Fire and Fuels

BLM’s Recent Efforts to Diversify Wildland Firefighting

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Thanks to Emily Wolfe of the Mountain Outlaw Magazine, for sending her story on BLM efforts to increase women’s participation in wildland firefighting and ultimately to hire “a workforce with ethnic, racial and educational backgrounds representative of the communities they serve—and treating them well enough that they stay.”

Here are a couple of excerpts:

BLM manages a 10th of the country’s landmass, or 247.3 million acres, more than any other government agency. Housed under the Department of the Interior, the agency oversees grazing, oil and gas leases, recreation, conservation and other uses. As of July 2017, it had more than 10,400 employees, and nearly 3,000 in its fire program. Of those in fire, 18 percent were women. Among firefighters, particularly the high-level hotshot and smokejumping teams, the ratio is much lower.

The agency’s 11 hotshot crews employ one to three women on a typical 20-person team, and this year there are three female smokejumpers of 140 nationwide. The six- person engine crews that comprise most fire line employees usually have one or two women, or none. Between all federal firefighting entities—the BLM, the Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—the number of women in permanent fire operations positions hovers around 12 percent.

Few women and minorities apply to work on the fire line in the first place, and retention is difficult for all employees. The job’s physical nature is self-selecting, plus most positions are seasonal, based in remote locations, and require long stints away and out of cell reception—all of which double as risk factors for harassment and assault.

Simply injecting women into the workforce isn’t effective. Armed forces in Canada, Norway and Australia have used the critical mass approach to gender integration, a social theory suggesting that 15 to 30 percent of a minority is necessary for that group to succeed. But fire leaders still remember the 1981 settlement to a class action lawsuit that forced the Forest Service in California to match the civilian workforce’s gender ratio, at 43 percent women. To fulfill the consent decree, as it’s still known, women were sometimes promoted over more qualified men, leading to resentment, attrition and degradation of institutional knowledge.

That resentment still lingers. “I was told three years ago during a friendly conversation with a male coworker that I was only hired because I was female,” wrote Lorena Williams in a High Country News opinion piece published in March. “Women are often seen as intruders, as tokens who were only hired to meet some kind of quota. We are treated as pariahs in our professional fields, regarded as little more than sexual-harassment cases waiting to happen.”

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In February, Strelnik went public about the repeated sexual harassment and retaliation she experienced over her 17-year Forest Service firefighting career, a #MeToo moment she says was made possible by the catharsis of working on the initiative. Amos Lee, a supervisory engine module leader at BLM’s Boise District, isn’t ashamed to say he wants to spend time with his family instead of being gone for six to nine months each year. Many firefighters do, he says.

This time the assignment is focused on implementation. The project list includes providing family housing and childcare facilities for employees in rural areas; re-evaluating physical testing requirements; and supporting independent, state-level education and mentorship programs. One of their top recommendations is hiring a permanent diversity and inclusion employee, a position BLM fire leadership is now in the process of creating.

Fire Continuum Conference in Missoula last week

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Here is coverage by the Missoulian’s Rob Chaney.  He’s good at getting at the important points, but if anyone else attended (I didn’t) and has some impressions, please share.

“Fire conference in Missoula attracts international experts”

“To effectively fight fires, Forest Service chief says agency must first fight harassment”

“Also in Monday’s plenary sessions, Forest Service program director Sara Brown put the problem in personal terms in her afternoon presentation. The Oregon-based researcher and former smokejumper recalled how she built a tough, masculine persona to fit in with her male firefighting colleagues, to the extent she froze out other women who she didn’t think measured up.”

“Science may overtake tradition in wildfire fighting”  

“A fire that spreads from federal land into state or private property suddenly complicates who gets the bill for the suppression efforts. That makes cost-control a strategic objective that sometimes gets in the way of tactical opportunities.”

“After the fire, scientists brace for climate change”

“Across North America, forests and grasslands spent millions of years evolving with fire as a tool to clean out dead plants, regrow new ones and maintain the things animals need. But, as several top researchers at the Fire Continuum Conference in Missoula pointed out on Thursday, the old patterns are getting pulled up by the roots.”

(The photo is from a recent prescribed burn and accompanied this editorial.  My interest in this comes partly from living at the bottom right of that ridge-line the smoke is behind.)

Idaho county votes down wilderness

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Follow-up:                                   

Voters rejected the proposal for the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, 5,672 to 4,831.  As a result, Senator Risch will not reintroduce his legislation to designate the area, and wilderness legislation has no chance of passing without local Congressional support.  So to a limited degree we have local control of a national forest, but as the article points out, management under the forest plan, which recommends the area as wilderness, won’t change.  (The article suggests that Congress couldn’t change the forest plan; of course it could, but I don’t think there is a precedent for it.)

The unfortunate thing is that the voters seem to have been misinformed (which is something I would hope a congressman would take into account).

“The philosophy with wilderness areas is let it burn,” said Bonner County Commissioner Dan McDonald.

And, perhaps most importantly, (Forest Service spokesperson) Cooper said Forest Service personnel can and do manage forest fires in both recommended and designated wilderness areas. “We still do manage wildfire,” she said.  In 2017, the Forest Service sent smokejumpers into the Salmo-Priest Wilderness area to fight a forest fire.

My own interpretation is that suppression response depends on the values at risk, and wilderness area values, aren’t lost when they burn (in fact probably the opposite) – like other areas managed primarily for conservation or recreation, which is how this area is being managed now. 

California’s Tree Mortality Task Force- Dealing with 128 Million Dead Trees

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Thanks to Mac McConnell for sending this in. You may have seen the posts “128 million dead trees in California” from last December. Here’s a quote:

Though California received record-breaking rains in the winter of 2016-2017, the effects of five consecutive years of severe drought in California, a dramatic rise in bark beetle infestation and rising temperatures have led to historic levels of tree die-off. The Tree Mortality Task Force (TMTF), with support from the Governor’s office and comprised of more than 80 local, state and federal agencies and private utility companies, continues to remove hazardous dead trees. To date, the TMTF members have collectively felled or removed over 860,000 dead trees; this includes over 480,000 dead trees felled or removed by the U.S. Forest Service.
The TMTF members are using a triage approach to this tree mortality crisis, first focusing on public safety by removing dead and dying trees in high hazard areas. To further improve forest health, the U.S Forest Service and CAL FIRE have increased their pace and scale of prescribed fire. The U.S. Forest Service has treated over 55,000 acres and CAL FIRE has completed over 33,000 acres in fuel treatment projects. By combining tree removal with prescribed fire, crews will be able to decrease overly dense stands of trees, reduce greenhouse gases, and protect communities across the state.

“Tree mortality at this magnitude takes on-going cooperation between public, non-profit and private entities,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, CAL FIRE director and California’s state forester. “California’s forests are a critical part of the State’s strategy to address climate change. By working together and using all the resources at our disposal we will be able to make more progress towards our common goal of healthier, more resilient forests that benefit all Californians.”

With record breaking levels of tree die-off, the TMTF has used this event as an opportunity to collaborate on several fronts: from public workshops about reforestation, public outreach in urban and rural areas, and awarding over $21 million in grants aimed to protect watersheds, remove dead trees and restore our forests. The TMTF continues to collaborate on the efficient use of resources to protect public safety and build consensus around long-term management strategies for California’s forest lands.

“The Tree Mortality Task force has provided an essential venue for coordination of response efforts, exchange of ideas, reporting, and accountability for the ongoing statewide response to this incident,” said Supervisor Nathan Magsig of Fresno County. “Leadership from the Governor’s Office, CAL FIRE and Office of Emergency Services has helped to ensure county issues are heard and addressed. Monthly coordination of the 10 most impacted counties has resulted in a more effective use of resources and has allowed counties to share ideas and successes.”

Colorado experienced much tree mortality in the recent past (as did Central Oregon in the 80’s). It’s always interesting to see how different states handle the problem. Perhaps because of the importance/funding of Calfire, there seems to be a strong integrated push at the state and county level. It seems (perhaps related) to be less on the ideological side and more pragmatic than the discussions we often have here. Due to the emergency, they simply seem to have made exceptions to the State Forest Practices Act without much pushback (documented here) (or it’s not obvious from here).

They have a multiagency Tree Mortality Task Force linked here, which has many interesting links including this very cool zoomable map with interesting layers tree mortality viewer (below is a screenshot).

There are a variety of working groups including prescribed fire, insurance, regulations, utilization and so on here. For those interested, the Task Force has a webinar on June 11. As always, I’m particularly interested in the perspective and observations of the Californians here.

Firefighters It’s Time We Lead the Way on Ending Harassment

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Whitewater-Baldy Complex, Gila National Forest, New Mexico, May, 2012

While searching for a photo for this post, I found Kari Greer’s fire photo website here. This site is worth checking out, as there are many amazing and wonderful fire photos.

I’ve been behind on my blog duties, partially due to discovering that backups of my computer stuff did not automatically include bookmarks from Chrome. Lesson learned. Anyway, here goes…
This is a piece from High Country News by Lorena Williams a writer and firefighter out of Durango, Colorado.

“It is such a hostile environment,” said journalist Judy Woodruff, discussing the PBS investigation. “Why do these women go into the Forest Service in the first place?”

I am one of these women, and here is my answer: The culture of firefighting is not an inherently “hostile environment.” For every coworker that has excluded me from the “boys’ club,” 10 others have made me feel welcome and safe in a professional work environment. I have faith in these good people to change a culture that has historically enabled sexual assault and retaliation. If we do not act as harbingers of change, we are by default complicit in the problem.

The victims interviewed for the PBS investigation are just a fraction of those who remain fearfully silent or have moved on from the agency. I have little doubt of their credibility. I have never been assaulted, fortunately, but I have experienced and also witnessed harassment and discrimination. In my view, it stems from the perspective that women are, and should remain, outsiders in the industry.

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I was told three years ago during a friendly conversation with a male coworker that I was only hired because I was female. It wasn’t true, but it illustrated what I fear most about this transition in our field: Women are often seen as intruders, as tokens who were only hired to meet some kind of quota. We are treated as pariahs in our professional fields, regarded as little more than sexual-harassment cases waiting to happen.

This sentiment — that working with women is playing with fire — has been hinted at by many of my colleagues throughout the years. Male firefighters at all levels feel hamstrung, suddenly censored, in what is a naturally high-risk, adrenaline-filled career that at times warrants aggressive command presence. In expressing their concerns, however, some male firefighters imply that simply maintaining an appropriate workplace environment is so difficult and out of the ordinary that it cannot possibly be done. And so, they say, they fear for their jobs.

It’s true that certain aspects of this job inherently challenge political correctness. We work in the woods, sleep on the ground, relate to each other through bathroom humor, teasing and goading. Spending an entire summer, day and night, with the same people means that professionalism inevitably slips into casual camaraderie. This is how we cope, how we bond and thrive. This gray area, where our professional lives become personal, is both rewarding and dangerous — prime territory for interpersonal chaos. But firefighter culture has to try to enter the 21st century; it can no longer hide fearfully behind patriarchal tradition. Times have changed, and fire culture needs to catch up.

Sierra Nevada Lidar Study of Spotted Owls Suggests That Thinning Understory Might Be OK

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Here is an interesting story from UCDavis via Treesource.

Remote sensing technology has detected what could be a win for both spotted owls and forest management, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and the University of Washington.

For 25 years, many forests in the western United States have been managed to protect habitat for endangered and threatened spotted owls. A central tenet of that management has been to promote and retain more than 70 percent of the forest canopy cover.

However, dense levels of canopy cover leave forests prone to wildfires and can lead to large tree mortality during droughts. Thus, the disconnect between two significant land management goals.

In the study, published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, scientists found that cover in tall trees is the key habitat requirement for spotted owls — not total canopy cover. It indicated that spotted owls largely avoid cover created by stands of shorter trees.

“This could fundamentally resolve the management problem because it would allow for reducing small tree density through fire and thinning,” said lead author Malcolm North, a research forest ecologist with UC Davis’ John Muir Institute of the Environment and the USDA Pacific Southwest Research Station. “We’ve been losing the large trees, particularly in these extreme wildfire and high drought-mortality events. This is a way to protect more large tree habitat, which is what the owls want, in a way that makes the forest more resilient to these increasing stressors that are becoming more intense with climate change.”

“The analysis helps change the perception of what is important for owls — the canopy of tall trees rather than understory trees,” said co-author and spotted owl expert R.J. Guitiérrez, a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. “The results do not mean a forest should be devoid of smaller trees because owls actually use some of those smaller trees for roosting. But it suggests a high density of small trees is likely not necessary to support spotted owls.”

Here’s the study. Of course, the press release format doesn’t cover the usual scientific caveats like they only studied part of California and so on..

I’m interested in how this fits in with what our readers in California have observed.

Wildfire Resilient Communities: Public- Private Partnerships?

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From NASA EArth Observatory

I thought this guest column in the Colorado Springs Gazette was interesting because it addresses the problem of developing wildfire resilient communities in its pure form (without the environmentalist/timber industry battles nor their “scientific” proxies). It requires more working together, different policy options (say, for more prescribed burning) and of course, funding. As the authors state, “Forest Service budgets cannot tackle such scale of management.” The authors represent a grant-making not for profit called the El Pomar Foundation.

The term “tragedy of the commons” might apply to Pikes Peak forest health: many benefit from a forested, serene Colorado Springs backdrop, yet none hold exclusive responsibility for its health and management. We lack the capacity needed to tackle broad regional public-private forest restoration due to two factors: the centurylong expectation that the U.S. Forest Service holds sole responsibility for forests, and the lack of responsible management across private forest landholders. We can no longer ignore the need our community has for conversation and action on this issue.

Imagine that massive fire revisits our region as a catastrophic fire on Cheyenne Mountain and the east slopes of Pikes Peak similar to the 1950 event. We know conditions could be ripe for near hurricane-force winds to push fire through our watersheds and down slopes into the wildland urban interface. If we look only at a strip of damage about 1 mile wide along the Wildland Urban Interface with Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, potential lost property values could be $1.67 billion from NORAD Road north to Lake Avenue. If a strip northwest from Lake Avenue to U.S. 24 were to burn, $1.24 billion could go up in smoke. And these values exclude loss of use, property contents, and regional loss of recreation and tourism visitation. A a recent Pikes Peak Forest Health Symposium organized by El Pomar Foundation’s Pikes Peak Heritage Series was a first step in bringing together experts and interested regional residents to take stock of the threat. Symposium participants absorbed the grim messages of prior mega fires as well as dangerous conditions existing on a massive scale across the American West and right behind Colorado Springs in the Pike National Forest. They also heard about some promising public-private partnerships that, on a small to medium scale, are tackling forest restoration.

Across the nation and especially in forested regions, there are new programs, partners and fast evolving funding sources that could serve as examples in an effort to protect the flanks of Pikes Peak now and for future generations. Forest Service budgets cannot tackle such scale of management, but new approaches are enticing private capital and partnerships to share costs and benefits.

Colorado Springs’ mountain backdrop could be a model for a well-managed forest, with the Pike Ranger District the focus of an innovative public-private partnership that would selectively thin and manage for restoration to historic conditions. The results would allow, indeed encourage, low-intensity fires (natural and human induced) to clear out understory without the danger of fire reaching the crowns of trees that kill large swatches and scorch the soil.

What if proactive public-private partnerships and access to private capital were brought to bear on our Pikes Peak backdrop? And what if a small percentage of potential damages from catastrophic fire were combined from stakeholders benefiting and transferred to current vulnerable forests and watersheds to initiate such an effort? Given just the property values in the El Paso County Assessor’s records, losses of several billion dollars from a huge fire are possible; some $20 million at the front end could attract innovative tools, organizations, and public-private partnerships. Whether/who/how leadership will step forward is a gigantic question and challenge.

The Pikes Peak region has confronted and solved complex issues and can do so yet again if forest health is converted from being viewed as a static natural amenity to a dynamic, vital and scarce form of natural capital underpinning our mountain backdrop, economy and quality of life.

Western Governors on Prescribed Burning and Air Quality

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One of the things I’m interested in is looking at forest policy and public lands issues in a way that de-emphasizes partisan politics. In my view, partisanizing issues leads to more heat than light, and also divides people, intentionally. I support people who work across the aisle, listening to each other and working towards agreement. Hyperbole is said to be the language of politics, and sometimes it is difficult or impossible to find facts through the jungles of hyperbole, truth-shadings, and “false facts” put out by the different factions and their media allies.

If we look at some western governors and how they approach issues, perhaps we can see how they are influenced by the ideology of their political party compared to the pragmatic need to solve problems and support the people in their state.

One way to do that, is to look broadly at what Western Governors agree to about the West, our problems and potential solutions.

Here’s a recent letter they wrote to the EPA:

Wildfire and Prescribed Fire
• More frequent and intense wildfires are steadily reducing the West’s gains in air quality improvement. Smoke from wildfires can cause air quality to exceed the NAAQS for particulate matter and ozone, impacting public health, safety and transportation. Prescribed fire, which is managed according to state SIPs and smoke management programs, can reduce these impacts, but is currently underutilized.

• Western Governors support the use of prescribed fire to reduce the air quality impacts from uncharacteristic wildfire in the West. Federal and state land managers should have the ability to use prescribed fires when weather and site conditions are appropriate and air quality impacts are minimized.

• Prescribed fire practices should include smoke management planning coordinated among state land managers, state air agencies, state health departments, EPA, other federal agencies, federal land managers. State or regional prescribed fire councils can help facilitate this coordination.

• Western Governors call on EPA and federal land managers to improve existing tools and create additional tools for states to encourage prescribed fire. These should include an exceptional events guidance for prescribed fire, and tools to address the air quality impacts from wildfire in the West.”

Here’s also a link to two webinars on prescribed fire, smoke management and regulatory challenges.

Market solution to the WUI fire problem may be coming

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It seems obvious to me that home insurance companies should be basing their rates on differences in risk of fire, and I’ve wondered why that hasn’t been happening more.  California seems to be the first place, but why should it stop there?

California’s insurance commissioner has warned that more and more insurers operating in the state are refusing to issue homeowners’ policies in areas most prone to wildfires.

Although many of the affected customers can still get coverage from other insurers, Jones noted that there has also been an increase in homeowners signing up for California’s insurer of last resort of fire; the FAIR Plan.

Jones said that the problem will only get worse as insurers label more homes as wildfire risks following the most recent series of wildfires that hit the state.

Others still disagree.  Something that doesn’t make obvious sense to me is that they seem to be looking at past fires more than the potential for future ones.

New Study About Forests Impacted by Extreme Mortality

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http://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/bix146/4797261

 

Massive tree mortality has occurred rapidly in frequent-fire-adapted forests of the Sierra Nevada, California. This mortality is a product of acute drought compounded by the long-established removal of a key ecosystem process: frequent, low- to moderate-intensity fire. The recent tree mortality has many implications for the future of these forests and the ecological goods and services they provide to society. Future wildfire hazard following this mortality can be generally characterized by decreased crown fire potential and increased surface fire intensity in the short to intermediate term. The scale of present tree mortality is so large that greater potential for “mass fire” exists in the coming decades, driven by the amount and continuity of dry, combustible, large woody material that could produce large, severe fires. For long-term adaptation to climate change, we highlight the importance of moving beyond triage of dead and dying trees to making “green” (live) forests more resilient.