Wildfire news, February 16

Australia arson

The suspect accused of starting a bushfire that killed 21 people is still being held in jail, at least partly for his own protection. He has been identified as 39-year old Brendan Sokaluk and was once a volunteer firefighter about 20 years ago.

Here is an actual screen shot from his MySpace page:

More quotes from his MySpace page are HERE.

He has been charged with one count of arson causing death, along with other charges.

The video below has more information about the fires and the arson charge.



U.S. firefighters in Australia

A group of 60 from the United States arrived at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport on Sunday. HERE is a link to a video of their arrival at the airport.


Too much or too little prescribed burning in Australia?

While most of the recent articles in the Australia media recently about prescribed burning make the point that too little prescribed burning contributed to the fires becoming large, not everyone agrees. Lionel Elmore, who was burned out in 1983, claims in an article that prescribed fires have an adverse impact on hydrology and the timber industry.

Rescued Koala improving

Bob (top) and Sam. Photo: Reuters

The female Koala, named Sam, that was rescued from a fire in Australia is not only doing better, but has found a boyfriend, Bob.

Smoke from burn piles closes Ca. Highway 44

On Wednesday, smoke from burn piles mixed with fog to reduce the visibility to the point that Highway 44 between Redding, CA and Reno, NV had to be closed between 4:00 and 11:30 a.m. The 18 piles, each about 1/2 acre in size, were created by workers clearing a firebreak near Bogard, according to a spokesman from the Lassen National Forest. On a typical day, about 1,600 vehicles travel that section of Highway 44 near the Shasta County line.

Group organizes to support Rx burns on Mendocino NF

A group calling themselves "Restore the Mendo" has formed in an effort to promote the use of prescribed fires on the Mendocino National Forest in northern California. Even though the Forest is currently doing some burning, the group would like to see the number of acres burned increase substantially.

Some of the organizations supporting the group are:

Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
California Wilderness Coalition
Environmental Protection Information Center
Forest Guild
The Wilderness Society
Willits Environmental Center

I talked with Rich Fairbanks, the Fire Program Associate for the Wilderness Society's California-Nevada Region, about their support for the "Restore the Mendo" initiative. He worked in fire management for the U.S. Forest Service, including several Hot Shot Crews, before signing up with the Wilderness Society. I asked him why they began this push for more prescribed fire, and doesn't the "Mendo" already do this?

Rich said that yes, they do, but of the 300,000 acres of mixed conifer on the forest, they only have the funding and personnel to accomplish 2,000-5,000 acres a year. One fire manager on the forest told Rich that he would like to see them burn 20,000 acres each year.

The group's strategy is to convince politicians to increase the funding for the prescribed fire program on the Mendocino.

From my experience, when you are beginning to restore a forest by re-introducing fire, you will need to conduct multiple burns in the first 20-30 years before you can then enter a maintenance phase with less frequent burns. So 20,000 acres a year on a 300,000 acre forest seems conservative.

The Mendocino forest is one of the least complicated locations for prescribed fire, in that there is little urban interface, and population centers are far enough way that smoke management is not as big a concern as it is in some areas.

I have burned in one location where the fireline on the burn was adjacent to the backyards of homes, literally 30-feet from houses. It can be a luxury, relatively speaking, to have the nearest house miles away.

The group has produced a 30-second TV ad featuring a local rancher that began running November 12 on stations in northern California. Here is an image from the ad:
I began participating on prescribed fires in the 1970s, and if you are reading this blog, you are probably also a believer in the process. Forests are going to burn eventually. It is not a question of IF, but WHEN. We can control that burning in prescribed fires and do it on our own terms, or we can elect to do nothing and let nature (and careless fire-starting humans) do it for us with unplanned ignitions...sometimes with catastrophic consequences and/or massive amounts of smoke.

Oregon: report issued about escaped Rx fire

In September Wildfire Today reported on the escaped prescribed fire on the Deschutes National Forest near Sisters, Oregon. The U.S. Forest Service investigated the incident and on December 3 issued their report. Wildfire Today reviewed it and here is a brief summary.

The 30-acre "Unit 61" project area was part of the Metolius Research Natural Area and had been treated with prescribed fire 3 times previously in the last 20 years. The 1,000-hour fuel moisture and the Energy Release Component were both within normal ranges.

The test fire and ignition went well, and at 6:07 p.m. all resources assigned to the burn returned to their station at Sisters, Oregon. When they left the fire there was "slight precipitation" on the burn unit.

The next day at 11:45 a.m. while the local resources were preparing to burn a different unit, it occurred to someone that no one had checked the fire since 6:07 p.m. the day before. When an engine arrived to check it at 12:25 p.m. they discovered a 5-10 acre slopover. By 12:52 p.m. additional resources had been ordered, including a 5-10 person hand crew, 2 engines, a helicopter with bucket (but none was available), air attack, a dozer, and one heavy air tanker.

The prescribed fire was declared an escape and eventually burned 1,847 acres, took 9 days to contain, and cost $4 million.

Some of the causal factors identified in the report:

• The fire was not patrolled between 6:07 p.m. and 12:25 p.m. the next day. It is likely that an evening or morning patrol would have detected and controlled fire found outside the unit boundary.
• No plan was established for multi-ignition prescribed burn operations, which lead to focus on the next ignition of the Highway 20 Project (Unit #25) and missing the patrol and mop-up phases of Unit #61.
• The Burn Plan did not adequately document the prescribed burn organization, the patrol plan, and requirements for mop-up. The patrol plan was vague.
• There was a perception of a pressure to burn more acres (either through the fire organization or through a sense of individual responsibility) that may have led to urgency to move from one unit to the next without adequate attention to the previous day, as well as a perception of being understaffed to meet expectations.

A news release issued with the report included this statement:

We regret the mistakes that led to the Wizard Fire," says Supervisor Allen. "We will further examine the prescribed fire program this winter and develop an action plan aimed at preventing recurrence of a similar event in the future. I expect the action plan to be implemented prior to the Spring 2009 prescribed fire season in the Deschutes National Forest.

We congratulate the Deschutes National Forest for issuing this report fairly quickly and for making it publicly available. Lessons learned are valuable and contribute to our knowledge base while reducing the chances of repeating the same "causal factors".

Arizona: Rick Lupe honored at Wildland Firefighter memorial

Rick Lupe's brother Randy and his three surviving sons, Daniel, Shawn and Brent raise the flag at the Wildland Firefighter Memorial in a November 21 ceremony in Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona. The bronze statue can be seen in the background on the left.

Following the 2002 Rodeo-Chedeski fire and the tragic death of Rick Lupe a year later, Richard Genck, a 16-year old Eagle Scout, had an idea to erect a memorial in the town of Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona (map) to honor Lupe and all wildland firefighters. Genck went door to door collecting donations from local businesses and residents, found someone to donate their time to make a wax sculpture, and then had it cast in bronze.

The statue was erected in 2005. This year a local business donated a flagpole and on November 21 the flag was raised by Lupe's family during a ceremony honoring him and all wildland firefighters.

Lupe and his hotshot crew were instrumental in suppressing the Rodeo-Chedeski fire that burned more than 460,000 acres and caused the evacuation of 30,000 people. He was featured in an article about that fire in the Arizona Republic on July 7, 2002. Here is how the article begins, but unfortunately you have to pay to read the whole piece:

Rick Lupe was leaning on the hood of his ash-stained silver pickup, his black baseball cap pulled low over his forehead and his dark eyes blazing out of brown sunglasses. Lupe, a division supervisor on the "Rodeo-Chediski" fire, was running a part of the fireline that was crucial not only to this city's survival but also to other towns. His dark eyes were blazing that day not because of the smoke in the air, but because there was fire on the wrong side of...

Rick Lupe died as a result of burns he suffered on May 14, 2003 while working on the Sawtooth Mountain prescribed fire on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, six miles west of Whiteriver, Arizona. He passed away after surviving for 5 weeks in a burn unit.

The "Factual Report" about the incident describes the burnover (click on the image to see a larger version):

Unfortunately the death of Mr. Lupe is marred by some unsettling facts about the prescribed fire. According to the report, the approval of the April 2001 burn plan was rescinded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Western Regional Director on May 9, 2001 after a significant escape during blacklining operations. No approved burn plan existed at the time of ignition on May 12, 2003. In addition, a letter dated May 12, 2003 from the Tribal Forest Manager recommended against conducting the burn because of a recent escaped prescribed burn in New Mexico.

In spite of the administrative and operational issues surrounding the prescribed fire, we honor Rick Lupe for his service and his sacrifice and hope one day to see the memorial .

Wildfire news, November 3

Fire contractor volunteers to "detain troublemakers" on election day

An Evergreen helicopter at Custer, SD airport, September 9, 2008. Photo by Bill Gabbert

Here is an excerpt from an article on Wired.com:

CIA-linked private military contractor Evergreen Defense & Security Services offered to post sentries at Oregon election offices on Tuesday, "detaining troublemakers" and making sure voters "do not get out of control."

In an e-mail to local election supervisors, obtained by the McMinnville, Oregon News Register, Evergreen president Tom Wiggins said he "recognized the potential conflict" that could occur on November 4th. "Never has there been a more heated battle in the race for president."

The company, he said, 'proposes to post sentries at each voting center on November 4th to assure that disputes amongst citizens do not get out of control. All guards will be unarmed, but capable of stopping any violence that may occur and detaining troublemakers until law enforcement arrives.'

In an update to the article, the author says that this proposal seems odd, since the state of Oregon conducts their voting by mail.

Evergreen owns and leases a fleet of 54 light, medium, and heavy helicopters, 30 of which can be used to fight fires. They are also seeking a firefighting contract with CalFire for their 747 "Supertanker", which can carry over 20,000 gallons of fire retardant.



Changes at DHS after the election?

Will either candidate for President make significant changes, including response to wildfires, at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after they are elected? Domestic homeland security, other than protection from terrorist attacks and perhaps hurricanes, has not been a major topic of discussion during the campaign. The candidates have little time left after extensively covering plumbers and arguing about whose (tax cut) is larger.

However, in the DHS, the transition to a new administration has been receiving a lot of attention. Rear Admiral John Acton of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve is leading the DHS transition team in the develpment of a massive briefing book as well as training exercises for the incoming administration.

Jacob Goodwin at the Daily Beast covered the proceedings at a roundtable discussion in Washington, DC on October 15 where the transition was the primary topic. Here is an excerpt from his report.

C. Stewart Verdery, Jr., who was an assistant secretary of DHS for policy and planning from 2003 to 2005 and is now a lobbyist, noted that he was not “formally” representing the McCain campaign at the roundtable discussion. But he went on to say, “I don’t expect you’d see wholesale changes to the DHS apparatus,” in a McCain administration.

On the campaign trail, McCain sometimes notes with pride that the U.S. has remained free from attack since 9/11, although in recent weeks issues of homeland security have largely been shouldered aside by more pressing economic concerns.

Verdery predicted that McCain would implement some measures, such as the Real ID drivers’ licenses—which have been resisted by local authorities because they were mandated without the funds to pay for them—and add an “exit” capability to the existing “entry” capability of the US-VISIT program at U.S. borders.

Verdery also implied that Joe Lieberman might be named the head of DHS in a McCain administration. The independent Senator from Connecticut, who currently chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, will “probably not be the most welcome guy” in the Democratic Party after this election, he said.

Senator Barack Obama also sits on that homeland security committee, and his legislative aide for DHS issues, Rachana “Ruchi” Bhowmik, presented his views at the Aspen event. She would not identify any individuals who might be appointed Secretary of DHS in an Obama administration, but she took her own swipe at the Republicans by saying that Obama “appreciates the need to restore professionalism and the need for management skills.”

Bhowmik agreed with Verdery that, given the huge financial problems confronting the U.S., neither candidate is likely to mount a wholesale reorganization of the five-year-old DHS.

Still, she said, Obama has some fundamental differences with the Bush adminstration about both the mission and the performance at DHS. Obama, she explained, favors an “all-hazards” approach that goes beyond counterterrorism to emphasize preparedness for natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and wildfire. That stems, in part, from the fact that Obama’s home state of Illinois, has been hit with “everything but locusts this year,” she said.

In the past, Obama has floated the idea of moving FEMA out of DHS. But push-back from various quarters on Capitol Hill—including from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee—makes it unlikely that Obama would propose anything like that in the first 100 days.

Nevertheless, Obama takes issue with the idea that state and local governments should respond to local disasters entirely on their own and turn to the federal government only as a last resort. On the contrary, Obama believes it is the proper role of the federal government to come into a dire situation, such as Hurricane Katrina, she explained.

But in the view of the Obama camp, the Bush administration politicized DHS and dictated homeland security policy unwisely to the state and local governments. “Unless we pull ideology out of the driver’s seat,” she said, “we’ll see first responders getting told what to do by the feds.”

But homeland security “has not been a very hot topic” on the campaign trail, Bhowmick admitted. “The American people have other things they’re thinking about.”

Until something terrible and unforeseen happens.

California: less prescribed burning?

According to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune where a CalFire Chief, Thom Porter, was interviewed:

Porter, the CalFire chief, said the fire breaks and big backcountry burns went away when budget cuts coincided with environmental regulations protecting endangered species and limiting air pollution.

Burns to eliminate dry brush and other fuel for big fires are still done, but only after the effects on the environment are aired.

The article goes on to say:

Now, the kind of brush clearing that used to be done by flame is mostly accomplished by hand and machine and is targeted, almost surgically, to protect individual homes and sites such as radio towers.

It's more expensive, and fire officials say there isn't enough money to deal with the huge expanses of tinder-dry backcountry.

“With the current resources we have, we will not ever catch up,” said Thom Porter, a Cal Fire staff chief who heads the Forest Area Safety Task Force in San Diego.

Porter said prescribed burns are still used but not very widely.

He estimates agencies in the county would have to clear about 27,000 acres every year simply to eliminate brush that hasn't burned in more than 50 years.

“Our current capacity is about 7,000 acres,” Porter said.

Louisiana: smoke causes vehicle accidents

Firegeezer has a story about how smoke from a vegetation fire in a marsh degraded visibility on a Louisiana highway and caused at least a dozen wrecks.

This reminds me of the January 8 incident in Florida where smoke from an escaped prescribed fire smoked out a highway, causing over 70 accidents and 5 fatalities.

South Dakota: Prescribed fire at Wind Cave NP

Today we were graciously allowed to observe a prescribed fire at Wind Cave National Park in southwest South Dakota. The projected surrounded a campground, Elk Mountain Campground, and comprises 93 acres. We watched while the National Park Service firefighters skillfully burned around campsites and structures. We shot a couple of hundred photos.... here are 33 of them.

A big THANKS to the Fire Management and Interpretive staffs at Wind Cave.

(Click on the arrow button to start the slide show. To manually advance the photos, after the show starts click on the pause button ( || ) at the bottom of the photo then click the left or right arrows at the bottom to advance to another photo. If you click on the middle of a photo after the slide show starts, you'll be taken to the photo album at Picassa Web Albums, where you can view the photos in a larger format.)

Wildfire news, August 12

New fire use fire in Idaho

The Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho decided to declare the 350-acre South Barker fire a fire use fire, a fire that will not be suppressed but will be herded around as long as it remains within the maximum management area. It is burning in an area that was planned for a prescribed fire. A Fire Use Management Team is in route.

Plan ahead for fires with direct deposit

We had not thought of it before but an article by the Social Security administration advises that if you have your salary or social security checks directly deposited into your bank account you could still access your money if a wildland fire disrupts mail delivery or if you are evacuated.

Air quality rules restricting prescribed fire?

An article in the Macon, Georgia Telegraph indicates that there are concerns that prescribed fires may be limited by federal air pollution rules even as support for prescribed burning in Georgia increases. Land managers in the state annually burn about 1.5 million acres a year, putting them among the top five nationally for prescribed fires. The other states in the top five are Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

"As a council, we want to preserve our ability to burn so we don't end up like California," fighting huge and uncontrollable wildfires, Mark Melvin of the Georgia Prescribed Fire Council said.

Extinguishing fires is usually far more expensive and dangerous than conducting controlled burns, he said. And controlled burns generate less air pollution. Melvin said smoke from last year's Okefenokee Swamp fire hurt air quality as far away as Cuba for weeks.

And speaking of smoke

Here is the latest smoke map.

Report: Elkhorn II escaped prescribed fire

On June 12, 2008, a prescribed fire was ignited on the Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. Two days later it was declared an escaped fire and eventually burned 3,724 acres outside the project boundary. A report has been released which shows a degree of cooperation and openness by those who were involved, contributing to possible lessons learned. Here are some examples of those from the report:

• Use normal fire behavior for normal planning but extreme fire behavior for contingency planning.
• Make your test fire a real “test” of the burning conditions. Put it in a place where it represents worst case burning and in a place where you can put it out if the test tells you the fire will exceed your prescription.
• I’ll never believe anyone that says, “It’ll stop when it hits the rocks”.
• My slides failed me. We can no longer rely on Recognition Primed Decision-making.
• A good snow pack does not mean high spring fuel moisture. Don’t trust the snow to wet your dead fuels.
• The project boundary for this prescribed fire was identified in the EA and through an interdisciplinary team. The boundary was located along contour lines corresponding with archeological survey requirements and in some cases vegetation changes (Pinyon-Juniper to Sage). Consequently in many areas the boundary was located at mid slope in dense continuous Pinyon-Juniper stands. The boundary did not consider a road (nearby to the north and east), natural barriers or afford the ability to [prevent the fire from] .... crossing project boundaries.
• Make sure the project boundary is a boundary that you can realistically defend.
• Make sure your holding and lighting bosses know exactly where that boundary is.

Wildlandfire.com has a copy of the report HERE.

Arizona: more about the Frye Mesa fire

On May 22 we wrote about the Frye Mesa fire, the result of an escaped prescribed fire on the Coronado National Forest south of Safford, Arizona that eventually burned 3,100 unplanned acres. Today an editorial in the Eastern Arizona Courier blasted the US Forest Service for lighting the prescribed fire on a day when the National Weather Service had issued a red flag warning for Graham County.

Bill Turner of the NWS was quoted as saying:

“We strongly discouraged them from starting it. We had red-flag criteria everywhere.”

The NWS reported that a few hours after the fire escaped, the temperature was 102 degrees, the RH was 11%, and the wind speed was 22 mph.

Photo, May 21, by David Peters, BLM

Montana: two firefighters struck by lightning

Two firefighters working on a prescribed fire on the Flathead National Forest were struck by lightning Thursday. They were on on the Tally Lake Ranger District when lighting struck some trees near where they were working. The firefighters, a 25-year old woman and a 29-year old man are members of a Hot Shot crew. Both were both transported to hospitals, the woman by helicopter and the man by ambulance. They are listed in stable condition.

Thanks to Dick M. for the tip.

Video about prescribed fire in Florida

Here's a video about a prescribed fire in Florida in which a firefighter explains very effectively what they are doing and why. Fire agencies should do more of this. It's 1 min. & 47 seconds long.

Arizona: Frye Mesa fire

This fire started out as a 100-acre prescribed fire in the Pinaleno mountains south of Safford, Arizona on the Coronado National Forest, but on Tuesday it escaped control. Strong winds and red flag conditions on Wednesday caused it to blow out on all sides and by Thursday it was 2,500 acres. Small's Eastern Arizona Incident Management Team assumed command at 1800 on Wednesday. As of Thursday afternoon rain was falling on the fire and no homes were threatened.

Photo, Wednesday evening, May 21, by David Peters, BLM

Michigan: Prescribed fire in Flat River State Game Area

Mlive.com has an interesting article about a prescribed fire in Montcalm County conducted by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Here is an excerpt:

A wall of flames swept across dried grasslands in southern Montcalm County on a recent weekday, sending skyward a column of smoke visible for several miles.

Winds from the northwest fanned the April 29 blaze, which charred 60 acres in the Flat River State Game Area before dying out.

There were no evacuations or live TV coverage like we saw April 25-26 when an 1,100-acre forest fire near Grayling forced the closing of part of Int. 75. The cause of the Grayling fire remains undetermined.

Not so with the Greenville-area fire. Guys dressed in yellow suits started this fire with a mix of diesel fuel and unleaded gasoline and a handy propane lighter. This particular fire was a controlled burn, staged by the state Department of Natural Resources with assistance from certified firefighters.

It is not unlike what's taking place now in Texas, Virginia, Colorado and Wisconsin. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this year will use fire to improve wildlife habitat on more than 400,000 acres.

Anyone interested in creating better habitat for legions of endangered plants, insects and animals should be grateful for such burns. Like a good soaking spring rain, fire has a way of bringing new life to tired land.

The fire near Greenville targeted a tiny pocket of the 10,000-acre Flat River State Game Area, but long-term benefits extend beyond the still-blackened earth. Once used for farming, the land has been overrun with invasive plants, such as spotted knapweed, autumn olive and Chinese elm.

"We're trying to convert it to oak Savannah," said Steve Cross, a DNR fire management specialist based in Cadillac who served as fire boss this day. "Fire is an important tool to get us there."

Are you a deer or turkey hunter? Perhaps a butterfly fanatic? Or is your passion Michigan native wildflowers? If you value any of the above, then you should be fired up about fire.

They all live within the oak savannas of southwest Michigan. The land is sandy and dry and tree growth sparse. What does thrive, however, are native grasses and wildflowers, including little blue stem, coreopsis and wild lupine.

Photos courtesty of Mlive.com

Prescribed burning in Arkansas

The Arkansas News Bureau has a thoughtful article about prescribed fire as one of the tools used for managing forests. It is written by Joe Mosby, the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Here is an excerpt:

"This is what those earlier people found in Arkansas, said John Andre, ecologist with the Ozark National Forest. He told of records from the 1829-1845 period in the Government Land Office that said (this area) was surveyed with an average of 29 trees per acre, and these had an average diameter of 14 inches. Today, the choked forest has anywhere from 60 to 100 or more trees to the acre.

"In those days, they drove wagons through these forests. Can you imagine trying that today?" Andre said.

Historical accounts of Southern woodlands include descriptions of enormous trees and open, grassy floors. These accounts often detail the abundance of animals that inhabited the woodlands as well. Take a walk in the Ozarks today and you'll likely find a dense canopy of smaller, shade-loving trees instead of a more open forest landscape."

An article at NWAnews.com, also about prescribed fire, has a different point of view from an official with the Arkansas Sierra Club. An excerpt:

"Some don’t agree with the controlled-burn policy.

Tom McKinney, forest chairman with the Arkansas Sierra Club, said the Forest Service is burning too much Arkansas forest. He said the Forest Service is mistakenly trying to convert the forest from an uplands oak forest to an oak-pine savannah.

Much of the forest doesn’t need fire to rejuvenate itself, he said. The wet climate rots dead trees and leaves unlike Western forests that are in dryer climates.

He said the Sierra Club believes the Forest Service should revert to burn levels of the 1980s, about 20, 000 acres a year.

“We think their policy is to spend money in the guise of restoring biodiversity,” McKinney said."

San Bernardino NF: Lone Pine Rx Fire

Earlier we covered the fact that the San Bernardino National Forest in California is blogging about their Lone Pine prescribed fire project. Usually the blog posts are written by the District Ranger and the Deputy District Ranger.

They had some unexpected developments recently, but during a lull in the action, they posted some very cool photos taken in 2006 of a helitorch in action. These photos are served up by their blog. Click on them to view them larger.

California: Prescribed Fire Blog

The San Bernardino National Forest is conducting a multiple-day prescribed fire near Lytle Creek, California. What makes this one interesting is that they have an ongoing blog describing the actual daily events, along with lots of photos. One photo shows in the background snow on what I assume is a north-facing slope, while someone is running a drip torch in the foreground. It can be a luxury to do a prescribed fire when certain slopes or areas are unburnable due to differences in fuel moisture or snow cover.

Gabe Garcia, the Cajon District Ranger, and Deputy District Ranger Mary Long are providing the updates. This is the first time I have heard of daily blogging about a prescribed fire event, but I think it's a great idea. It is not on a typical blog site, but is on the Wrightwood, California forum. It is worth a visit.

New Term for Prescribed Fire?

The Philadelphia Inquirer is using terms that are new to me, calling a planned New Jersey prescribed fire a "preventive burn", and later a "partial burn". This burn project is in the area where an Air Force F-16 dropped some flares last May and started what became a 17,000 acre fire.

"N.J. plans a preventive burn today in Pinelands

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service is scheduled to conduct a partial burn today in the Stafford Forge area near Warren Grove in southern Ocean County.

The burn is to begin about 10 a.m. east of Route 539 near the Warren Grove Gunnery Range, and wind and other conditions will determine its duration, said Jim Petrini, a spokesman for the service.

The service plans to burn as much as 2,200 acres of the Pinelands in the next few weeks in an effort to eliminate dry underbrush and tree debris that accumulate and act as tinder and fuel when a fire ignites.

The prescribed burn is a response to a May 15 wildfire that scorched 17,000 acres near the gunnery range, forced hundreds of residents to evacuate, and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes. "

Study: 4 Large Fires = 7 Million Cars for 1 Year

A non-profit organization called The Forest Foundation has released a study that claims the greenhouse gases released by the 4 large wildland fires that they studied is similar to the gases released by 7 million cars on the road for 1 year.

The Foundation says they studied these 4 California fires:

• The Angora Fire, which burned more than 3,100 acres near South Lake Tahoe in June and July of 2007.
• The Fountain Fire, which destroyed nearly 60,000 acres east of Redding in August 1992.
• The Star Fire, which burned more than 16,000 acres in September 2001 in the Tahoe and Eldorado National Forests.
• The Moonlight Fire, which burned more than 65,000 acres in September 2007 in and around the Plumas National Forest in the northern Sierra Nevada.

I have never heard of this organization, and have no idea of the credibility of them or the study. But it is certain that information like this, credible or not, is going to have an increasing effect on the management of public and private land.

So, should land management agencies redouble their efforts at preventing and suppressing wildland fires? Or, should there be a greater emphasis on prescribed fire or fuel reduction? Of course, prescribed fire will put greenhouse gases into the air, but will it be less than if when the vegetation burns in an unplanned ignition? You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Fire Management Plans and Prescribed Fire Plans are going to become more complex, time consuming, and expensive to develop.

Update, March 21, 2008:

I have found out more about the origin this "study". According to an article written by Thomas M. Bonnicksen in the Sacramento Union published yesterday March 20, Bonnicksen claims that he "authored (it) for the Forest Foundation".

Bonnicksen is a "Professor Emeritus" at Texas A&M University. And, according to a Greenpeace web site called Exxon Secrets, he is associated with National Center for Public Policy Research.

In August of 2000 an article he wrote called "The Lesson of Los Alamos" was published on the Heartland Institute web site in which he was extremely critical of the National Park Service (NPS) and prescribed burning in general. In the article, Bonnicksen is not encumbered by facts in reaching his conclusions.

It is true that mistakes were made by the NPS on the prescribed fire at Bandelier National Monument that led to the Cerro Grande fire, and also in 1988 in Yellowstone National Park, but Bonnicksen is only correct in some of his analysis. For example, many of the fires that burned into Yellowstone in 1988 were human-caused and started outside the park.

According to Wikipedia:

Almost 250 different fires started in Yellowstone and the surrounding National Forests between June and August. Seven of them were responsible for 95% of the total burned area.

Yet Bonnicksen said:

Park staff did the same thing in Yellowstone in 1988, when they allowed a natural fire to burn until it became impossible to control. When it was over, the fire had charred nearly one-half of our oldest national park.

The Chapparal Institute has an exhaustive analysis and critique of some of Bonnicksen's attention-grabbing writings. An excerpt:

When someone spends so much effort to promote an idea, especially with such inflammatory language, it is often helpful to consider their motivation and connections. Due to his economic and political interests, it is difficult to view Dr. Bonnicksen as the objective observer and expert that he portrays himself.Dr. Bonnicksen is on the advisory board for the following organizations:

The Forest Foundation, a non-profit organization supported by the California Forest Products Commission. "The Forest Foundation strives to foster public understanding of the role forests play in the environmental and economic health of the state and the necessity of managing a portion of California's private and public forests to provide wood products for a growing population" (from their website).

According to public documents, Dr. Bonnicksen has been paid by the Forest Foundation to write opinion pieces in newspapers and to give presentations to promote land use policies favored by the logging industry. He also offers consulting services regarding timber and vegetation management. Nothing wrong with any of this of course, but it should be taken into consideration when measuring an individual's objectivity.

Prescribed Fire Demonstration for Invited Journalists

The Datona Beach NewsJournalOnline in Florida has an article about conducting a prescribed fire as a demonstration for a horde of invited journalists. Here is an excerpt:

"TOMOKA STATE FOREST -- Mike Stigler watched as smoke and burning embers billowed into the woods. The smoke was supposed to lift into the sky, not curl through the pine trees and palmettos.

The burn boss looked around at his cadre of firefighters and the horde of media standing around in the middle of Tiger Bay State Forest on Tuesday to watch a demonstration on prescribed burning. He wasn't entirely happy. The woods were too dry, and his firefighters didn't have enough combined experience to make him comfortable, not that any burn boss ever rests easily once the flames begin.

But Stigler and the other folks charged with balancing wild Florida's need to burn with its 17 million people get used to conundrums. It's tough to find a time when it's not too dry, not too wet and wind conditions are perfect so the smoke won't close roads and sweep into day care centers and nursing homes.

Stigler, who serves as the senior ranger at the state forest, was asked to burn nearly 23 acres to demonstrate to a group of local journalists how and why government officials and private landowners set prescribed fires. His fire was set to culminate a morning of lectures, but only if the weather cooperated. Otherwise, he'd shut it down."