It would be nice to see CalFire get back into the business of burning…real acreage, helitorch, terra-torch, 100’s or 1000’s of acres at a time…
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Environmental benefit plus excellent opportunity for PTB’s to get worked on.
Torching Conventional Forestry: The Artful Application of Science by John R. Mount
The absolute best book on “real” forestry practice I have ever read. I was lucky enough to grow up in a logging family whoworked in and around the area that Mr. Mount managed for Southern California Edison.
What this man did with a small group of people with boots on the ground science and forestry techniques is astonishing to me. The land produces timber, provides for recreation/habitation and brought back many species of wildlife including spotted owl, great gray owl and osprey, even when many “experts” told him it couldn’t be done.
His theory based on restoring and maintaining a pre-human intervention landscape and habitat while maintaining human co-existence and “paying the bills” through logging practices that maintain an uneven aged forest is brilliant.
The best part, his hands on approach to land management brought him to his understanding of not only a want, but need for fire in the landscape. Through his decades of land management and forestry work, Mr. Mount deduced that fire is not a tool but an integral part of his landscape.
Main point being… With a little work and a lot of paying attention we can take care of the landscape through multiple practices and provide safe habitation for humans. It can be done.
Great book, thought this would be an appropriate place to share, given the topic. Hope you guys read it, I know its on Amazon.
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There was an article posted on the KCRA webpage last evening regarding a Rx burn in the Sly Park Recreation area yesterday. https://www.kcra.com/article/el-dorado-county-control-burn-calfire-california/29897492.
I want to preface everything that I am about to say as being 100% supportive of the burn and the cooperative effort between CF and Sierra Pacific.
While 30 acres is 30 acres better than we were before the burn, we are never going to get ahead in the fuel reduction with 30 acre burns. This wouldn’t have altered the King Fire in the least, especially on the day of its big march.
My issue is that the public perception with an article such as this is that the view is going to be that these types of plots are going alter the intense fire behavior and fuel loads. Every bit helps but there needs to be much more both in quantity and acreage treated if there is going to be a positive change in the very disastrous position we are currently in.
Perhaps, these small plots will help create the view with the public and the politicians that Rx burns are not all bad and we build from it but I look at the task ahead and just don’t see that 30 acres are going make a significant impact in the overall land that needs to be treated.
Just one person’s view.
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Looked like they were burning grasslands this afternoon in Big Chico Creek Canyon, on the CSU, Chico Ecological Reserve. Is anyone else getting broadcast burning done in NorCal right now?
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~60 acres at the Hopland Reserve
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We got about 6 acres burned today with the Butte County Prescribed Burning Association. The PBA is coordinated by the Butte County Resource Conservation District.
Cal Fire provided a BC and engine on standby, but the burn show was run by volunteers and neighbors. The landowner has about 80 acres that are thinned and ready for some good fire. Kudos to the Butte Unit for supporting this work, and to the landowner for making this a ‘family-friendly’ event.
https://www.facebook.com/100000910628802/videos/pcb.5425453550828279/5425452497495051
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Had what may be our last day of spring burning here in Butte County today with our new Prescribed Burning Association. Got 7 acres underburned in a low-elevation pine and black oak stand, adjacent to 13 acres we burned earlier this year.
We had a couple CAL FIRE engines for backup, but all of the firing was done by about 20 volunteers ranging from 10 to 70 years old. About half of them had never worked with fire.
Wx conditions were great, with temps peaking in the low 70s, and RHs staying above 30. Winds were mild. We started firing about 0900, and wrapped up by 1400. We took it slow, because the landowner didn’t want to kill a bunch of small sugar pine and cedar he has planted - we mainly carried fire with pitchforks, and just used torches to get the perimeters secure. A good day in the woods, except for a serious helping of poison oak for everyone.
The landowner has a couple dozers and water trucks, and we had a couple UTVs. The intention of the group is to share knowledge, skills, and equipment to build a rx burning scene in our forested foothill communities.
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Thank you for sharing information on these events. How did this get started? Was it just a grassroots thing of neighbors? I could foresee some substantial “education” needing to occur to convince people that these sorts of fires are a great thing.
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The local Resource Conservation District wrote a Watershed Coordinator grant proposal to the State Dept of Conservation and included supporting development of a landowner burn association in their project. PBAs are common in the Southeast US, and starting to catch on out West. Humboldt County has an active PBA, that gets some support from the UC Cooperative Extension.
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Thanks, I might see if I can find something like that locally in AEU…
City of Chico FD burned 100 acres of grasslands in Upper Bidwell Park today. Objectives were to reduce yellow star thistle and medusahead grass, and fuel reduction. Conditions were pretty mild. Temps in the 60s and RH in the 70s when we started, and RHs never got much below 50. Wrapped up around 3pm. Good day. Chico State Ecological Reserves provided some FFT2 and a Type 6, and PG&E sent a Type 6 to put down some retardant around high voltage towers. We were able to burn under their transmission lines. Deer Creek Resources wrote the burn plan under funding from Cal Fire, as part of a larger planning effort led by the Butte County RCD. Now that the planning is done, the City doesn’t need to do CEQA on any future burns or fuels work on City properties.
Plan is to burn this same block next 3 years to reduce seed bank for the weeds, and to build public support for large annual burns that buffer the Chico Urban Area from wind-driven fall wildfires.
Videos here:
Plan is to burn this same block next 3 years to reduce seed bank for the weeds, and to build public support for large annual burns that buffer the Chico Urban Area from wind-driven fall wildfires.
Videos here:
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That is an annual event on the ranges. Same thuing happens on Fort Hunter-Liggett in BEU
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Burning on highway 41 fuels project should begin in the next 2 hours.
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Is anybody burning or planning to burn soon? Thoughts on ‘in-season’ burning?
It all boils down to Risk vs Reward. What will be gained by conducting the burn and what will be harmed if there is an escape. Can the burn be done and the goals accomplished by burning on the tail end of the season ? I did quite a bit of in season burning for CDF in the Shasta Trinity Unit. It can be done safely, but require a commitment of manpower and equipment. I am concerned about burning this time of year. Lighting a large scale burn in the early fire season is like burning into increasing indexes…you may be in prescription when you start, but out of prescription by the the time you complete the burn. If the Agency is prepared and has the manpower to patrol and mopup when the weather turns sour it can work.
Other considerations are the purpose of the burn. We know the burn will raise soil temperatures and stress any surviving plants that are already stressed by drought. If we are burning for hazard reduction, are creating more risk ?
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Way too dry to be burning now in Norcal. Even if we were wetter no way North Ops would allow it.
Forests and CF Unit managers are under a great deal of pressure to burn to accomplish the unrealistic 500,000 acre treated per year goals. Didn’t Six Rivers NF just announce a planned burn near Willow Creek ?
