathing, slamming the report for numerous inaccuracies, accusing Cal Fire of ignoring important scientific studies and openly questioning whether the plan even meets the legal requirements for this type of EIR.

“If implemented, the proposed program would cause significant, irreversible and unmitigable environmental impacts to natural resources in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area on a large scale, while producing few if any of the fire safety benefits stated as goals of the program. As such, it would represent a very poor use of public funds,” wrote Robert S. Taylor Jr., a fire specialist with the Park Service. “I strongly recommend that Cal Fire withdraw the current proposal and produce a new one based on best available science.”

 

Explaining forest management in 100 seconds

Thin the Threat bumper sticker

This animated video explains forest management, prescribed burning, fire return interval, and fuel management in 100 seconds.

The video is very well done and gets its point across quite efficiently, however it may be obvious to some that it was produced by an organization like the Oregon Forest Resources Institute which represents forest producers, small woodland owners, forest sector employees, academia, and the general public. The group appears to be similar to the Idaho Forest Products Commission that came up with the “Thin the Threat” bumper sticker last year.Thin the Threat bumper sticker

via @FireAviationNPS

Video: using old burns to help manage new fires

The Southwest Fire Science Consortium has produced a 12-minute video about taking advantage of previously burned areas when managing new fires. Here is the
Consortium’s description of the video:

Over the past two decades the size of wildfires has dramatically increased across the Southwest. These large burned areas have become so common that newer wildfires are burning into and around them. Fire managers increasingly use these previous burns as treatments that either stop or slow fire spread. The interaction of past and current wildfires has important management and ecological consequences.

The video will be useful for anyone who is not aware that the spread of a wildland fire slows when it moves into a previously burned area, or an area with less fuel. The technical aspects of the video are excellent, including the editing, videography, and sound, while the appearance of the subject matter experts is similar to what we saw in another one produced by the Consortium about vegetation mastication.