At least one large air tanker was used on the fire, including the RJ85 seen above.
Originally published at 9:03 p.m. Jan. 19, 2022
Rolling Pines Fire, Jan. 18, 2022. Mario V.
A prescribed fire in Bastrop State Park 28 miles southeast of Austin, Texas escaped on Tuesday. County Judge Paul Pape said 250 families were required to evacuate as the fire that was intended to burn 150 acres grew to 783 acres by Wednesday morning. At 6 p.m. Wednesday some of those residents were allowed to return to their homes. The fire was named “Rolling Pines Fire.” There were no reports of injuries or any residences that burned.
At 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday Texas Parks and Wildlife Department initiated the prescribed fire at the State Park. Shortly after noon spot fires occurred outside the area that was intended to be burned, according to Carter Smith, Executive Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Texas is one of a few states that designate a county judge or sheriff, rather than fire professionals, to be *responsible for suppression of wildfires outside of incorporated cities. In Texas, judges take on that role. In a news conference County Judge Paul Pape said he is responsible for emergency response in Bastrop county.
Basrop County Judge Paul Pape. KXAN.
Judge Pape was asked by a reporter in a news conference Tuesday why on a day when local fire departments were advising residents to not do any outdoor burning due to strong winds, the state park decided to conduct the prescribed fire. He deferred the question to Carter Smith, Executive Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife, who said, “It is my understanding that we were well within the prescription of the weather parameters that were called for in the plan.”
Judge Pape said, “Based on everything they knew this morning, it was an appropriate day to burn. None of us can predict the weather more than 15 minutes ahead of time, and sometimes things happen we just don’t anticipate. I’m not going to be critical of the efforts to protect our citizens from wildfire by using prescribed burns. I think it’s a great tool and one that we need to continue to encourage people to use.”
A weather station near Bastrop, BTRT2, at 12:08 p.m. on Tuesday January 18 recorded sustained wind speeds of 16 mph with gusts up to 25 mph out of the south-southwest while the relative humidity was 53 percent. During the next four hours the RH dropped to 40 percent with south winds of 13 mph gusting to 23 mph. The 10-hour time lag fuel moisture during that time dropped from 11 percent to 8 percent.
With gusts over 20 mph it can be very difficult to keep a prescribed fire contained.
*In Colorado and Wyoming the County Sheriffs have responsibility for suppression of fires outside incorporated cities.
It will use $2.42 billion authorized by the infrastructure bill for fiscal years 2022 through 2026 for fuels-related projects
Geronimo Hotshots on the Big Windy Complex, Oregon, 2013. USFS photo by Lance Cheung.
On Tuesday the U.S. Forest Service announced a 10-year strategy to address what they call the wildfire crisis which poses immediate threats to communities. The initiative, called “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests,” combines the recent large investment funded by congress with years of research and planning into a national effort that is intended to significantly increase the scale of forest health treatments over the next decade.
The Forest Service will work with other federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior, and with Tribes, states, local communities, private landowners, and other partners to focus fuels and forest health treatments more strategically and at a larger scale.
Funding was approved in November
The Bipartisan Infrastructure bill signed by the President November 15, 2021 authorized about $2.42 billion for fiscal years 2022 through 2026 for fuels-related projects. (M = million)
$100M, Pre-fire planning, and training personnel for wildland firefighting and vegetation treatments
$20M, Data management for fuels projects and large fires
$100M, Planning & implementing projects under the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program
$500M, Wildfire defense grants for at risk communities
$500M, Prescribed fires
$500M, Constructing fuelbreaks
$200M, Remove fuels, produce biochar and other innovative wood products
Previous testimony about fuel management before congressional committees
During testimony June 17, 2021 before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources former US Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen said the agency treats fuels on about three million acres each year but said they need to treat two to four times that amount. She repeatedly called for a “paradigm shift” for treating hazardous fuels. Senator Ron Wyden (OR) got Ms. Christiansen to confirm that the agency’s latest estimate is that it would take $20 billion over a 10-year period to “get in front of the hazardous fuel challenge”.
On September 29, 2021 in a hearing before the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, new USFS Chief Randy Moore said, “We will never hire enough firefighters, we will never buy enough engines or aircraft to fight these fires. We must actively treat forests. That’s what it takes to turn this situation around. We must shift from small scale treatments to strategic science-based treatments across boundaries. It must start with those places most critically at risk. We must treat 20 million acres over 10 years. Done right in the right places, treatments make a difference.”
On October 27, 2021 Jaelith Hall-Rivera, Deputy Forest Service Chief for State and Private Forestry told the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Natural Resources, “We need to treat an additional 20 million acres over the next decade and that could cost up to $20 billion or more.”
What is now planned
The plan released Tuesday by the Forest Service calls for:
Treating up to an additional 20 million acres on the National Forest System lands in the West, over and above current treatment levels;
Treating up to an additional 30 million acres on other Federal, State, Tribal, and private lands in the West;
The current level of treatment in recent years has been 2-3 million acres per year for fuels and forest health, the new document stated.
The plan calls for an unprecedented “paradigm shift” in land management to increase fuels and forest health treatments across jurisdictions to match the actual scale of wildfire risk to people, communities, and natural resources, especially in the Western United States.
The Forest Service is developing staffing plans and will be increasing capacity in not only field personnel specializing in prescribed fire to complete the work but also key administrative positions like contracting officers, human resources professionals, collaboration and partnership coordinators, communications, and grants and agreements specialists who will assist in connecting with partners.
During the first two years of the initiative, the agency will be looking for large landscape-scale projects that are ready to go, up until now lacking only the necessary funding.
They will be seeking projects that are:
Designed to reduce wildfire risk to communities, water supplies, or critical infrastructure (including utility lines, roads, and national security sites);
Critical ecological values (including watersheds, wildlife habitat, and old growth stands) and ecosystem services (including carbon storage);
Economic values (including outdoor recreation, timber, and grazing areas);
Areas of cultural and historic significance (including areas important to Tribes); and,
Areas of social importance to communities (including for access and subsistence use).
Reforestation
The new initiative also strives for increased rates of reforestation following forest fires.
“We currently address only 6 percent of post-wildfire replanting needs per year, resulting in a rapidly expanding list of reforestation needs,” the new plan states. “We have plans for the reforestation of more than 1.3 million acres of National Forest System land. However, these plans only address one-third of National Forest System reforestation needs, estimated to be 4 million acres and growing. As we work to recover from wildfire, we are emphasizing planting the right species, in the right place, under the right conditions, so forests will remain healthy and resilient over time.”
Our take
The testimony before congressional committees said that in order to “get in front of the hazardous fuel challenge” and “turn this situation around” the Forest Service needs an additional $2 billion a year for the next 10 years, over and above what is currently being spent. What was appropriated for the next five years was about $0.48 billion per year, less than one-fourth of the additional funds the agency said was needed.
The growth of the climate crisis which has contributed to the “wildfire crisis” appears to be exceeding the estimates of scientists. Changes are occurring even more quickly than previously expected. So low-balling the funding for protecting our homeland will mean we will fall even further behind in treating fuels and attempting to keep fires from wiping out more communities.
The heads of the five federal land management agencies need to be honest with congress and continue to point out the scope of the fuels problem and the increasing risk of fiddling while the forests and subdivisions burn. Congress must accept the facts and pass legislation adequate to address the threats to our ecosystems and communities.
An effort to help protect these iconic trees from being destroyed in wildfires
Case Mountain. BLM photo by Robert Hedlund Jan. 6, 2022.
The Bureau of Land Management plans to burn up to 1,000 piles of downed hazard trees, branches, and understory brush at Case Mountain Extensive Recreation Management Area (ERMA) southeast of Three Rivers in Tulare County, California. Pile burn operations will start as early as Monday, January 10, and continue periodically until Spring, depending on weather, air quality conditions, onsite observations, and resource availability. Smoke may be visible in Three Rivers.
The ERMA contains the only giant sequoia groves managed by the BLM. They are on Case Mountain approximately 7 miles southeast of the town of Three Rivers, California. The complex is comprised of six distinct sequoia grove units, which total about 444 acres.
The prescribed fire is part of a multi-year fuels reduction effort in the groves. The objective is to strategically thin trees; remove ladder fuels which can feed flames to the treetops; and remove needles, branches, and brush on the forest floor. The prescribed fire will enhance protection of the wildland-urban interface for the town of Three Rivers, improve landscape health, and remove hazardous fuels near giant sequoia trees. Burning will take place only when weather and fuel moisture allow safe and successful operations.
The project is funded by a CAL FIRE grant and is a joint effort of the BLM, CAL FIRE, Tulare County Resource Conservation District, tribes, private landowners, and technical experts. It is closely coordinated with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
The Case Mountain Forest Health Project is associated with California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment – particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Protecting these iconic trees
In 2020, 10 to 14 percent of all giant sequoias across the tree’s natural range in the Sierra Nevada that were at least four feet diameter were killed in the Castle Fire when a substantial proportion of all sequoia groves touched by the fire burned with unprecedented severity.
Three fires in two years that killed giant sequoia trees. The darker green areas represent groves of giant sequoias.
In 2021 two additional large fires destroyed more of these iconic beasts of trees — the KNP Complex just north of the Castle Fire, and the Windy Fire which spread into the south side of the Castle Fire. These three fires were primarily in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and the Sequoia National Forest.
Prescribed fire. A still image from the USFS video below.
The U.S. Forest Service has released the fifth in a series of videos about fuel management and fire. This six-minute episode is about the planning and implementation of prescribed fire.
Concerning the terminology used in the video, I was pleased that it is called prescribed fire, and not prescribed burn, or the awful term that seems to have been in vogue during the last couple of years, good fire.
Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge conducted a 704-acre prescribed fire April 4, 2014 in the southeast corner of the refuge near I-75 and SR 29. Firefighter Connor Bowden uses a drip torch to ignite a portion of the project. Photo Credit: Paul Stevko – USFWS
A survey was conducted in January, 2021 to assess the state of both National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) and non-NWCG prescribed fire training in the Southern geographic area. It was developed, distributed, and analyzed by a work group formed by the Southeast Regional Strategy Committee of the Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and the Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability.
The online survey was completed by 955 practitioners, private landowners, and others within all 13 Southern states.
The complete 34 page analysis of the responses is posted, but below are some observations and recommendations.
Results from a January, 2021 online survey to assess the prescribed fire training needs in the Southeast.
The U.S. Forest Service has released the fourth in a series of videos about fuel management and wildfire. This four-minute episode explains the importance of routine, low intensity fire within California’s fire adapted ecosystems. It also covers the consequences of removing low intensity fire from these same landscapes including the buildup of hazardous fuels.
