today Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018

COMMUNITIES A DAPTING TO WILDLAND FIRE

United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Editor’s note … In recent years, Fire Management Today has for various reasons been in transition:

• In 2015, we were able to publish only three issues. • In 2016, we were unable to publish any issues at all. • In 2017, we were able to publish only two issues. • In 2018, to help make up, we expect to publish fve issues. After that, we will be back on track with four issues per year.

Beginning in 2018, we have switched over to online publishing only. To make Fire Management Today easier to read online, we will be adopting a new format (which you will be able to print out as needed). Stay tuned!

Special issue coming up … The next issue of Fire Management Today focuses on global wildland fre management. You can read about how countries around the world are meeting the challenges of wildfre.

Follow us at https://twitter.com/forestservice.

Fire Management Today is published by the Forest Service, an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wash- ington, DC. The purpose of Fire Management Today is to share information related to wildland fre management for the beneft of the wildland fre community. No longer appearing in print, Fire Management Today is available on the World Wide Web at https://www.fs.fed.us/managing-land/fre/fre-management-today.

Victoria Christiansen, Interim Chief Kaari Carpenter, General Manager Forest Service Hutch Brown, Editor Shawna A. Legarza, Psy.D., Director Fire and Aviation Management Pam Leschak, Issue Coordinator

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October 2018

Trade Names (FMT) The use of trade, frm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an offcial endorsement of any product or service by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Individual authors are responsible for the technical accuracy of the material presented in Fire Management Today. Fire Management today Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018

On the Cover: CONTENTS Anchor Point The Urgency of Community Adaptation to Wildland Fire Shawna A. Legarza, Psy.D...... 4

Helping Communities Adapt to Wildland Fire: Some Pointers Pam Leschak ...... 5 Wildfre Risk Mitigation: Local Solutions to a National Problem Jonathan Bruno ...... 7 Community Mitigation Assistance Teams: A Proven Approach Pam Leschak ...... 13 Oak savanna restoration on the Reducing the Vulnerability of Homes to Wildfre Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge Stephen L. Quarles ...... 16 through a 1,724-acre (690-ha) prescribed burn in the wildland– Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges: Training, Treatment, and Outreach urban interface in Minnesota in 2012. Jeremy Bailey and Lenya Quinn-Davidson ...... 20 Photo: Russ Langford, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (April 5, 2012). International Association of Fire Chiefs: Reducing Wildfre Risk Through Leadership, Education, and Mitigation Kaitlin Lutz ...... 23 The USDA Forest Service’s Fire and Aviation Management Staff has adopted a Wildfre Mitigation Through Home Assessments—Compliments of Your logo refecting three central principles of Local Volunteer Fire Department wildland fre management: Lori Shirley ...... 27 • Innovation: We will respect and value thinking minds, voices, and thoughts Advancing Fire Adaptation by Engaging Practitioners of those that challenge the status quo while focusing on the greater good. Michelle Medley-Daniel ...... 30 • Execution: We will do what we say we Residents Reducing Wildfre Risks Through the Firewise USA™ Program will do. Achieving program objectives, improving diversity, and accomplishing Cathy Prudhomme ...... 32 targets are essential to our credibility. • Discipline: What we do, we will do well. Fire Prevention/Education Team at Work in the Northern Rockies Fiscal, managerial, and operational Rita Chandler...... 35 discipline are at the core of our ability to fulfll our mission. Collaboration Across Boundaries: A Policy Perspective on the State of Wildland Fire Vicki Christiansen ...... 38 Fire in America 2.0: Updating the Past Stephen J. Pyne ...... 44 Next-Generation Fire Modeling for Advanced Wildland Fire Training James H. Furman ...... 48 A Fire Imagined Stephen Fillmore ...... 53

Firefghter and public safety is our frst priority.

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 3 Anchor By Shawna A. Legarza, Psy.D. Director, Fire and Aviation Management Point USDA Forest Service

THE URGENCY OF COMMUNITY ADAPTATION TO WILDLAND FIRE

ver the last few decades, completes hazardous fuels reduction wildfre seasons have Community wildfre risk and landscape restoration treatments Ogrown longer, more large on an average of 2.8 million acres wildfres have been occurring, reduction is the result (1.1 million ha) each year. These and the average number of acres of trusted relationships treatments have been proven to work. burned nationwide annually has Assessments of 3,700 fuel treatments been increasing. Scientists predict built over time and since 2006 have shown that they are all of these trends to continue based on best practices. effective in reducing wildfre behavior into the future. Wildland fre and helping to control wildfres. management is always a challenge, but when wildfres burn into the All of these efforts are more easily wildland–urban interface—the communities to form mitigation accomplished through collaborative places where human development coalitions or partnerships is a priority. partnerships using a good and wildland fuels intersect—they Stakeholders working together can community wildfre protection plan threaten communities, civilian lives, share responsibilities, ideas, projects, as a guide. The Forest Service works economies, and cultural resources. and outcomes. We will all accomplish in partnership with national, regional, far more together than separately. State, Tribal, and local governments The Forest Service has an important and nongovernmental organizations role to play in helping communities Reducing wildfre losses depends before wildfres start, helping prepare reduce wildfre risk. Along with on implementing the full suite of the public in advance. Working other Federal, Tribal, State, and local long-term, sustainable collaborative with partners, the agency prepares partners, the Forest Service works community actions for fre collaborative responses to wildfres, to educate communities about the adaptation. Research shows that including taking advantage of need to adapt to wildfre. But simply structure hardening—that is, teachable moments, for example telling people and communities what reducing a structure’s vulnerability through community mitigation they need to do doesn’t result in to ember intrusion—is the most assistance teams. action. We have to reach out across effective way to reduce ignition National Forest System boundaries from wildfres. Structure hardening, Helping communities reduce wildfre and work hand-in-hand with combined with creating defensible risk strengthens relationships and neighboring communities to help space, not only helps improve the protects local economies—and could reduce wildfre risk. Community chances that structures will survive save civilian or frefghter lives. In wildfre risk reduction is the result wildfres but also enhances safety addition, prepared communities are of trusted relationships built over for frefghters. safer to protect and provide more time and based on best practices. decision space for frefghters looking Leaving a doorhanger or passing out But structure hardening and for defensible space or an anchor literature during a community event defensible space are not enough. point. The wildfres that occurred in is not true engagement. Community fre adaptation also California in the fall of 2017, which depends on mobilizing adequate local killed 44 citizens and destroyed One of the biggest challenges to fre protection resources, carrying thousands of homes, businesses, community wildfre risk reduction out effective wildfre prevention and other structures, highlight is local capacity to get the work programs, establishing safe zones, the urgency. Wildfre knows no done on the ground. Expanding this and reducing hazardous fuels in and boundaries and neither should we. ■ capacity by partnering with local near communities. The Forest Service

Fire Management Today 4 HELPING COMMUNITIES ADAPT TO WILDLAND FIRE: SOME POINTERS Pam Leschak

he wildfre landscape is like a patchwork quilt. Each piece Trepresents a stakeholder: private timber producers; State lands; rural homes and farms; communities; Tribes, pueblos, or reservations; refuges; Federal lands and watersheds; and community parks. And all of those stakeholders have values at risk that they want to protect from wildfre. It is those values at risk and the actions we take to protect them that hold the quilt together and make the whole quilt cohesive. Rely too much on one piece and the others loosen up or fail completely. Making it all work together is cohesive wildfre management.

The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Burned structure following the 2017 Chetco Bar Fire in Oregon. Photo: Community Management Strategy stresses the Mitigation Assistance Team, USDA Forest Service. importance of working together, hand-in-hand, to effectively and safely homes, build and implement useful respond to wildfre when needed, The work done on the community wildfre protection plans restore forest health, and help ground at the local level (CWPPs), and plan for evacuation. communities live safely with wildfre. is what counts. • The biggest barrier to community The articles in this issue are samples fre adaptation is local capacity. of some of the collaborative efforts Experience and research have shown that the Forest Service Fire and that most folks who live in high-risk Aviation Management’s Landscapes boundaries at the ground level using wildfre areas know they have risk and Partnerships staff supports. best practices. Here are some things and want to do something about We can “move the needle” toward to keep in mind as we all work to it. The challenge is moving from more community fre adaptation reduce community wildfre risk: intent to action. Many communities, by working collaboratively across especially small wildland–urban • All mitigation is local. The work interface communities, don’t have done on the ground at the local the money, expertise, or staff to Pam Leschak is the manager of the level is what counts; that’s where move mitigation forward. Federal, National Wildland Urban Interface/Fire mitigation/fre adaptation happens. State, and nongovernmental Adapted Communities Program and the Partnering, planning, and learning organizations should focus on Community Mitigation Assistance Team must result in hands-on work coordinator for the Forest Service, State building local capacity for effective and Private Forestry, Fire and Aviation in the community to treat fuels, risk reduction. Management, Washington DC. create defensible space, harden

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 5 • Work from the front door to the The frst step to lasting wildfre risk reduction is forest. Community wildfre risk reduction starts at the front door, forming a local mitigation partnership. with hardening structures, then moves (imagine concentric circles) to defensible space; driveway clearance; likely to do: “Only you can prevent that property owners have a realistic adequate emergency signage; wildfres.” But messaging does not understanding of their risk and what whole-community preparedness, create behavior change, like cleaning they can do about it. including fre departments; and the gutters, cutting trees in the yard, ultimately to the forest, where replacing the cedar fences, and so on. • Use the teachable moment. hazardous fuels are treated. Behavior change results when people Smoke in the air is a strong indicator understand the issue, feel that the of risk, and property owners are • Form a mitigation partnership. risk merits action, understand why more likely to take action when risk The frst step to lasting wildfre the action will help, have support is more apparent. risk reduction is forming a local to take action, and have a trusting mitigation partnership, where relationship with the folks who can • Home assessments might be participants work collaboratively to help them. And that takes face-to-face useless. Home assessments alone reduce risk directly and enlist more trusted engagement over time. That don’t result in risk reduction. It’s community members to help. The takes a warmblooded, committed, critical that home assessments are only way to get effective sustainable concerned person with the patience followed by long-term, repeated risk reduction is by partnering with to work with property owners over followup by the trusted authority, like-minded organizations, agencies, time. It takes boots on the ground, a which helps property owners land managers, fre departments, warm handshake, information, trust, understand the issues and take and residents. No one has more of a help, and persistence! next steps. vested interest, knows the landscape better, and understands the • Measure progress. Count acres consequences to their community Messaging is valuable treated and structures treated better than the folks who live there. (annually) and divide by acres and for sharing information, structures at risk (annually), then • The community must create the but it does not move run the numbers. For example: CWPP. A successful, effective CWPP people to take action. (or other community risk assessment 12 structures mitigated 100 tool) must have community and structures at risk = 12-percent resident involvement and must reduction in risk outline the areas of risk and ways • Don’t expect literature, brochures, 279 acres of hazardous fuels treated to reduce that risk. Many CWPPs doorhangers, and social media to 4,127 acres at risk = 6.7-percent are put together quickly as a way result in mitigation. For many reduction in risk years, we’ve defaulted to handing out to qualify for funding but omit It’s not perfect but it’s a start. citizen engagement and true risk brochures, leaving doorhangers, and posting on social media sites telling identifcation and mitigation. A • Know your audience. There’s a CWPP developed by and for the people what they need to do to reduce risk on their property. Telling lot of research out there about why community is more likely to people don’t mitigate: they don’t have community engagement to people what to do doesn’t work; working hand-in-hand with people have the money, don’t think they are implement risk reduction than one at risk, aren’t sure what to do, don’t created in a vacuum by a contractor in their community and helping them reduce risk does. want to alter their property, think or a single agency. the Federal or State government will • Mitigation is directly related do it for them, and so on. Start the • Messaging doesn’t result in trusted relationship that will build action. Messaging is valuable for to perception of risk. A property owner who feels that the likelihood on mitigation by asking why people sharing information, but it does haven’t mitigated, then go from there. not move people to take action. of a wildfre is high is more likely to mitigate than one who feels that the Don’t assume everyone’s the same— Messaging and literature remind they aren’t. ■ people to do what they are already risk is low. Therefore it’s important Fire Management Today 6 WILDFIRE RISK MITIGATION: LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO A NATIONAL PROBLEM

Jonathan Bruno

he 2017 fres in northern millions of acres burned, hundreds or years of successful postfre restoration California (in Santa Rosa thousands of homes destroyed, and work following large fres along Tand nearby areas) teach the more lives lost. We know that if we do Colorado’s Front Range (such as most conspicuous lesson to date not act, then the downward spiral of Buffalo Creek, Hayman, and Waldo) that wildfre impacts us all. But destruction will continue unchecked, and years of fuel reduction and wildfre this will not be the fnal lesson on our forests (and the ecosystem services preemptive work. As recognition of fre’s role in our lives. The lesson they deliver) will disappear, and our CUSP’s work grew, various partners from California is that, no matter communities will suffer. sought its expertise and encouraged how good our frefghters are, CUSP to broaden its reach and share as wildland fre professionals we As the fre world grasps for its knowledge at the national level. In cannot simply suppress our way out understanding and answers, local 2014, the managers of CUSP formed of catastrophe; instead, we must place-based organizations are Coalitions and Collaboratives, Inc. take a hard look not only at our grappling with this new reality too. (COCO), a nonproft organization existing approach to managing fres Firefghters have partners—from local based in central Colorado. but also at mitigating against the fre districts, to nonproft watershed devastating impact of wildfres. groups, to forest collaboratives—who This story is about CUSP, COCO, and are stepping up to work for a more my own journey to become a national A Rising Challenge resilient landscape where local people resource for wildfre risk reduction. lessen fres’ impacts through strategic It is intended to highlight what can As fre professionals, we talk about and thoughtful actions. work. More importantly, it is a call to suppression tactics, aircraft, and the everyone in the fre service to check armies of fearless men and women The Coalition for the Upper South his or her assumptions and to make who risk their lives to save homes Platte (CUSP) is one of these place- lasting changes in the face of the and lives. We hear citizens, elected based groups. CUSP has conducted faming front. offcials, and the media making broad statements like “This was a once-in-a- lifetime event” or “We have never seen anything like this before and it will never happen again.”

Yet every year, we bear witness to more fres that seem different, bigger, and more disastrous than the fres last year or the year before. We see

Jonathan Bruno is the chief operations offcer for the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, Lake George, CO, and for Coalitions and Collaboratives, Inc., Lake George, CO. He is also the chair of Fire Adapted Colorado. Jonathan has committed his professional life to creating resilient communities and saving the Volunteers and Air Force Academny cadets lending a hand to reduce fuels in the places we all love. Colorado community of Palmer Lake. Photo: Jonathan Bruno. Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 7 CUSP—the Early Years With fre-fueled ambition and the memory of In 1998, the upper South Platte the South Canyon Fire fresh in mind, I set out to watershed (2,600 square miles (6,730 km2) southwest of the Denver develop a chipper program that was diferent. metropolitan area) was undergoing a change. In 1996, the Buffalo Creek Fire had burned 11,700 acres protecting the watershed. On the list the Buffalo Creek Fire was just the (4,730 ha) in the watershed, and were projects related to abandoned tip of a very large iceberg. in the intervening 2 years over 13 mines, sedimentation in the river, “hundred-year foods” had scoured habitat, outdoor recreation, and In 2002, the concern became a reality: the area burned. invasive species. the Hayman Fire, started on June 8, consumed 137,000 acres (55,400 Meanwhile, new development But the condition of the forest ha) of vital Front Range forests. The from Denver and Colorado Springs drove much of the dialog and impacts on the watershed’s function was creeping westward into the dominated the project list. Years of and on the water providers’ ability wildland–urban interface. Douglas fre suppression, insect and disease to deliver drinking water resonated County, one of fve counties within infestations, high-grade logging, the deeply. In 2003, I was hired by CUSP the upper South Platte watershed, removal of grazing, and burgeoning to lead the volunteer efforts in was the fastest growing county in development across the landscape healing the Hayman burn scar and the country. had changed the fre regime from to create a broader forestry program what it had been historically. The that would work to limit the effects With the amazing pace of growth forests—once a mosaic of meadows, of the next fre. came increased pressure on the high-density north slope stands, Pike National Forest. Thousands of and south-facing patches of open In 2003, CUSP was invited to a weekend warriors raced to the hills ponderosa pine—had become a watershed leaders’ conference in every chance they got. Designation dense carpet of small-diameter Glenwood Springs, CO, site of the as a wild and scenic river was also on trees. A new fre regime was on the South Canyon Fire, which killed the table for portions of the South horizon, and people recognized that 14 frefghters in 1994. I remember Platte River.

Denver Water, Aurora Water, and Colorado Springs Utilities depend on the upper South Platte watershed as a critical component of their sourcewater systems. As they faced increased demand on their water systems, they shared the recognition that their forested watersheds needed attention.

In response, the three utilities brought together a wide array of stakeholders and leaders, from Federal and State agency personnel to local government and nonproft organizations, to review the options for protecting the watershed. They formed CUSP, hired a director, and completed numerous watershed studies to assess the existing condition of the area and create a list of high-priority projects for Local volunteers with the Coalition for the Upper South Platte chip slash in Jefferson County, CO. Photo: Jonathan Bruno.

Fire Management Today 8 Moving Forward In 2005, CUSP began developing community wildfre protection plans. CUSP created the frst countywide plans in Teller, Park, and Jefferson Counties. The plans, though broad in scope, became the backbone for developing the CUSP forestry program.

In the early days, when I was frst hired, CUSP had a staff of three. Since then, our programs have grown to include over 25 full-time staff. We have a local initial-attack team and fuels crew, inhouse staff A view from above of the Waldo Canyon Fire scar, looking east toward Colorado Springs. for geographic information systems, Photo: Jonathan Bruno. and support staff. We own a tracked masticator, a whole-tree grapple feed chipper, fve work trucks, and hiking the South Canyon fre scar I did not want to create a program numerous saws and tools. like it was yesterday. It added to that would act like a contracted my passion when I spoke about business, where the owner sat However, the extent of the CUSP and how we had purchased and watched from the comfort of issue on the Front Range was a bumper-pull chipper to start the a living room couch while a crew massive. With over 1.5 million daunting task of reducing fre risk in completed the work. I developed acres (600,000 ha) in need of area subdivisions. the Neighborhood Fuels Reduction work to restore forest health or Program from a simple premise: if reduce fuels in the wildland– owners and neighbors worked with urban interface, CUSP began the CUSP crew and each other, they contracting out forest work. would gain a deeper understanding To successfully help a CUSP has paid over $5 million to of forest health issues, take direct local contractors and annually place, we must “shut up ownership of the program, and build completes about 1,000 acres (400 a sense of community. and listen.” ha) of fuels and forest restoration work on both private and public It worked. From its early days, land. We operate three slash the chipper program has served disposal sites; until recently, The response was cold. As the homeowner associations and we furnished biomass to a local watershed leaders heard my words, individuals, completing over 5,000 school for heating. they asked in puzzlement, “Why acres (2,000 ha) of risk reduction. is a watershed group chipping in The naysayers at the conference CUSP has created every program neighborhoods?” Watershed groups started to pay attention. Today, the and project from the ground up. at the time were focused on the blue chipper program is one of CUSP’s With the help of a dedicated staff lines on the map: standing in the most important outreach and and support from key stakeholders, rivers and streams they cared about awareness programs. The sound of a we developed everything, from and looking down. They did not own chipper, the smell of the wood, and contracts and bidding processes or operate chippers; they did not look the volunteers high-fving each other to internal policies and protocols. up and around at the entire watershed. as they reduce their community’s Best management practices, risk really has an amazing way of maintenance programs, internal With fre-fueled ambition and the garnering interest from others. And controls, and training programs all memory of the South Canyon Fire as residents begin engaging, they grew from a passion for making a fresh in mind, I set out to develop a become more willing to do larger positive change in the watershed. chipper program that was different. and higher impact treatments.

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 9 Over the years, CUSP shared Local collaborative organizations have a vested what was created. Groups from adjacent areas wanted to learn interest in local place: no one has more to lose more, so we met with other than the locals. watershed organizations and fre departments that were interested in developing a “CUSP-like” program. Anything we developed with increased requests for support COCO is different: to successfully we freely shared because it was from outside our focus area, led to the help a place, we know we must close our responsibility to ensure that creation of COCO. our mouths and open our ears; we other organizations did not make must strive to understand what the same mistakes we had. COCO Formation drives people, what they care about, and what concerns them. We must COCO was formed to mentor, In 2012, the Waldo Canyon Fire “shut up and listen.” burned over 18,000 acres (7,200 empower, and engage local organizations, helping them succeed. ha), destroying 346 homes in When colleagues ask me how CUSP Local collaborative organizations have Colorado Springs. CUSP was asked became so successful, I simply a vested interest in local place: no one to help with recovery efforts, in state that it has taken hard work; has more to lose than the locals. part because of our expertise in more importantly, it has taken the post-Hayman Fire recovery and in commitment of local people to Many organizations across the community collaboration. strive for a better future. It is my country proclaim that they will belief that local citizens—from work with the local community The Waldo Canyon Fire, though close volunteer frefghters, to business to help it reach local goals. Some to home, actually occurred outside owners, to students, to residents organizations make a difference; of the upper South Platte watershed. and local leaders—are the most however, far too often the Soon after the fre, the CUSP board important assets in any wildfre risk expectations are not realistic or the of directors agreed that CUSP had reduction strategy. a duty to help. This decision, along motives are not aligned. As the world continues to be compartmentalized, where input from only specialists is valued and only the largest organizations gain fnancial support, groups like COCO work to change the status quo. Because Federal resources are limited, place-based organizations like COCO that engage at the local level are needed. Mitigation against the impacts of catastrophic fres isn’t accomplished at the highest levels of government or in meeting rooms but rather by people who are embedded in their communities and passionate about their home place— people who are working to build resiliency in their own backyard.

COCO Activities In 2016–2017, with support from the Forest Service, COCO developed Volunteers and residents in Cape Ferrelo, OR, gather for a lunch and to learn from a a Cohesive Strategy Program. The Community Mitigation Assistance Team. The key is to engage residents where they are comfortable, whether at their frehouse or in their home. Photo: Jonathan Bruno. program provided resources to Fire Management Today 10 about using existing strengths to achieve the greatest results.

COCO does not spend tremendous amounts of time and money on creating the coolest websites or the fashiest brochures. Instead, we focus on listening to the needs of a community and delivering the services that will increase its ability to take action on the ground. I recommend this approach— using your limited resources in the best possible way. Take steps to reduce risk, build collaborative partnerships, and carry out projects that cross boundaries. Reduce your community’s wildfre risk from the front door to the forest.

Local residents take matters into their own hands and reduce the wildfre risk in Larkspur, CO. Photo: Jonathan Bruno. Community Mitigation Assistance Team Mitigating risk and helping people several organizations and helped approach” will change wildfre have driven me to achieve more. I them hire local specialists in outcomes, whereas websites and am unsure where this drive came high-risk areas of Colorado. meetings will not. from—perhaps from the years I Based on years of experience worked as a safety offcer for a search from CUSP, COCO acted as a At COCO, we believe that planning and rescue team, from the traveling conduit for Federal funding to and adaptation are essential to I have done, or simply from my facilitate the growth of mitigation success but that meetings and personal desire to protect the places programs in high-risk areas. For I love. Regardless of my motives, I example, COCO helped the town was given a chance to expand my of Leadville, CO, fnd funding and impact in late 2015, when Pam mentorship for hiring a wildfre Action follows when Leschak from the Forest Service’s mitigation specialist; similarly, Fire and Aviation Management staff funding allowed the Coalition people come together in called. Pam asked whether I would for the Poudre River Watershed response to a particular be interested in participating in a to hire a forester; and funding new Forest Service pilot program. enabled a newly formed statewide cause or concern and fre adaptation group, Fire create mutually agreed- The Community Mitigation Adapted Colorado, to hire a part- upon solutions. Assistance Team (CMAT) program time coordinator. grew from a desire to change the status quo and make a difference in Action follows when people come places affected by fre. The team, for together in response to a particular planning should not take up most which I act as team lead, perfectly cause or concern and create of the time for capacity-limited complemented my desire to make a mutually agreed-upon solutions. organizations. If you have to meet larger impact. All of the experiences The COCO method focuses on 250 times a year to make a difference that I have gained through the what the community cares about, on 1 acre, you might want to creation of the CUSP forestry helping groups take action through reassess your priorities and readjust program are embedded within the direct mentorship, guidance, and your tactics. COCO is not about CMAT concept. CMAT harnessed action. The “boots-on-the-ground reinventing the wheel but rather the breadth of knowledge within a Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 11 multidisciplinary team of mitigation Do you think that continuing to ladder cleaning his gutters … that professionals to embed themselves suppress fres will get us out of the church group you notice hosting a within a community, listen, learn, current situation? Maybe you’ve work party every Sunday … these and guide positive action. heard someone say: are the people who matter most.

CMAT assesses the local conditions, • “Those people in that In a day and age of meetings, reviews the barriers, and dives in neighborhood don’t care.” conference calls, and webinars, we feet frst. We review what works • “They won’t participate in a must all strive to look beyond the and what does not work. The team mitigation program.” PowerPoint slide to see who and helps the local community make the • “They don’t have the capacity to what really matter. Get up from your necessary connections it needs to make a difference.” chair, walk out the door, and hold succeed and leaves it with the tools it the ladder. Talk to that “annoying” needs to move forward. Like COCO, Do you believe that only the largest person, and you will realize that we CMAT does not do the work for a organizations have the capacity to all have something in common: we community; instead, we facilitate the make a difference? If we all continue love this place and we want to make positive actions that the community to broadly assume that suppression it better. takes to succeed on its own. Sitting alone will work or that local people on the couch and watching the don’t care and don’t have the time to If you are interested in learning action from afar is not an option. make a difference, then it is time to more or helping to support the pack up our bags and head home. development of new, effective The Phoenix Rising organizations in your community, If you want to change the future, consider where your investment will In mythology, the phoenix is a bird consider looking close to home, make the biggest difference. Support that dies in fame and rises from the assessing who is really making a efforts at the local level. It is amazing ashes. As frefghters and as people difference, and helping them make what a bit of time and money can do who care about forests, we must positive change by any means to get a community moving. ■ rise to help communities protect possible. That “annoying” person our forests. who always comes to your meetings complaining about the forest project How? We need to reexamine our … that old man you see on the tall assumptions.

SUCCESS STORIES WANTED! We’d like to know how your work has been going! Let us share your success stories from your State fre program or your individual fre department. Let us know how your State Fire Assistance, Volunteer Fire Assistance, Federal Excess Personal Property, or Firefghter Property program has benefted your community. Make your piece as short as 100 words or longer than 2,000 words, whatever it takes to tell your story! Submit your stories and photographs by email or traditional mail to:

USDA Forest Service Fire Management Today 201 14th Street, SW Washington, DC 20250 Email: [email protected]

If you have questions about your submission, you can contact our FMT staff at the email address above.

Fire Management Today 12 COMMUNITY MITIGATION ASSISTANCE TEAMS: A PROVEN APPROACH

Pam Leschak

Members of a community mitigation assistance team on assignment near the Bridger–Teton National Forest in the Jackson, WY, area. Photo: USDA Forest Service, Community Mitigation Assistance Team.

ommunities in the wildland– urban interface (WUI) The community mitigation assistance team is a Chave challenges that other communities don’t. They struggle national resource aimed at helping communities to establish and maintain a viable and agency units impacted by wildfre. wildfre mitigation effort over time. While many communities understand their risk and want to reduce it, they don’t have the a wildfre strikes, the community by helping communities cope with local capacity to accomplish it struggles to stay ahead of it in wildfre on the landscape by using it for lack of funds or staffng or terms of last-minute risk reduction, as a motivation for risk reduction at because it places more burden on communication with residents, and the community level. community volunteers. Then, when stress related to an incident. The CMAT is a strike team of The national Community Mitigation WUI mitigation professionals Pam Leschak is the manager of the Assistance Team (CMAT) concept with extensive experience in National Wildland Urban Interface/Fire was developed to offer assistance to effective methods of working with Adapted Communities Program and the targeted communities to address communities, forming partnerships, Community Mitigation Assistance Team coordinator for the Forest Service, State these issues by frst helping to build and getting risk reduction work and Private Forestry, Fire and Aviation local capacity during the off season done on the ground. Sponsored by Management, Washington DC. in anticipation of an event and then the Forest Service, it is designed to Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 13 help communities build sustainable The team helps strong, deliberate, cross-boundary local capacity for wildfre mitigation interagency partner engagement during high-risk times before, during, communities build and awareness and is available to all or after a wildfre, when awareness sustainable local interagency partners. of the need for risk reduction and the likelihood of action is highest. capacity for wildfre The CMAT concept is based on: The team applies community fre mitigation before, adaptation best practices and resilient • Fire social science showing that landscape concepts outlined in the during, and after a fre. residents are more likely to National Cohesive Wildland Fire mitigate when they perceive the Management Strategy. risk to be high; • Experience that many The CMAT concept was feld Team deployments in 2016 further communities are frustrated by tested in 2015 during the Chelan demonstrated the viability and mitigation measures that don’t Complex Fire in Washington, timing of the CMAT concept, work and are hungry for best when the team worked closely showing acceptance of the need practices; with the communities of by local communities and Forest • Requests from communities for Leavenworth and Wenatchee, the Service units. The teams showed a helping hand to move their Chumstick Coalition, the county a positive return on investment mitigation efforts forward; fre departments, residents, city in terms of capacity building, • The inability of local resources governments, and Washington Fire mitigation on the ground over time, to meet those needs during a Adapted Communities Coalition to coalition building, dissemination teachable moment; address mitigation challenges, teach of best practices for effective • The understanding that use of best management practices, and mitigation, reduction of risk to best practices at an opportune strengthen an existing coalition. civilians and frefghters, and good time yields a good return on The feld testing established will between partners (table 1). investment; and the value of deploying a highly • Recognition that local capacity is profcient WUI mitigation team to In 2017, CMAT got the thumbs-up the biggest barrier to mitigation. collaborate with local communities to become a national resource aimed and Forest Service units during the at helping communities and agency CMAT members are partners teachable moments before, during, units impacted by wildfre. Though from Federal, State, and local and after a wildfre. a Forest Service project, CMAT has governments; fre departments; and

Table 1 — Benefts from community mitigation assistance teams (CMATs) before, during, and after a wildfre.

CMATs can: Before a fre During a fre After a fre Help communities, the Forest Service, and other agencies build effective X X and sustainable cross-boundary wildfre risk reduction partnerships Help existing partnerships identify and move past risk reduction barriers X X X Help communities and agencies move away from mitigation practices that X X X don’t work Teach best mitigation practices that result in risk reduction on the ground X X X Work collaboratively with communities, incident management teams, and agency units to provide mitigation support and guidance to communities X during an incident Serve as mitigation-focused liaisons and subject matter experts between X incident management teams/agencies and fre-impacted communities Provide followup mentoring for partnership members to help develop X X mitigation plans, analyze challenges, defne outcomes, and build capacity

Fire Management Today 14 nongovernmental organizations. They are chosen based on their knowledge, expertise, and training in effective community fre adaptation concepts and practices. Teams may number two to eight people (including trainees), depending on community need; assignments have been for 11 to 14 days (including travel). There is no cost to communities, agency units, and incident management teams that meet the enabling conditions, but participating communities and units are expected to collaborate with the CMAT while it is onsite, act on the team’s recommendations resulting from the assignment, and respond to followup tracking of resulting accomplishments.

Communities requesting a CMAT A community mitigation assistance team working with the Teton Area Wildfre Protection Coalition. Photo: USDA Forest Service, Community Mitigation Assistance Team. other than when an incident is actually occurring should:

• Be at medium to high risk of The team applies community fre adaptation best wildfre; • Already be working across practices and resilient landscape concepts. boundaries with partners to reduce community wildfre risk; • Have an identifed mitigation year-round and during ongoing challenge that warrants CMAT Communities, agency units, and wildfre incidents. All requests are assistance; incident management teams vetted for enabling conditions, • Be available for the team to imbed requesting a CMAT during a wildfre likelihood of success, and return and be ready to work collaboratively should have the ability to work on investment. To request a CMAT, with the team onsite; collaboratively with the team to meet contact Pam Leschak, National • Be able to provide a workspace and just-in-time mitigation challenges as WUI/Fire Adaptation Program support for the team; and a result of the ongoing incident. Manager, 208-387-5612 or • Commit to implementing [email protected]. ■ recommendations resulting from CMATs are available to help team assistance. communities and agency units

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 15 REDUCING THE VULNERABILITY OF HOMES TO WILDFIRE

Stephen L. Quarles

uildings ignite during wildfres small commercial building. The test when exposed to: Postfre assessments chamber includes a wind tunnel B powered by a 105-fan array that can 1. Burning embers (also called have shown that wind- simulate the fow characteristics of frebrands), blown embers are the the atmospheric boundary layer at 2. Radiant heat, and/or speeds greater than 100 miles per 3. Direct fame. most important cause hour (71.5 m/s). of building ignitions. Postfre assessments have shown For wildfre laboratory experiments, that wind-blown embers are the a fuctuating wind speed record is most important cause of building used, typically with gusts in excess ignitions. Embers that land on for Business and Home Safety of 50 miles per hour (22 m/s). or adjacent to exterior materials (IBHS) Research Center focuses The wind tunnel incorporates a (such as a combustible siding or a on the built environment and the turntable with a diameter of 55 wood shake roof not treated with near-building area. IBHS simulates feet (16.8 m) that can rotate 360 fre retardant) can result in direct ember exposure on buildings and degrees, allowing researchers ignition. Embers can also enter a building components. This article to evaluate the impact of wind building through an open window summarizes some of the research direction on the potential for or through attic or crawl space and fndings. ember deposition and building vents, igniting indoor materials. ignition. Embers landing in combustible Test Facility mulch, a woodpile, or vegetative Wind-blown ember experiments debris on a roof or gutter can also The IBHS Research Center’s large use a custom-made apparatus to cause ignition, resulting in building test chamber can hold a full-scale generate embers. The raw material exposure to radiant heat or fame one- or two-story residential or consists of a mixture of southern contact. Such building ignitions by yellow pine wood chips and wooden embers are referred to as “indirect.” dowels processed from hardwood species sourced in the Midwestern Building survival during a wildfre United States. A nominal chip-to- depends on defensible space—the dowel ratio of 80:20 has been used. type, location, and maintenance of vegetation and other combustibles Figure 1 shows the chamber and on the property—and the use of generator layout, and fgure 2 appropriate construction materials shows ember production during an and design features in the building. experiment. Because of the importance of wind- blown embers in building ignitions, Research Findings research at the Insurance Institute Tests at the IBHS Research Figure 1—Auger feed and ember- Center applied to various building generating system. Fuel is fed into components, including roofs, exterior Stephen Quarles is the chief scientist for ember generators, and fans in the large wildfre and durability at the Insurance structure blow embers at the blue test walls and near-building zones, vents, Institute for Business and Home Safety, building. Source: Insurance Institute for and fencing attachments. Richburg, SC. Business and Home Safety.

Fire Management Today 16 Regular maintenance to remove debris from the roof and gutters will reduce the vulnerability of a building to ember exposures.

homes with dormers, and homes with chimney chases. In these cases, ember accumulation at the roof-to-wall intersection can result in ignition of accumulated Figure 2—Ember production and impingement on a test building during an experiment vegetative debris. at the IBHS Research Center. Photo: Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. If the siding can’t give comparable Roof protection, the siding becomes ember exposure resulting from the vulnerable component on the Roof coverings with a class A fre roof coverings that allow for gaps roof, not the roof covering (fg. rating are generally recommended between the covering and roof 3). Similarly, ember ignition of for buildings located in wildfre- deck (such as a barrel-shaped tile debris in a gutter will result in a prone areas. Depending on the shape covering). Building codes require fame exposure for the edge of the of the roof and the design of the the open ends of the roof covering roof, which typically consists of roof covering, additional measures to be plugged, a procedure often combustible roof sheathing and are often needed to improve the called “bird stopping.” fascia (fg. 4). Since a vinyl gutter will resistance to wind-blown embers. detach and fall to the ground along Experiments have demonstrated with any burning debris, the edge- Building codes have already the vulnerability of complex roofs, of-roof fame exposure time will be addressed the vulnerability to an such as those on split-level homes, longer when a metal gutter is used.

Figure 4—Embers ignited pine needle debris in gutters, exposing the edge of the roof to fames. Note that the metal gutter (on the right) stayed in place while the debris burned, whereas the vinyl gutter (on the left) detached and fell to the ground. Embers Figure 3—Embers ignited pine needle debris at the roof-to-wall also ignited bark mulch at the base of the building (lower right), intersection, exposing the dormer siding and undereave area to exposing the wall to fames. Photo: Insurance Institute for fames. Photo: Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. Business and Home Safety. Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 17 To protect vents from wind-blown embers, noncombustible mesh screening was the best overall option.

intrusion. Accordingly, studies at the IBHS Research Center examine the relative importance of the style, type, and location of a vent for the entry of wind-blown embers into Figure 5—Wind-blown embers accumulated at the base of this combustible wall. The resulting fames burned up the wall and through the siding into the stud cavity. Photo: an attic. Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. Experimental results have indicated that vents that present a Regular maintenance to remove Figure 5 shows an ember ignition of vertical face to the wind are more debris from the roof and gutters will wood shingle siding extending all the vulnerable to the entry of wind- reduce the vulnerability of a building way to the ground. blown embers. Such vents include to ember exposures. Installing a gable end vents, certain through- metal drip edge will also protect the Vents roof off-ridge vent designs, and combustible components at the roof Postfre reports have discussed vents in the blocking of open-eave edge and eliminate the accumulation ember entry through vents that construction (fg. 6). of embers at the gap between the resulted in interior (attic) fres. roof sheathing and fascia. Such fndings refect the general To protect vents from wind-blown importance of embers as a cause of embers, 1/8-inch noncombustible Exterior Wall and Near- building ignition and the particular mesh screening was the best overall Building Zone vulnerability of vents to ember option. The mesh minimized not Embers can ignite bark and other combustible mulch products (fg. 4). When these products are located near a building, the resulting fames can impinge on siding. Ignited siding can spread vertically upward, potentially breaking glass in a window and reaching vents in an undereave area.

Creating a near-building noncombustible zone by substituting a rock mulch product or other hardscape feature for bark or other combustible products would reduce the vulnerability of this area to accumulating embers. Similarly, making sure the concrete foundation separates the ground from the base Figure 6—Wind-blown embers fowed over the top of a roof at the IBHS Research Center, some reaching the entry of the off-ridge vent (lower left). The fat surface at the entrance of the siding would minimize the of the vent made it vulnerable to ember entry. A fner mesh screen should be used at the chance of ignition from an ember entrance of these vents to minimize ember entry. Photo: Insurance Institute for Business accumulation at the base of the wall. and Home Safety. Fire Management Today 18 For a fence section that attaches to your home, to a building if pine needles, leaf litter, small twigs, and other use a noncombustible fence material. fne vegetative materials have accumulated at the base of the fence. Clear this area of such debris on a regular basis. • Do not place combustible mulch near the fence.

Testing showed that fence ignitions from wind-blown embers were more likely to occur where combustible vertical fencing planks attached to horizontal support members (fg. 7). The most vulnerable fence from this perspective was a “privacy fence,” where the fence planks are on the same side of the horizontal support members. Vinyl fencing was not vulnerable to ember exposures alone but did burn when subjected to fame exposures from burning Figure 7—Ignition from wind-blown embers in combustible fencing occurred at debris. locations where vertical planks intersected with horizontal support members. Photo: Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. Practical Lessons for Homeowners only the number and size of embers codedevelopment/wildfreprotection- The survival of homes during a entering the attic but also the buildingconstruction). wildfre can depend on having the maintenance required to keep the right construction materials and screen free from debris that would Fencing Attachments design. Roofs, vents, near-building hinder the moisture management Recent research conducted by zones, and attachments such as function of the vent. IBHS and the National Institute of fences are particularly vulnerable Standards and Technology, both to ignition from wind-blown The best vent design option for collaboratively and independently, embers. IBHS research is designed resisting ember entry in undereave has yielded information about to help homeowners reduce the (inlet air) vents is a soffted eave the vulnerability of combustible vulnerability of their homes to design over vents located in the fencing. The principal takeaways for ignition by using fre- and ember- blocking of an open-eave design. homeowners included: resistant materials and techniques For outlet vents, the best option is a on and around their homes. ridge vent rated to resist wind-driven • For a fence section that attaches to rain. Such vents have an external the home, use a noncombustible More information about the baffe at the vent inlet. Vents fence material. At a minimum, use vulnerabilities of buildings to accepted by the California Offce of a 5-foot (1.5-m) noncombustible wildfre and effective mitigation the State Fire Marshal also perform fence section or gate. strategies can be found at www. ■ well (see http://osfm.fre.ca.gov/ • Flames are more likely to spread disastersafety.org/wildfre.

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 19 PRESCRIBED FIRE TRAINING EXCHANGES: TRAINING, TREATMENT, AND OUTREACH

Jeremy Bailey and Lenya Quinn-Davidson

magine this: it’s early morning in fre camp. Crews worked late last Inight mopping up a prescribed burn on national forest land, and now they’re crawling out of sleeping bags and into their greens and yellows, preparing for another busy day on the freline. Everything looks and smells like you’d expect: the sun is just rising, light smoke is in the air, coffee is brewing, and there’s a warm buzz of laughter from the kitchen, where the cooks have already been up for hours.

But this is no typical fre camp—it’s a Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) camp. Crew members have come from all over the country and TREX crew in action. By forming ad hoc type 3 incident management teams to organize and the world, representing all manner host the training sessions, individuals, organizations, and agencies are learning that we can of agencies and organizations, and manage the potential liabilities of working together and on each other’s lands. We do this by using tested avenues like memorandums of understanding, cooperative agreements, shared although they were burning on standards, and collaborative planning. Photo: The Nature Conservancy. Federal land yesterday, today might fnd them burning on a local ranch, assisting on a cultural burn with understanding—but the organizers Organized as 14-day wildland fre a local Tribe, or hiking through also think outside the box. assignments, TREX events use a recently burned area with a fre the highly successful method of scientist. That’s the beauty of TREX: Novel Approach experiential learning to integrate professional and nontraditional fre the program checks all the boxes— In natural systems, biodiversity is practitioners, invite communities National Wildfre Coordinating elemental to resilience. Diversity to participate in the planning and Group (NWCG) qualifcations, ample enables adaptation, builds implementation of prescribed experience and resources, incident biological capacity for change burning, and provide participants management teams, and formal and improvement, and ensures with rare training opportunities. agreements and memorandums of that natural communities persist The participants come from various rather than collapse. The decade- backgrounds, and they range in old TREX model is based on the skill levels from frst-time burners same premise: that only a sincere Jeremy Bailey is the associate director of to professional burn bosses with commitment to diversity—not the North American Fire Team, The Nature decades of experience. Conservancy, Salt Lake City, UT; and Lenya only in people, but also in ways of Quinn-Davidson is the area fre advisor for thinking and working together— An underlying philosophy of TREX is the University of California Cooperative will bring solutions to the wicked Extension, Humboldt County, CA, and lead that everyone has something to learn challenges inherent in fre coordinator for the Northern California TREX and knowledge to share: and the Women-in-Fire Training Exchange. management.

Fire Management Today 20 • A classically trained burn boss Training exchanges enable burn or two. A TREX burn team (RXB2/1) with 20 years of professional frefghters and fre might be made up of four eight- experience can gain new insight practitioners to work alongside person modules, with each module and knowledge by working educators, regulators, private and led by an experienced and qualifed alongside a young man or woman indigenous burners, and others. team leader (single resource boss) who grew up burning with their who’s tasked with leading the grandparents. Typical TREX Event module on assigned ignitions as • An experienced fre ecologist well as on holding and mopup A typical TREX event hosts 40 who has published peer-reviewed assignments. TREX burn teams often participants from a dozen agencies papers can learn from a family include an incident management and organizations as well as various that has managed its property team that manages logistics and unaffliated individuals. This burn with fre for generations or from operations, a fre effects monitor team comes together for 2 weeks a seasoned frefghter who never squad tasked with monitoring and of training and prescribed fre went to college but has a decade documenting fre effects, a training implementation. Following NWCG of real-world experience with fre offcer who oversees basic wildland standards from start to fnish, the behavior and effects. frefghting training and certifcation participants gather in the frst couple • A rancher who uses pickup trucks for participants, and a qualifed burn of days to scout units, become with slip-in pumper units and all- boss who manages the burns. familiar with equipment, attend feld terrain vehicles with weed sprayers trips, and hear presentations. for controlling planned burns can TREX in Action learn about methodical briefng By the middle of the frst week, By the time this article is published, checklists and various effective fre the typical TREX burn team forms there will have been more than control tactics from an engine boss into modules, develops some crew 70 TREX events in the previous from a different region. cohesion, and completes its frst 10 years (fg. 1), accomplishing

Figure 1—The map shows TREX data from 2008 through fall 2017. Shown in red is the number of participants in a particular State location; shown in parentheses is the number of TREX events in that particular location. Hundreds of participants from various agencies and organizations attend every year; some locations have even hosted TREX for 5 or more years in a row. Participants have come from all over the country and from South and Central America, the Iberian Peninsula, England, Canada, and Mexico. Source: The Nature Conservancy.

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 21 more than 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) of planned burns and giving training opportunities to over 2,500 participants. Each TREX has its own favor designed to integrate the fre practitioners within a local region, take advantage of what is available and supply what is not, and help participants learn from one another.

A recent TREX in New Mexico, organized by the members of the New Mexico Prescribed Fire Council and funded through a New Mexico forest health grant, accomplished 6,200 acres (2,480 ha) of burning in a mountain range that juts up from the St. Augustine Plains. The burning was managed much like what used to be called a wildland fre use fre, where natural barriers, changes in vegetation, and ignition Diversity matters. Having a wide variety of participants in TREX, mixed together and timing helped maintain control and integrated into burn teams, allows greater cross-learning among various fre professionals— Federal, State, and Tribal crews, as well as contract fre crews and municipal frefghters. Photo: keep the fre within the lines. The Nature Conservancy.

In California, one of the longest properties into larger burn units, which Future Outlook running TREX events completed often reach 5,000 to 8,000 acres (2,000– As we look ahead in fre, we know that dozens of small burns within the 3,200 ha) in size. The TREX teams work fresh ideas and innovative approaches wildland–urban interface. The strategically to create black lines, large will be critical. The demand for the Klamath TREX used two and black areas, and other anchor points. TREX model—not only in the United sometimes three burn teams and When they leave, the locals can come States but also in other parts of the focused on fuel reduction around back in and use the anchor points to world—speaks to this need. More homes. A key goal was to build local complete the burning. capacity, so the organizers recruited than 20 TREX events are planned for 2018, and we expect that the model locals and gave them basic frefghter The leaders who coordinate, organize, will continue to proliferate, adapt, training and personal protective and carry out these TREX events are and improve. equipment, empowering them to play working hard to integrate parts of an active role in protecting local homes communities that have not necessarily TREX events are backed by the Fire from the threat of unwanted fre. received equal attention in the past. The Learning Network, a cooperative Women-in-Fire TREX (WTREX) is one program supported by the Forest In Oregon, the Ashland Fire such effort. The frst WTREX, hosted Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department, the Rogue River– in northern California in October the Bureau of Land Management, the Siskiyou National Forest, The Nature 2016, brought together 43 participants U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Conservancy, and many other local (37 women and 6 men) from 13 National Park Service, and The Nature partners regularly host a TREX within States and 4 countries, representing Conservancy. The partnership the city of Ashland’s watershed. Federal agencies, nongovernmental has a 15-year track record of Watershed treatments in the area are organizations, universities, and Tribes. helping to restore the Nation’s funded through a small fee added to The training focused on the unique forests and grasslands and to make everyone’s water bill. perspectives of women and on the communities safer from fre. For importance of diversity—not only in more information, contact Jeremy In Nebraska, the managers of numbers but also in approach—for the Bailey at [email protected]. Pheasants Forever work with groups future of fre management. of landowners to combine small ■ Fire Management Today 22 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS: REDUCING WILDFIRE RISK THROUGH LEADERSHIP, EDUCATION, AND MITIGATION

Kaitlin Lutz

he International Association IAFC’s two Wildland Fire Programs— exchanges between fre departments of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) is the Ready, Set, Go! Program and facing resident outreach and fuels Tcommitted to reducing the Fire Department Exchange. The reduction challenges in the WUI. The wildfre risk through its Wildland committee is composed of subject exchange encourages departments Fire Programs and through the matter experts who represent the to share information to broaden leadership of its Wildland Fire Policy local fre service at the national and their knowledge, consider alternative Committee. The programs cope State levels. The committee works on measures, create new solutions, and with the challenges faced by fre solutions to the challenges outlined improve their wildland fre outreach and emergency services and other in the National Cohesive Wildland and operational processes. stakeholders in the wildland–urban Fire Management Strategy, including interface (WUI). The programs managing vegetation and fuels; The IAFC works with other national invoke the association’s mission to organizations as part of the Fire lead, educate, and serve the local fre Adapted Communities Coalition. The service. IAFC’s cooperation with partners The association’s at the national level allows for a Organizational Overview wildland fre programs unifed message and ensures that the IAFC’s Wildland Fire Programs Since 1873, the IAFC has helped encourage the local fre deliver the most accurate and useful leaders of fre and emergency service information. organizations develop their abilities service and residents and professionalism. The association to reduce the risk of Exchanges to Reduce has provided leadership to current wildland fre. and future career, volunteer, fre– Wildfre Risk rescue, and emergency medical The IAFC and the Fire Adapted service chiefs, chief fre offcers, Communities Learning Network protecting homes, communities, and company offcers, and managers of developed Fire Department other values at risk; managing human- emergency service organizations Exchange in cooperation with the caused ignitions; and responding throughout the international fre Forest Service Fire and Aviation to wildfre. The committee also service community. It has offered Management’s Landscapes and supports nationwide efforts to reduce them vision, education, services, and Partnerships staff. The program wildfre threats through prevention, representation. is based on successful in-person public information, mitigation, and exchanges and web-based preparation and response. The IAFC’s Wildland Fire Policy networking by the Fire Adapted Committee represents the Communities Learning Network. The Ready, Set, Go! Program is association in national wildland fre The network is cooperatively the IAFC’s fagship wildland fre leadership groups and oversees the managed by the Watershed Research program. Ready, Set, Go develops and Training Center and The Nature and improves dialogue about Conservancy. wildland fre between the local fre service and the residents they serve. Kaitlin Lutz is a program specialist Fire Department Exchange is for Wildland Fire Programs at the typically a 3-day face-to-face International Association of Fire Chiefs, Fire Department Exchange engagement of representatives from Fairfax, VA. facilitates face-to-face and web-based Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 23 10 fre departments from across the classroom course called Fire-Adapted exchange formats and timelines. It country. The participants share best Communities for the Fire Service. decided that each department in the practices, discuss the challenges group would host one exchange for they face, and gain insight from one The steering group is made up of fre the other four departments while also another. The exchange starts with department personnel from Ashland inviting fve additional departments. individual presentations from each (OR) Fire and Rescue, Santa Fe participating department on its (NM) Fire Department, Austin (TX) In addition, the group established strengths and weaknesses. Formal Fire Department, Boise (ID) Fire requirements for participants before group breakout sessions follow, both Department, Colorado Springs (CO) and after each exchange. Before the large and small, along with other Fire Department, and the Watershed exchange, participants complete activities to learn about what the Center. The group frst assembled in a questionnaire and a department host department does on the ground. fall 2015 in Colorado Springs, CO, evaluation form to outline their The evenings are flled with informal to establish charter documents and existing outreach and mitigation discussions and more opportunities programs. This information allows for participants to network. the steering group to customize the entire exchange experience for The program began in 2015 The International the participants. Each exchange with the selection of the Fire Association of Fire features an agenda, presentations Department Exchange Steering Chiefs is dedicated to from the steering group, and Group. The steering group guides networking opportunities based on the exchange as well as collaborating engaging the local fre the participants’ expectations and and communicating with IAFC service in wildfre risk expertise. Participating departments wildland fre staff and with partners. are also invited to give presentations The steering group members also reduction. on their outstanding projects and lead in developing an online and wildfre risk reduction efforts.

Fire Department Exchange participants in Austin, TX. Photo: Amber Wells, International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Fire Management Today 24 Perhaps the most valued part of the Fire Department, Oklahoma City The department has also made program is after the exchange, when (OK) Fire Department, Rapid City wildfre risk reduction a priority participants share the valuable (SD) Fire Department, San Diego internally. After the exchange, information they learned not only (CA) Fire and Rescue Department, the department’s representatives with their departments but also and Flagstaff (AZ) Fire Department. presented what they learned to with their communities. They do Each of these departments was their coworkers in the department this by completing a postexchange selected because it was heavily to make sure that both the action plan that is tailored to each involved and experienced in frefghters and the community are department’s outreach or fuels community preparedness outreach on the same page when it comes mitigation goals. Depending on and successful with its approach to to advancing wildfre preparedness their goals, they might launch a implementing robust mitigation and risk reduction. community outreach program, programs. revamp mitigation efforts, or start In September, the department a prescribed-burn program in At the exchange, departments launched a new wildfre their community. were paired up based on their preparedness campaign that includes strengths and their postexchange holding community engagement Participants are not on their own in goals to discuss topics such as fuels meetings each Thursday in this process. They are paired up with management, community outreach, September and October to mark the start of the wildfre season. The department also sent out a wildfre survey to residents to see what Through Fire Department Exchange, participants misconceptions, misinformation, and knowledge about wildfre exists share best practices, discuss challenges, and gain in the community so it can tailor its insight from one another. outreach efforts accordingly.

Oklahoma City Fire Department’s effective approach to wildfre a steering group member who helps wildfre regulation and planning, and preparedness illustrates how the to guide them through the process effective response. These discussions knowledge, advice, and expertise of implementing their plans and were then used to start creating the of exchange participants can help serves as a mentor to ensure that postexchange action plans that are a department drastically reduce their plans succeed. currently being implemented in wildfre risk in its community. their communities. Also, after each exchange, In May 2017, Colorado Springs participants get access to an online Oklahoma City Fire Department is Fire Department hosted the second system for networking with each a great example of postexchange exchange. The fve participating other. They can post updates on their action plan implementation. Since departments included Ventura postexchange action plans, upload the exchange, the department has County (CA) Fire Department, documents they have created, and successfully expanded its community Kittitas Valley (WA) Fire and ask other exchange participants outreach by becoming an active Rescue, San Juan (NM) County Fire for advice. Through the online member in the IAFC’s Ready, Set, Department, Frenchtown (MT) Rural system, the exchange can continue Go! Program. Using the program’s Fire District, and Horry County (SC) indefnitely and with ever broader free materials and information from Fire Rescue. This exchange featured participation as new departments are the exchange, Oklahoma City Fire indepth discussions on WUI codes added after each inperson exchange. Department has held numerous and ordinances; fuels mitigation events and workshops to promote and postrecovery programs; public The inaugural Fire Department wildfre awareness and readiness in education, home assessment, and Exchange was hosted by Santa Fe its community. Through its “Have outreach programs; and planning (NM) Fire Department in October a Plan, Build a Kit, Stay Informed” and partnerships. These departments 2016. The fve departments that workshop, the department is making are now working with the participated in this exchange wildfre risk reduction a priority in steering group to implement their included Barnegat (NJ) Volunteer the community. postexchange action plans. Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 25 Raising Awareness to because national studies have presentations to homeowners’ Reduce Risk shown that frefghters are uniquely associations, making school visits, respected in their communities and conducting home assessments. The Ready, Set, Go! Program is and can project a trusted voice for No matter what a department’s another way the IAFC is helping effective communication. Through size or budget, the Ready, Set, Go! the local fre service to reduce the trusted voice of the local fre Program can be an effective tool wildfre risk. Many Fire Department service, the program urges residents for engaging residents in wildfre Exchange participants got involved to prepare for wildfre in three ways: risk reduction. When frefghters in the exchange process through instruct residents to take personal their extensive work on the Ready, 1. To be Ready by taking personal responsibility for preparing their Set, Go! Program. This free program responsibility for themselves and properties and families for wildland their property through mitigation, fre, residents become an active part defensible space, and hardening of the solution to the problem of The Ready, Set, Go! their homes with fre-resistant increasing fre losses. To learn more materials; about the Ready, Set, Go! Program, Program encourages 2. To be Set through situational visit www.wildlandfrersg.org. dialogue about the risk awareness, making sure that they of wildland fre between understand the risk of wildfre and National Commitment to where to go to get the latest fre Wildfre Risk Reduction the local fre service status; and and residents. 3. To act early and Go. The Ready, The IAFC’s Wildland Fire Programs Set, Go! Program does not touch all aspects of the Nation’s mandate evacuation but prompts wildland fre threat by bringing residents to listen to emergency together the fre service, forest helps fre departments teach personnel should there be a need managers, local governments, residents who live in WUI areas at to evacuate. community organizations, WUI high risk from wildfre how to best residents, and other stakeholders prepare themselves, their families, The Ready, Set, Go! Program is to reduce wildfre risk across the and their properties against the highly customizable and adaptable country. Under the leadership of the threat of wildland fre. to the needs of residents in the Wildland Fire Policy Committee, community that a fre department the IAFC is dedicated to engaging The program offers free supporting serves. The program encourages the local fre service in wildfre risk materials and guidance that help fre fre departments to develop reduction through Fire Department service members to easily talk with community engagement plans Exchange and the Ready, Set, Go! residents about the wildland fre that can include such activities Program. To learn more about the risk to their community. Engaging as holding community chipping IAFC’S Wildland Fire Programs, visit in this dialogue is particularly days, workshops for residents, www.iafc.org/wildland. ■ important for the fre service and open houses as well as giving

Fire Management Today 26 WILDFIRE MITIGATION THROUGH HOME ASSESSMENTS—COMPLIMENTS OF YOUR LOCAL VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT

Lori Shirley

ildfre mitigation can who are called upon to respond. are a natural occurrence; therefore, improve the chances of a Volunteer departments often work if people decide to live in wildfre- Whome surviving a wildfre. with limited budgets and face unique prone areas then they must be Research has shown that one of the challenges, such as having inadequate proactive in mitigating associated most important sources of information equipment, gear, and training risks. … It’s critical that fre that prompts residents in the specifcally for fghting wildfres. departments step up and educate wildland–urban interface (WUI) to take Mitigation can make a difference, their communities to help them action to reduce their wildfre risks is and the WFAP helps to minimize the protect their homes and families guidance from local fre departments burden on volunteer departments from potential and probable and county wildfre specialists (Miller by providing them with resources wildfre threats.” 2013). Volunteer frefghters make up 70 percent of the U.S. fre service (Haynes and Stein 2017), so they play an essential role in educating The Wildland Fire Assessment Program prepares communities about how to make their homes and personal property ready fre service volunteers to evaluate homes and help before the next wildfre strikes. residents protect their properties from wildfres. The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), in partnership with the Forest Service, supports local to perform a home assessment The WFAP curriculum, available volunteer fre and emergency service and also arm residents with the both as a classroom course and departments in wildfre-related knowledge and tools they need to take online, walks department members community education through the the necessary steps to reduce their through four modules: Wildland Fire Assessment Program properties’ potential vulnerabilities in (WFAP). This is the frst program the event of a wildfre. • Understanding the WUI problem; specifcally designed to prepare • Identifying the zones around the fre service volunteers to evaluate Available Resources home (fg. 1)—5 feet (1.5 m), 30 individual homes and give residents feet (9 m), 100 feet (30 m), and Through the WFAP, members of achievable recommendations for beyond 100 feet—and why this volunteer fre departments get protecting their properties from defensible space is at risk during a training and resources that teach them wildfres in order to make their wildfre; about potential wildfre dangers in and communities more fre adapted. • Evaluating the home, a free service around homes and how homeowners to homeowners; and can mitigate the risks. The program Wildfre mitigation not only reduces • Using available resources, which also empowers homeowners to suppression costs but also lessens include outreach materials to take personal responsibility for the health and safety risks for advertise the home evaluation their homes and properties by frefghters and emergency personnel service and local, State, and encouraging them to implement Federal resources to supplement the recommendations made by the mitigation efforts. department during the assessment. Lori Shirley is the manager of the National Using the National Fire Protection Volunteer Fire Council’s Wildland Fire As NVFC Wildland Committee Chair Association’s home ignition zones Assessment Program, Greenbelt, MD. Ron Roy has pointed out, “Wildfres Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 27 Figure 1—Measures for managing fuels within the home ignition zone, as prescribed by the Firewise program. Source: National Fire Protection Association, Firewise Communities. as a foundation for the training, the from the Insurance Institute for WFAP course details the various The course uses a Business and Home Safety and other zones surrounding a structure, why reputable sources, serves as a basis these areas are hazardous during a train-the-trainer format, for a local assessment. Assessors wildfre, and how to create defensible allowing fre departments use the checklist to walk through a space in each zone. The course property alongside the resident to also covers the importance of a to teach their personnel identify opportunities to reduce risk. communitywide mitigation approach how to work with by carrying out community wildfre Chief Mike Johnson from the Ebbetts protection plans and working with homeowners to assess a Pass Fire District in California local agencies and key stakeholders home’s exposure to risk has praised the WFAP, noting that in the community to commit to the the fre district, the community fre-adapted communities’ concept: from wildfres organization Volunteers In informed and prepared citizens Prevention, and local homeowners adapting to living with wildfre and associations all value the program’s reducing their risk of damage. been held in 16 different States, toolkit for facilitating fuels reduction training nearly 600 people. Another around homes. “In California,” The course is conducted in a 142 students have completed the he said, “we have regulations for train-the-trainer format, allowing training online through the NVFC’s defensible space, but this toolkit departments to use course materials Virtual Classroom. assisted the students in gaining to teach their personnel how to a deeper understanding, in my perform a successful assessment. Training participants receive opinion, making them more effective The training is customizable so that an award-winning toolkit with when working with the homeowner.” instructors can include local wildfre a checklist and supplemental statistics and other information resources to help them conduct Other resources offered through relevant to a particular area. To date, home assessments. The checklist, the WFAP include an online data- 29 classroom WFAP courses have based on wildfre-related information tracking tool to help analyze the Fire Management Today 28 The curriculum is available both online and through a Literature Cited Haynes, H.J.G.; Stein, G.P. 2017. U.S. fre lecture course. department profle—2015. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association. 39 p. https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/ impact of assessments as well assessment to help students practice News-and-Research/Fire-statistics/Fire- as liability templates and other a home evaluation and put their service/osfdprofle.pdf. (14 January 2018). Lake Chinook Fire and Rescue. 2018. administrative documents to classroom knowledge into action. Cash program encourages residents assist departments in program The onsite assessment piece is to create defensible space. http:// implementation. Customizable expected to become available in 2018 www.lakechinookfreandrescue.org/ marketing and promotional in select pilot locations in areas most community/title3.php. (7 March 2018). materials, including web banners susceptible to wildfre threats. Miller, S. 2013. Fire on the mountain: What motivates homeowners to reduce and press releases, help departments their wildfre risk? In: Science You Can promote the assessment service so Volunteer fre departments play a Use Bulletin. Fort Collins, CO: USDA that the public is aware that free critical role in encouraging residents Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research home assessments are available and to be proactive in protecting their Station. 7: 1–8. https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/ that their local fre department is property from wildfre. The WFAP pubs_journals/2013/rmrs_2013_miller_ s003.pdf. (14 January 2018). there to help. provides the resources and training that departments need to help WUI Coming Soon! communities reduce risk from wildfre. To learn more about the The NVFC will be adding a hands-on program, schedule a classroom training component to the existing training, take the online course, or classroom course. Departments will access WFAP resources, visit www. be able to participate in an onsite nvfc.org/wfap. ■

CONTRIBUTORS WANTED! We need your fre-related articles and photographs for Fire Management Today! Subjects of published material include:

• Aviation • Fire History • Planning (including Budgeting) • Communication • Fire Use (including Prescribed • Preparedness • Cooperation/Partnerships Fire) • Prevention • Ecological Restoration • Fuels Management • Safety • Education • Firefghting Experiences • Suppression • Equipment and Technology • Incident Management • Training • Fire Behavior • Information Management • Weather • Fire Ecology (including Systems) • Wildland–Urban Interface • Fire Effects • Personnel Contact the editor via email at [email protected].

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 29 ADVANCING FIRE ADAPTATION BY ENGAGING PRACTITIONERS

Michelle Medley-Daniel

or the last 100 years, fire way we live with wildfire in the from wildfire and prescribed suppression policies have United States. burning by developing a smoke Flargely kept fire from playing health portal and exploring the its natural role. Removing fire Network Impact potential for air filter loans to from ecosystems that depend on sensitive residents. FAC Net members are it to stay healthy, coupled with • In southern Colorado and dismantling the silos that have more people building houses northern New Mexico, kept “community work,” “fire in flammable natural areas, has prescribed fire training management,” and “landscape created a costly and dangerous wildfire problem. We need to find ways to restore fire to places that need it while protecting homes and communities. We need a new The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network approach to fire management. connects people working on fre adaptation and spreads their work locally, regionally, and nationally. Network Approach Effecting wholesale change in how we deal with wildfre is no easy task. That’s where a network approach resilience” apart. By integrating exchanges, FAC Net, and Fire comes in. A network brings and expanding their work, they Learning Network partners are together diverse ideas, focuses on are transitioning from one-off developing regional capacity for sharing information among its projects to systemwide, long-term integrated fire management. members, and helps those people strategies for living better with Practitioner organizations are take innovative action. fire. For example: working together to cross-train people and familiarize them The Fire Adapted Communities • Members in the Tahoe Basin with different skill sets for Learning Network (FAC Net) are working in tandem on working with fire. Momentum connects people working on planning and capacity-building is building—yielding joint fire adaptation and supports issues under the National projects, collaborative funding and spreads their work locally, Environmental Policy Act so proposals, and a shared vision regionally, and nationally (fig. 1). they’ll be ready to implement for fire management. These communities are taking projects soon after they’ve gone action to improve their resilience through review. Looking for Partners, and reduce their risk of wildfire • In Oregon, members are impacts. Together, this network taking an integrated approach Information, of practitioners is changing the and considering how to best Connections? increase social license for fire You can join the network use as they help revise the of people across the United State’s smoke management States who are taking action to Michelle Medley-Daniel is program director strategy. While advocating for prepare themselves and their for the Watershed Research and Training more flexibility in prescribed communities for wildfire. The Center, Hayfork, CA. fire emissions, they are also FAC Net supports members’ addressing health impacts work by facilitating information Fire Management Today 30 Figure 1—As of March 2018, FAC Net supported 17 core members , 135 affliate members , and 5 State networks (colored blue). Members leverage their relationships with one another to gain inspiration, learn about new approaches, and garner new resources to increase their communities’ capacity for living with wildfre. exchange, collaboration, and joint work to help people live more safely with fire. By joining the FAC Net as an affiliate member, you can:

• Connect with people working on fire resilience; • Access resources you can use today; • Share your stories with peers; • Communicate with national leaders, program staff, and decision makers; and • Learn from others through webinars, peer-to-peer sharing, and staff support. ■

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 31 RESIDENTS REDUCE WILDFIRE RISKS THROUGH THE FIREWISE USA™ PROGRAM

Cathy Prudhomme

Accomplishments are frequently greatest when one or more resident leaders in the community provide coordination, oversight, and encouragement to their neighbors.

he Firewise USA™ national recognition program evolved Tfrom a 1986 cooperative agreement between the Forest Figure 1—The three home ignition zones (0–5 feet [0–1.5 m], 5–30 feet [1.5–9 m], Service and the National Fire 30–100 feet [9–30 m]). Reducing risks within the three zones increases the chances of a Protection Association (NFPA). home surviving a wildfre. Source: National Fire Protection Association. The agreement enabled NFPA, as a national nonproft safety organization with an extensive history of successful wildland–urban interface, where at 1,479 participating sites, including fre and safety public education homes and structures are in direct 170 new sites in 2017 (fg. 2). campaigns, to develop the recognition contact with wildlands and the program and corresponding inhabitants often have come from Mitigation achievements vary from resources and methods for teaching urban areas (NIFC, n.d.). site to site, with accomplishments residents living in areas prone to frequently greatest when one or more wildfre how to reduce their risks. The National Recognition resident leaders in the community recognition program began in 2002 Program provide motivation, coordination, with a dozen pilot sites. Through our oversight, and encouragement to partnership with the Forest Service, Under the Firewise USA™ national their neighbors. The number of the National Association of State recognition program, residents individuals who step up to play a Foresters, State forestry agencies, living in the wildland–urban leading role is astonishingly high; and local fre departments, the interface have been taking action to typically, each wears the “resident program is now active in 42 States, reduce the wildfre hazards around leader” hat with great pride. Leaders with a focus on communities in the the exterior of their homes and in take on that role because they believe the three home ignition zones on in risk reduction and truly want their properties (fg. 1). Both kinds a safer place to live. They deserve of measures have been part of the immense kudos. Cathy Prudhomme is the Firewise national Firewise USA™ recognition Communities/USA Program Manager for the National Fire Protection Association’s program since 2002. Such activities The Firewise USA™ national Wildfre Division, Centennial, CO. are the cornerstone of the program recognition program emphasizes the Fire Management Today 32 Figure 2—Active sites map (left) and new sites map (right). There are 1,479 active Firewise sites in areas with wildfre potential. In 2017, 170 sites in 24 States qualifed as new nationally recognized Firewise sites. Source: National Fire Protection Association.

importance of neighbors working and State and Federal staff. The The portal guides users through a together to maximize the benefts of data collected will help everyone user-friendly documentation system their mitigation work and to reach gain a better understanding of that tracks the number of hours beyond their own individual property the mitigation that residents are residents worked by individual lines to assist elderly or disabled accomplishing at the local level. action categories and by location neighbors who are unable to reduce within the home ignition zones (see wildfre risks on their own. Each year, Through the portal’s easy-to-use the sidebar on the next page). It also program participants must meet a software, reporting risk reduction tracks the related dollars invested in set of renewal criteria to remain in activities is simple. Every Firewise projects (contractor costs, grants, the program and retain the status of site has an action plan that outlines rental equipment, and so forth). “in good standing.” Projects designed the risk reduction priorities for to help elderly or disabled neighbors the site. The Firewise Portal is an Through the portal, users report a ft perfectly into the program’s indepth repository for Firewise major component of wildfre risk framework and are often a part of the sites, letting them document and reduction: vegetation removal work completed to meet the required track their mitigation actions by from individual properties and annual renewal criteria. both hours worked and dollars common areas. By tracking invested. The portal lets them vegetation removal, the State Firewise Portal easily monitor progress towards forestry agency that oversees the the goals and objectives outlined in Firewise program can now access In July 2017, in cooperation with the their action plans; the information data on the quantities being Forest Service, the NFPA launched is archived within the portal. In removed from the participating a tool to encourage and document addition, the portal stores a Firewise site’s boundaries. The agency can efforts by Firewise participants to participant’s risk assessment, which then share that information with track and measure their mitigation, can be updated as needed. other stakeholders. education, and outreach projects (fg. 3). The Firewise Portal is a Also, the portal has a section that comprehensive resource complete tracks debris removal from an array with an online application and of sources, including: renewal system. The portal allows for the collection of residential • Community-organized curbside mitigation information on an fuel pickups, unprecedented scale. • Contracted chipping services, • Local municipal or county Within months of its launch, users department slash pickup, were providing copious amounts of • Homeowner/property association detail about the types and volume projects, and of work they were completing. Figure 3—The Firewise Portal documents and tracks risk reduction • Other types of contractors. The portal is an asset for resident accomplishments. Source: National Fire leaders, regional coordinators, NFPA, Protection Association. Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 33 The portal includes a section for individual homeowners to record slash taken to an offsite disposal location, slash collection days across neighborhoods or communities, and even projects on Wildfre Community Preparedness Day (fg. 4). Included in a recap of each recorded activity is the number of participating residences, the yards of debris removed, and when the activity occurred.

The portal also lists the Firewise USA™ program’s State liaisons, who manage their own State-specifc Figure 4—Colorado Springs Fire Department wildfre mitigation crews supporting a data. The end result is a system local neighborhood chipping event. Photo: Colorado Springs Fire Department. that’s able to assist recognized sites in making themselves safer places to through Firewise.org. The NFPA reduction projects. The resource live by becoming more resilient in invites you to add them to your cache includes an easy-to-follow checklist the face of wildfres. of outreach and education resources. for each home ignition zone, listing the tasks that increase a home’s Other Resources The newest addition is the Reducing survivability when exposed to embers Homeowners and stakeholders Wildfre Risks in the Home Ignition from a wildfre and/or fames from a from all wildfre sectors, including Zones poster/checklist. The oversized surface fre. The checklist is a great forestry agencies, fre departments, foldout poster has detailed information way for homeowners to begin tracking and emergency managers, can access and graphics that give residents a their accomplishments within the Firewise materials and resources roadmap to begin their wildfre risk three home ignition zones. ■

Reporting Categories in overhang the area; moving frewood into the extended the Firewise Portal zone; and so forth. • Intermediate Zone: 5 to 30 feet (1.5–9.1 m) from the foundation or attachments (decks/porches). Activities The Firewise Portal lets users track their mitigation include maintaining the lawn and native grass, clustering activities by reporting them in the following categories: trees and shrubs with space between clusters, thinning and limbing trees to reduce crown fre potential, and so • Dwelling: Risk reduction work from the roof down to forth. the foundation. Activities include installing fre-resistant roofng, cleaning litter from roofs and gutters, screening • Extended Zone: 30 to 100 feet (9.1–30.5 m) from the vents, installing chimney spark arrestors and screening, foundation or attachments (decks/porches). Activities ensuring that there are no openings in skylights or siding, include removing needles, leaves, litter, and debris; enclosing eaves and soffts, clearing decks and porches of thinning trees to reduce crown fre potential; and so forth. fammable materials, ensuring that under-deck areas are • Common Area: Areas owned by the homeowners free of fammable materials and vegetation, and so forth. association or other jointly owned community property • Immediate Zone: 0 to 5 feet (0–1.5 m) from the within the site boundary. Activities include thinning trees, foundation or attachments (decks/porches). Activities conducting mastication and removing brush, maintaining include installing hardscaping components; replacing grass, constructing frebreaks, and so forth. combustible mulches with stone/gravel; removing • Administration: Meetings, presentations, program trees and shrubs; raking and removing pine needles, oversight, home site visits, and so forth. leaves, litter, and debris; trimming back tree limbs that

Fire Management Today 34 FIRE PREVENTION/EDUCATION TEAM AT WORK IN THE NORTHERN ROCKIES

Rita Chandler

he Northern Rockies Coordinating Group (NRCG) One key message was that individuals have a Twas established to provide an interagency approach to wildland fre responsibility to ensure that their actions do not management and all-risk support result in a wildfre. across landownerships in the Northern Rockies Geographic Area. Comprising Montana, North Dakota, northern Idaho, and small portions of South In late July 2017, due to fre agency representatives Dakota and Wyoming, the Northern deteriorating fre conditions in the (including fre prevention Rockies Geographic Area is one Northern Rockies, the FPEC formed personnel, fre information of 10 geographic areas across an interagency fre prevention/ offcers, and other interested or the United States. The NRCG is education team based in Missoula, affected personnel); and made up of representatives from MT. Prevention/education teams • Adjust the messages and materials agencies, departments, divisions, support geographic areas before based on feedback from the bureaus, and associations from and during periods of high fre representatives. across the area. Its purpose is to danger or fre activity. Each team further interagency cooperation, comprises three to fve trained Accordingly, the prevention/ communications, and coordination personnel who come together for a education team outlined a strategy for wildland fre management and specifed period of time to assist the for meeting the objectives of the all-risk support in the Northern local unit in preventing unwanted FPEC liaisons and for coordinating Rockies Geographic Area. human-caused wildfres. with the seven established zone prevention and restriction Fire Prevention and The team for the Northern Rockies committees across the Northern Education Team was asked to support the mission of Rockies Geographic Area. the FPEC by increasing public and The Fire Prevention and Education homeowner awareness about fre Committee (FPEC) is a subset Key Messages danger, prevention, preparedness, and of the NRCG. Its mission is “to One key message was that safety. The team worked for the FPEC foster interagency leadership and individuals have a responsibility liaisons from the Forest Service, coordination in support of the to ensure that their actions do Bureau of Land Management, and establishment of fre-adaptive not result in a wildfre. The fre Montana Department of Natural communities, resilient landscapes prevention/education team helped Resources and Conservation, taking and safe, effective wildfre response raise awareness about the need an all-lands approach to prevention through public information, to take personal responsibility to and community adaptation to education and the promotion of fre reduce human-caused wildfres wildland fre. prevention messages and measures.” and the resulting impacts (such as property loss; resource damage; and The plan of the interagency liaisons threats to residents, visitors, and was to: Rita Chandler is an Assistant Director frefghters). with Fire and Aviation Management in • Share key fre-related messages charge of Cooperative Fire, All-Hazard, and The immediate priority was and available materials with Prevention Programs for the Forest Service, messaging related to common local, State, and Federal Northern Region, Missoula, MT. summer sources of accidental Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 35 ignitions in the region, such as Ready, Set, Go!; Living With Fire; Be offroad vehicles, dragged chains, Ember Aware; and Firewise). campfres, and heavy equipment (for logging, ranching, and so on) A third key message was that residents (fg. 1). The prevention/education need to be prepared in the event that team also delivered messages and a wildfre results in the need for them materials related to issues that were to evacuate quickly and safely. The not as common in the region or that fre prevention/education team shared typically occur in the fall, including information to help residents be ready arson, activities by hunters (such as for evacuation well before evacuation target shooting and building warming was imminent. fres), and debris burning. Consistent language is vitally The teams used numerous existing important in messages related to products (especially related to the evacuations. The team worked with One Less Spark and Know Before the appropriate fre and emergency You Go campaigns). The targeted Figure 1—Part of the personal agencies to ensure that messages responsibility message was to keep audience included campers, vehicles and equipment from producing refected accurate, timely guidance. hunters, ranchers, loggers, sparks that might ignite a wildfre. Source: They used existing materials and travelers, and even homeowners. Federal fre prevention/education team. campaigns (such as Ready, Set, Go! and Emergency Preparedness) to help Another key message was that quickly relay the key message. homeowners and communities can fammable materials around homes help themselves and frefghters and communities before a wildfre As the 2017 fre season evolved in the by creating defensible space occurs (fg. 2). Northern Rockies, communication around homes and structures. with fre agency representatives, fre The fre prevention/education The team drew on existing documents prevention staff, public information team emphasized the need for and products to convey the message, offcers, and other interested or homeowners and communities especially those from well-established affected personnel was key to ensuring to take responsibility for reducing fre preparedness campaigns (such as a clear understanding of priorities. The fre prevention/education team took the time to understand the task at hand, then chose the correct tool for the job. The team used recent data on fre ignitions and trends to decide on the information and materials to develop and distribute. The team was then able to clearly and consistently relay key messages to the public, adapting them as needed in response to changing fre situations. If the right products with the right messages get to the right people at the right time, then fre prevention and education can be effective within local communities.

Outreach Approaches The NRCG FPEC has adopted a mechanism for tracking prevention and education efforts across the Figure 2—Messaging for homeowners included information they can use to reduce the danger of property damage from wildfres. Source: Federal fre prevention/education team. geographic area. The prevention and

Fire Management Today 36 Fire-Related Public Outreach

Requests for information and products related to key messages about wildland fre extend to specifc events, such as rodeos, festivals, and other community gatherings, where the fre prevention/education team displayed or distributed printed materials, signs, banners, and novelty items. The 2017 Mineral County Fair in Superior, MT, was one example. Displays at the fair’s Forest Service booth related to homeowner preparedness, prescribed burning, and current fre restrictions. Fair visitors commented that “this was the best Forest Service presence ever Forest Service booth at the 2017 Mineral County Fair in Superior, MT. Photos: Andrea at the fair.” Colson, Forest Service, Stevensville Ranger District, Bitterroot National Forest, MT.

mitigation offcers for the various included radio and television (public Spark; Ready, Set, Go!; Firewise; Fire agencies use an online form to service announcements), newspapers Learning Network; Know Before capture and categorize efforts and (news releases and ads), and social You Go; and, not least, Only You … accomplishments, aligning them media (Facebook, Twitter, and Smokey Bear. The sheer variety can with key messages from the National YouTube). Other messaging venues sometimes be confusing to the public Cohesive Wildland Fire Management included community businesses as well as to agency personnel, but Strategy. The goal is to demonstrate (such as movie theaters, sporting they all boil down to preparedness, the importance of fre-related goods stores, and convenience stores), prevention, and community education, prevention, outreach, government agencies (such as reader adaptation to wildland fre. and community preparedness and boards, campground information the need to build and maintain local signs, and webpages), and community Thinking Outside the Box program capacity, funding, and events (such as rodeos, fairs, and Prevention is more than just staffng. The statistics from 2016 festivals) (see the sidebar). posters and Smokey Bear show a total of 1.2 million public messaging through traditional interactions, including 10,000 from For the fre prevention/education methods of outreach when the 57 school programs alone. Although team, success hinged on summer fre season rolls around. not all entities entered all pertinent understanding the communities It includes year-round education information, this is an example of involved. That included identifying about the role of wildland fre an interagency effort across the the program or programs best suited in the environment; it includes geographic area. to the current situation and using communicating about ecology multiple approaches to reach all and fuels mitigation with all The fre prevention/education team people on all lands. stakeholders, cooperators, and shared key messages through a communities before there is smoke combination of campaigns, products, The team had lots of different in the air. As practitioners of fre and methods tailored to particular programs and campaigns to draw prevention and education, we must areas, needs, and opportunities. The on: Fire Adapted Communities; think outside the box, analyze the team used traditional media and Defensible Space; Community past, and be innovative in our future other opportunities to disseminate Mitigation; Wildland Urban Interface; efforts to effectively incorporate information about fre restrictions Conservation Education; Be Smart prevention into a community culture and closures, incident management, Outdoors; Community Wildfre of adaptation to wildland fre. ■ and wildfre activity. The media used Protection Programs; One Less

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 37 COLLABORATION ACROSS BOUNDARIES: A POLICY PERSPECTIVE ON THE STATE OF WILDLAND FIRE*

Vicki Christiansen

Fire itself can be a gnarly challenge, and the challenges have gotten gnarlier in recent decades.

he topic of collaboration across boundaries is ftting for me and Tfor the Forest Service because our national priorities revolve around just that—collaboration across boundaries—especially when it comes to wildland fre. We are committed to improving the conditions of the Nation’s forests, being good neighbors, Vicki Christiansen (second from left), Forest Service Deputy Chief for State and Private and sharing stewardship through Forestry (now Forest Service Interim Chief), participating in the Wildfre Mitigation partnerships, including with many of Awards ceremony at the WUI 2018 conference. With Chief Christiansen are (from left to right) Chief Tom Jenkins, Fire Chief for the city of Rogers, AR, and President and you here. Chair of the Board for the International Association of Fire Chiefs; Lorraine Carli, Vice President for Outreach and Advocacy, National Fire Protection Association; Chief Ken My personal passion is connecting Pimlott, Director of Cal Fire; and Abby Watkins of Newaygo County Emergency Services, people with their natural resources— White Cloud, MI, one of nine recipients of the Wildfre Mitigation Award for 2018. Photo: International Association of Fire Chiefs. whether as partners, as volunteers, as homeowners, or just as citizens— and, as you know, there are plenty of opportunities for all that in the National Outlook drought, fuel buildups, and increasing development in the WUI. All these wildland–urban interface (WUI). At the national level, we have some trends are expected to continue. Collaborating across boundaries goes gnarly challenges ahead. Fire itself to the core of the National Cohesive can be a gnarly challenge, meaning Last year, we had one of the most Wildland Fire Management Strategy, complex and diffcult to deal with, and severe fre seasons in recent history, especially when it comes to the WUI. the challenges have gotten gnarlier with more than 10 million acres in recent decades. In fact, we have (4 million ha) burned nationwide. changed our language to talk about About 12,000 structures were the fre year instead of the fre season. Vicki Christiansen is the Interim Chief for destroyed by wildfres, including the Forest Service, Washington, DC. Over the last few decades, the western more than 8,000 homes. That is fre season has grown at least 2½ more than fve times higher than the * The article is based on a speech delivered months longer, and we have seen by the author at Wildland–Urban Interface annual average of about 1,500 homes the frequency, size, and severity of 2018, a conference held in Reno, NV, on destroyed by wildfre. February 27, 2018. wildfres increase. Primary drivers are

Fire Management Today 38 • During 2017, wildfre activity There are forces at play in our operating occurred consistently throughout the year, beginning with the Fall environment over which we have little or no control. 2016 Fire Siege in the Southeast and continuing in the Great Plains, Southwest, and West in the spring across all jurisdictions. This was making it the most expensive fre and summer. a 53-percent increase in acres year in history. • The year progressed with far above- burned compared to the 10-year average fre activity, which started average of 6.6 million acres (2.7 • To cover this cost, we transferred earlier than usual in the Northern million ha). nearly $526 million from other Rockies and included an active • A total of 2.9 million acres (1.17 accounts. season in the Northwest. million ha) burned on National • This came from programs that » In early July, Montana and Forest System lands alone. That support national forest activities, northern Idaho had mainly was a 92-percent increase in acres such as forest management and lightning-caused fres in compared to the 10-year average of hazardous fuel reduction, and rugged, remote, timbered 1.5 million acres (0.61 million ha). programs that support working areas. Many would become • During 2017, the national across boundaries with partners, long-duration fres (such as the preparedness level was at level 4 or such as State and volunteer fre Lolo Peak and Rice Ridge Fires 5 for 75 days. assistance. in Montana). • In addition to these fre transfers, » In late July, there were We are in a “new normal of fre the increasing 10-year-average cost similar scenarios in Oregon, activity.” During the peak of fre of fre suppression creates ongoing Washington, and northern activity in 2017, about 29,000 fre erosion of our agency’s nonfre California. personnel were deployed. No single budgets (on the order of a $100- to » And central and southern agency has the resources to respond $120-million erosion each year). California had geographically to these complex fres … it really does dispersed human- and lighting- take everyone! Some of our collective All this puts tremendous strain caused fres from summer resources are already out on fres on our fre personnel, our nonfre through early 2018. All this again in 2018, and we expect the year- programs, and our agency budgets. solidifed the term “fre year” round fre season trend to continue. In 1995, fre made up 16 percent rather than “fre season.” of the Forest Service’s annual • Nationally, more than 10 million Last year, total fre-related costs for appropriated budget. Last year, about acres (4 million ha) burned the Forest Service were $2.4 billion, 56 percent of our annual budget was dedicated to wildfre. Along with this shift in resources, there has been a corresponding shift in staff, with a 39-percent reduction in all nonfre personnel. Left unchecked, the share of the budget devoted to fre in 2021 could exceed 67 percent. That equates to reductions of nearly $700 million from nonfre programs.

Fortunately, Congress included a fre funding fx in its omnibus appropriations bill for fscal year 2018. The bill, passed by Congress on March 23, 2018, set up an emergency suppression fund for Federal agencies to draw on in fscal years 2020–27. This solution Firefghters on the Thomas Fire on the Los Padres National Forest near Ventura, CA, will let us secure our operating in December 2017. The Thomas Fire was the largest in California history at the time, burning 281,893 acres (114,078 ha). Photo: USDA Forest Service. environment by stabilizing our Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 39 rising fre suppression budget. We by reducing risk to communities million from State efforts. We had to will fnally start treating catastrophic through effective mitigation. catch the fre on the eastern fank, wildfres as disasters, dramatically which was under State jurisdiction reducing the need to transfer funds My own personal realization of the and where the forests had been from other work. The bill also Wildland Fire System—my “ah- thinned on the Loomis State Forest. gives us new tools and expanded hah moment”—came when I was authorities to do more to improve a brand-new State Forester in the As State Forester, my total annual forest conditions and deliver values State of Washington in 2006. We budget for fre suppression was $13 and benefts from forests to the million, so that one fre ate up our American people. Now it’s up to the entire fre budget. We had to ask Forest Service to deliver. the legislature for a $60-million That’s when it hit me: I supplemental appropriation. As you My Leadership Journey might imagine, fngers were pointing needed to help change every which way, and I kept looking So that’s my perspective on what’s over my shoulder to see who was happening at the national level. But the conversation. going to come clean up this mess. as we all know, fres don’t happen at the national level. To paraphrase That’s when it hit me: I needed to one former politician, “All wildfre had the Tripod Fire Complex, which help change the conversation. We is local.” Fire happens in a local burned more than 175,000 acres needed to spend our energy fnding context, but that context is a system in Okanogan County. Much of the collective solutions, not pointing that is incredibly complex. area burned was on the Okanogan– fngers about who had the most Wenatchee National Forest, where responsibility for the wildland fre We are in a Wildland Fire System, many of the trees were dead or problem in this Nation. where a full suite of environmental, dying due to drought and beetle social, political, fnancial, and infestation. The fre cost $110 Warren Buffett once said, “In a cultural factors drive outcomes in million to suppress, including $13 chronically leaking boat, energy the wildland fre environment (fg. 1). The Wildland Fire System has pieces connected to civil society, to responders, to communities, and to landscapes, including forces at play in our operating environment over which we have little or no control. The Wildland Fire System acknowledges and invites the participation of a broader set of stakeholders in addressing current unacceptable outcomes.

The Wildland Fire System is so incredibly complex that no single entity can do it alone—not the Forest Service, not the States, not any given fre department. We are all in this Wildland Fire System together. Everyone in this room has a role to play, in one way or another, in helping local communities prepare for wildfre … by creating healthier landscapes, by preparing for an effective response to wildfre, and Figure 1—The Wildland Fire System, with its fve components.

Fire Management Today 40 devoted to changing vessels is more the strategy was the Four Forests develop a truly shared national productive than energy devoted to Restoration Initiative, which involves approach to wildland fre patching leaks.” restoration treatments across nearly management. Based on that earlier a million acres of dry pine forest on footprint from Emmetsburg, MD, That’s what we needed to do: stop four national forests. we developed a National Cohesive patching leaks by placing blame Wildland Fire Management Strategy. and instead build a new vessel This effort has transcended The strategy was and is a broad- by changing the conversation. I governors of different political based collaborative response with spoke up at a meeting of the Forest parties. A new paradigm of working three national goals: Fire Committee of the National together to create resilient Association of State Foresters. I landscapes and fre-adapted 1. restoring and maintaining talked about the need for taking a communities is taking hold. resilient landscapes; 2. creating fre-adapted communities; and 3. safe and effective wildfre A new paradigm of working together to create response, with decisions based on resilient landscapes and fre-adapted communities risk analysis for all ownerships.

is taking hold The vision for the Cohesive Strategy is, “To safely and effectively extinguish fre when needed; use fre where allowable; manage our more proactive approach. Thirteen My point is this: we need to recognize natural resources; and as a Nation, of us in national fre leadership how complex the Wildland Fire to live with wildland fre.” This roles came together at the National System is and how huge the wildland vision acknowledges that there are Fire Academy in Emmetsburg, fre problem is, driven by factors different missions and authorities MD. Together, we built the initial like long-term drought and beetle among us … whether we are footprint of the National Cohesive infestations that affect enormous local, State, Tribal, or Federal fre Wildland Fire Management Strategy. parts of our country. And the managers. On most Federal and projections are that these trends will Tribal lands, we are fre managers My next appointment as State continue due to a changing climate. AND land managers on the same Forester was in Arizona. Most of We have a new normal, so why do we piece of ground. By contrast, most you have probably heard of the keep responding in old ways? State and local fre managers protect Rodeo–Chediski Fire. In 2002, it someone else’s property. burned more than 468,000 acres As someone once said, “People who (189,000 ha), making it the largest change after change, will survive; The Cohesive Strategy causes wildfre in Arizona State history at people who change with change, will us to look the Wildfre Paradox the time. Over 490 structures were succeed; people who cause change squarely in the eye: fre is a bad destroyed, and more than 30,000 will lead.” boss but a good servant. We must residents were evacuated. take the long view, accepting the National Cohesive Wildland inevitability of fre visiting our As a result, a Governor’s Forest Fire Management Strategy landscapes and preparing ourselves Health Council was formed, and the so that when fre does come calling, Statewide Strategy for Restoring We need to cause change by the consequences are not devastating. Arizona Forests was developed recognizing that the wildfre Whenever possible, we need to in response to citizens’ concerns problem requires a new approach. reintroduce fre under conditions we about the health of Arizona’s Congress gave us a big leadership choose. Fire is the primary change forests. Traditional adversaries came push with the 2009 FLAME Act agent on many of our Federal lands together for a common purpose, when it required the creation of a and has been for millennia. and the strategy presented a 20-year national cohesive strategy. roadmap for restoring forest health So the frst pillar of the Cohesive and protecting rural communities That caused us to act. The Strategy is restoring healthy fre- from wildfre. A major outcome of stakeholders all came together to adapted landscapes. That includes Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 41 The Cohesive Strategy causes us to look at the Wildfre Paradox squarely in the eye: fre is a bad boss but a good servant. both thinning and prescribed fre treatments, and it means getting more fre on the land, not less. If we don’t, then our fres are only going to get bigger, more explosive, and more dangerous to homes and communities.

We also need communities in fre- adapted landscapes that are prepared to mitigate risks from wildfre. Today, Prescribed fre in the wildland–urban interface to reduce fuels and protect homes in the WUI contains about a third of the western Oregon. Photo: Bureau of Land Management. housing units in the United States (44 million homes potentially at risk), and that number is growing, especially in we choose. We need to strike a Creating fre-adapted communities parts of the South and West that are balance among the fve elements of means working from “the front already at moderate to high risk of the Wildland Fire System—social, door to the forest,” and that wildfre. We need to fnd ways to help cultural, political, environmental, involves everyone. Everyone in landowners and communities expand and fnancial—in a way that more the community is in this together, hazardous fuels treatments and reliably protects responders and the whether homeowners, fre increase the resilience of their own public, sustains communities, and departments, local governments, homes and infrastructures. conserves the land. nonproft groups, or local Federal land managers. Local cross- And we also need an effcient and Our Cohesive Strategy gives us a jurisdictional partnerships can effective response to wildfre. doctrine for getting there. It sets be more effective in preparing a Keeping people safe from wildfre is the stage for an all-lands national community for wildfre than any one a central part of our job. Nothing is blueprint for creating synergies group working alone. more important, and I want to pay in wildland fre management. Our tribute to the frefghters we lost in holistic approach to wildland fre As you know, the best way to 2017. We are committed to making management encourages further reduce community risk is to harden sound risk-based decisions that do dialogue between local communities homes and create defensible space, not place the lives of frefghters and national policymakers, and that and that means getting property at needless risk. Our goal is to dialogue is key. owners involved. It also means commit emergency responders to getting their friends and neighbors operations where they can succeed involved, along with other trusted in protecting lives and values at risk Fire-Adapted Communities folks in the community, such as and then safely go home at the end That dialogue is key because creating the local fre department. of the day. fre-adapted communities is so central to our Cohesive Strategy. You don’t get people to change their Those are the three pillars of our Before closing, I want to say a few behavior by handing out brochures Cohesive Strategy. All three envision words about that, even though I’m or leaving doorhangers or putting reintroducing fre to the landscape no expert … you are, the people here up signs and billboards. Those whenever possible under conditions today for this conference! Fire Management Today 42 Creating fre-adapted communities means working We all come from different backgrounds, with different from “the front door to the forest,” and that responsibilities—different involves everyone. communities of practice and of place. We all have different outlooks and different constituents, different constraints and opportunities. For kinds of activities can help raise adapt to wildfre. One example is the example, State and local authorities awareness and make information community mitigation assistance might not have much leeway to available. But we motivate people team. These are teams of WUI restore fre to the landscape, while to act by engaging them face to mitigation practitioners who are Federal agencies have more. face over time and building trust. expert at helping communities build Only when they’re ready can we local coalitions, at motivating people But we are all part of the same help them take the next steps. to act, and at getting them to take wildland fre community, and we That’s why we need to get friends, effective actions. all have signifcant infuence on neighbors, and trusted members of the Wildland Fire System. And I’m the community involved. The only way to address the wildfre certain we all share the same interest issue is collaboratively, and that’s in outcomes like healthy landscapes As you know, the biggest barrier to why you’re here today, from many and fre-adapted communities. We fre-adapted communities is local different communities of practice. If need each other, and together we capacity. Most folks in the WUI know every forest, every fre department, are stronger. We can anchor to our they’re at risk and are willing to take every community in a fre-prone specifc communities of practice and some kind of action, but they don’t landscape had a sustainable and place and still bring our individual have the support network for that. A effective fre adaptation program, strengths to the table. We can still little support at the local level can go imagine how far we could get embrace other disciplines, including a long way. in achieving this key goal of the governance, civic engagement, and Cohesive Strategy. That’s the public policy. It will take all of us to Willingness to act depends on challenge, and you in this room are overcome our gnarly challenges! perception of risk. If you think leading the way. I salute you and the risk to your property is high, thank you for all you do! Gifford Pinchot, the frst Chief of you’re more likely to take action. the Forest Service, was one of the That’s why helping property owners A Societal Issue Requiring earliest American visionaries of understand the risk to their homes Societal Solutions conservation. He put it well, and I from wildfre can be so effective, quote: “The vast possibilities of our especially during teachable moments In closing, fre may be a gnarly future will become realities only if when smoke is in the air. problem, but it is not a hopeless we make ourselves responsible for problem. It is a societal issue that the future.” All this points to the value of requires contributions from multiple building strong cross-boundary disciplines, creating synergies— And that will take collaboration mitigation collaboratives or where the sum of our efforts is across boundaries. We are all in this partnerships to help communities greater than the individual parts. together! ■

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 43 FIRE IN AMERICA 2.0: UPDATING THE PAST

Stephen J. Pyne

he idea for a book series began These are books funded by and in conversations with Lincoln I proposed a two-book written for the American fre TBramwell, chief historian for community. the Forest Service.* We agreed that project: a national the standard history Fire in America history since 1960 and Between Two Fires needed updating. a collection of essays The narrative, Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary The book ended, creakily, in the late with interesting details America, was completed by 2013. 1970s. If we date modern American We tried to publish through the wildland fre from 1910, then the that a narrative can’t Government Printing Offce, but book spanned less than 60 of those easily hold. that ambition crashed early in the years, while another 40 years have editing.** Instead, we turned to the passed since it was published. We University of Arizona Press. The book needed a history to encompass appeared in November 2015. that recent era, which was also the time when the fre community Between Two Fires opens with a revolutionized its policies and panoramic survey of the American programs. fre scene in 1960, a time when the Forest Service was a hegemon in I proposed a two-book project. One ways that are diffcult to imagine would narrate the national history today. The agency controlled almost since 1960—call it the play by play. every aspect of fre policy, practice, The other would explore, through and research. It was the integrative a collection of essays, some of the matrix for a national program. It was regarded as a paragon of public administration. Steve Pyne is a professor in the School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, That near-monopoly provides Tempe, AZ. He recently published Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary a narrative anchorpoint for America and To the Last Smoke, a suite of showing the evolution in policy regional fre surveys. and institutional arrangements, beginning with what we might * Lincoln was once a member of the aptly call a fre revolution. It frst Sawtooth Interagency Hotshot Crew and interesting details that a narrative is the author of Wilderburbs, a look at the can’t easily hold—think of it as color announced itself in 1962, when Tall wildland–urban interface, including its fre commentary. Timbers Research Station hosted its issues. frst fre ecology conference and the Nature Conservancy conducted its ** The Forest Service was willing to Tom Harbour, then director of Fire absorb the costs of publishing through the and Aviation Management for the inaugural prescribed burn. Government Printing Offce in order to Forest Service, was enthusiastic but keep costs down. Instead, the University rightly wanted interagency support. Over the next 15 years, every of Arizona Press and I agreed that I would The U.S. Department of the Interior Federal land agency had its organic waive royalties and they would match that act revised or received its frst amount to keep the purchase price as low signed on. Later, so did the Joint Fire as possible. Science Program. charter. That change in purpose Fire Management Today 44 led to reforms in how they wanted historical marker, as many years have exclude fre as far as possible. The to manage fre. The old edifce passed since the opening of the fre next 50 years were spent promoting rapidly fragmented. The National revolution as had passed before it. a pluralism of policies and interested Park Service adopted a policy of parties—trying to reassemble the fre restoration in 1968; the Forest In brief, the 50 years after the pieces left after the breakup and Service, in 1978. The ideas (and Big Blowup were spent creating a the many agencies, both public and the idealism) behind restoring fre national infrastructure, organized private, that subsequently joined. are not new. Again taking 1910 as a around the Forest Service, to I had intended to end the book in 2010 with the centennial of the Big Blowup, but the big fres kept coming and the narrative rolled with them, fnally coming to rest in 2013.

So what two fres does the narrative pass between? There are many such pairings: the big blowups of the past and the megafres of today (fg. 1); nature’s fres and humanity’s; wildfres and prescribed fres; the fres that burn living landscapes and those that burn lithic ones—the combustion of fossil fuels that is the real big burn of today. America’s fre history is part of a global fre history.

The text itself has two parallel styles that illustrate this theme by alternating chapters on ideas and institutions with shorter summaries of particular fres or fre seasons. Over the decades, the fres change character: they reveal the evolving fre scene. Save for the prologue and epilogue, the narrative is always itself between two fres. The fre problem is not something we can fx. It’s something we live with.

To the Last Smoke The color commentary began with blogs posted during my research travels in Florida. But there was something every day, and it was material no one seemed to be writing about. The number of essays grew: essays on places, essays on people, essays on programs Figure 1—Top: Aftermath of the Big Blowup of 1910, a signature event in early Forest Service history. Driven by high winds, the fre demolished a stand of white pine on the and policies. They began to self- Little North Fork St. Joe River, Coeur d’Alene National Forest, ID. Bottom: Firefghters organize, one cluster around taking a break on the 2017 Thomas Fire, a modern megafre, the largest in California Tallahassee (the Silicon Valley of history at the time. Driven by Santa Ana winds, the fre tore through chaparral on the prescribed fre) and another along Los Padres National Forest near Ventura, CA. Photos: USDA Forest Service (1910); USDA my route of travel from north to Forest Service (December 9, 2017). Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 45 south, where fre and water converge The nine volumes have value today on the Everglades. in explaining why and how America’s fre regions differ—that’s why I wrote I decided they deserved a frame. A them. But I believe they may hold prologue gave a thumbnail history more interest in the future because of what makes Florida distinctive. An they present a panorama of the epilogue placed it within the national American fre scene at a particular narrative, or Florida “between two time in our national history, refracted fres.” The upshot was a manuscript through a single voice and vision. a little under 60,000 words—a short book; printed, about 200 pages. I had Refecting Back a template. I know only too well how much is missing in both books. I carried the same loose formula to California, which divided north and There are gaps in documentation south, and to the Northern Rockies, beginning in the 1980s. A lot of stuff which had two portals, one at Lolo is not in the archives; and a lot of stuff Pass and one at the Gates of the was beginning to go digital but was Mountains. Those were the big three not saved. Despite what may seem fre regions I had wanted to survey. its length and density, Between Two Fires has serious gaps that I partly By now, I began to think of a series more so I could complete the series as flled from my personal experience of books that would spread into conceived. of having lived through the era. By other regions. I still had funds in training and temperament, though, the research account. I added the The additional money and time I’m a historian. There are reasons Southwest and the Great Plains. The meant I could add two books. One why it’s customary to wait 40 or 50 Plains introduced another variation, would look at the Northeast, not an years before taking on a topic. But I a minisurvey of 20,000 words, active arena on the national scene thought we needed something now. which I decided I needed for Texas, today but of great interest to a which wasn’t integrated yet wasn’t historian and in many ways a possible The reconnaissance by region also autonomous either. (Would Texans harbinger of what the future might has omissions. The Southeast got have wanted it any other way?) The look like elsewhere. The other would lost because I began with Florida University of Arizona Press agreed to assemble three minisurveys: one for and telescoped the region into publish the series under the collective the oak woodlands, one for Alaska, that eccentric State. The Southern title To the Last Smoke. and one for the Pacifc Northwest. Appalachians will similarly get compressed into an essay on the I managed to squeeze out a volume I was determined to complete my 2017 Gatlinburg Fire in Tennessee. on the Interior West and a minisurvey travels and manuscripts by the end The Lake States, enormously on the oak woodlands before the of 2017—the 50th anniversary of my important in the leadup to a funding ran out. Along the way, I had frst season in fre. Actual publication national fre program, have been written some topical essays that didn’t will probably extend into early 2019. less so in the postwar era; they ft into any of the targeted regions; I get a long essay in the Northeast gathered these into a second-order When published, To the Last volume. The Pacifc Northwest, also anthology called Here and There. Smoke will hold nine volumes. The historically signifcant in the frst books have evolved. Florida was half of the 20th century, is less so in Then Ron Dunton, the assistant journalistic—serious, historically the latter half; it gets a minisurvey. director of Fire Management for informed, but built mostly on There were places missed in the the Bureau of Land Management, personal essays. The subsequent Plains and the Northern Rockies; approached me at a conference and volumes have become more intriguing States like Arkansas, asked if I would consider Alaska. Of deliberate; more background Minnesota, and Washington got course I would. The Bureau provided research, more calculation in the mostly elided; changes in access funds through the Joint Fire Science choice of topics, though I have tried to Tribal lands made it diffcult to Program, which contributed some to keep a less formal tone. Fire Management Today 46 include as many as I would have appreciated the way in which nearly Useful Links liked. “Human subjects” constraints every fre story in California seems Barrett, S.W. 2017. Telling fre’s story limited what I could do by way to end in suppression regardless of through narrative and art. Fire Science of personal profles. Writing, like what fre offcers might wish. I had Digest. 25 (July): 1–11. https://www. politics, is the art of the possible. I not sensed how powerful the role frescience.gov/Digest/FSdigest25.pdf. of generations is in the Northern [Date accessed unknown]. had to pass between two fres. This is Pyne, S.J. [N.d.]. The contemporary what survived. Rockies until I began to probe American fre scene. www.stephenpyne. through the literature. Until I toured com/_i__b__font_size__3__the_ There were lots of surprises. I had the Great Basin, I had not imagined contemporary_fre_scene_in_american__ spent many years viewing fre history the ways in which knowledge font___b___i__130396.htm. [Date came and went, along with species. accessed unknown]. on a continental scale. Moving from University of Arizona Press. 2018. satellite surveillance into the pixels Every place had a fascinating story. Between Two Fires: A Fire History of and polygons of particular places Everywhere had something new. Contemporary America. www.uapress. forced me to reconsider what I The grand tour has been equally arizona.edu/Books/bid2534.htm. [Date thought I knew. I had not understood enlightening and humbling. accessed unknown]. University of Arizona Press. 2018. To the the richness of the Florida fre scene Last Smoke. until I walked through it. I had not And there is plenty yet to do. ■ https://uapress.arizona.edu/series/ttls. [Date accessed unknown].

Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 47 NEXT-GENERATION FIRE MODELING FOR ADVANCED WILDLAND FIRE TRAINING

James H. Furman

the original project comprised the The project was developer of FIRETEC and three wildland fre managers. The fre designed to answer managers cumulatively have over “burning questions.” 60 years of wildland fre experience on more than 1,000 fre events, primarily in longleaf pine and associated southeastern fuel types. his article, the second in a The project was designed to test three-part series pertaining to FIRETEC’s capabilities while using TFIRETEC, focuses on a project it to explore the modeled physics of funded by the U.S. Department of specifc ignition strategy scenarios. Defense that should be of particular Figure 1—Eglin Air Force Base on the The team designed the ignition interest to fre managers. The frst Florida panhandle includes about 464,000 strategy scenarios to seek answers acres (186,000 ha) of predominantly to management-relevant ignition article described the development longleaf pine forest. Eglin completes about and capabilities of FIRETEC, a 90,000 acres (36,000 ha) of prescribed strategy questions. Funded by physics-based wildland fre model; it burning annually. Source: U.S. Air Force. the U.S. Department of Defense also introduced the project portrayed here. This article outlines general project design, expected benefts to the wildland fre community, and preliminary project results. The third article will give additional project results and more specifc information on project design, inputs, and analysis.

Testing FIRETEC Capabilities Fire managers at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) on the Florida panhandle (fg. 1), in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory in Figure 2—General project schematic. The gray box contains three sets of FIRETEC New Mexico, initiated a project to simulations (the black boxes). Each relates to a different component of the project. demonstrate and test the capabilities “RxCADRE Fire” simulations are run with and compared to data from a 2012 RxCADRE of FIRETEC to simulate fre behavior fre (top blue box). Analysis and interpretation from the RxCADRE simulation (upper red box) provide information for the outreach element of the project (green box) as well as from prescribed fres in southeastern the sensitivity study and model refnements (orange box on left). This in turn provides fuels. The team that developed information for improving the FIRETEC simulations for analysis, interpretation, validation, and synthesis (lower red box). “Baseline Fire Scenarios” and “Fire Phenomenology Study” simulations were designed to test FIRETEC’s ability to capture realistic phenomenology associated with variations in environmental conditions and ignition strategies. These James Furman is a Forest Service fre simulation results are compared to fre behavior expectations from experienced fre management specialist with Northeastern managers (lower blue box). Analysis and interpretation of these simulations, as with the Area State and Private Forestry. RxCADRE simulations, provide information for discovery and outreach. Fire Management Today 48 Environmental Security Technology thorough analysis of the comparison, Certifcation Program (ESTCP), the including methodologies and project demonstrates FIRETEC’s lessons learned, will be available to ability to predict the realistic fre scientists and modelers in an response of fre to variable forest upcoming peer-reviewed publication. structure, wind speed, and fring pattern scenarios. The project Baseline Fire Scenarios also includes a strong outreach The baseline fre scenarios (see component for disseminating fgure 2) are a series of simulations modeling results and lessons learned used to explore and illustrate to fre managers and practitioners. FIRETEC’s sensitivity to varying Collaboration and associated data vegetation structure, ignition sharing with scientists associated techniques, and wind speeds. Aerial/ with the Prescribed Fire Combustion spot ignition and strip head fre Atmospheric Dynamics Research Figure 3—S–5 burn from RxCADRE (top) ignition techniques were modeled and FIRETEC simulation (bottom), both Experiment (RxCADRE) have been under low (5-mile-per-hour (8-km/ key to the success of this project. at 320 seconds after ignition. FIRETEC inputs included onsite weather and h)) and moderate (12-mile-per-hour fuels data. In this simulation, a nearest (19-km/h)) wind speed scenarios. Project Design neighbor algorithm was used to correlate data from multiple anemometers that were Figure 2 shows the FIRETEC project located around the inlet wind end of the Figure 4 shows the design of this design. The project includes three plot. The red lines in the top image show component of the project. Eighteen sets of simulations: RxCADRE Fire, the extent of the FIRETEC computational separate FIRETEC simulations were grid. The black marker in the center associated with variations in wind baseline fre scenarios, and a fre of each image marks the location of an phenomenology study. instrument tower. The large blue area in the speed, ignition type, and vegetation bottom image indicates the modeled burn structure. RxCADRE Fire area. The other colors represent different vegetation types present, generated from Three generalized vegetation The RxCADRE project included a combination of feld sampling and high structures were selected: experimental burns conducted at resolution imagery analysis. locations across the Southeast, 1. Grass, including Eglin AFB, between 2008 2. Canopy, and and 2012. Involving more than 90 using fuels and weather data from 3. Canopy with midstory. scientists, RxCADRE included some a highly instrumented RxCADRE of the most heavily instrumented burn. The S–5 burn block was The grass-dominated fuelbed was fres to date. chosen for this comparison. Figure 3 shows the actual burn on the also present in “canopy” and “canopy with midstory” simulations. For This component of the ESTCP S–5 plot and the corresponding the “canopy” simulations, mature project comprises an analysis and FIRETEC simulation using fuels and longleaf pine trees were added in comparison of FIRETEC simulations wind data from the burn. A more

Figure 4—Eighteen baseline fre scenarios. Each black box represents a separate FIRETEC simulation, in turn associated with variables of wind speed, ignition type, and vegetation structure. Black lines indicate the various associations. Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 49 order to evaluate the canopy’s effect and strip ignitions were modeled and Fire Phenomenology Study on modeled fre behavior. “Canopy several sets of ignition line numbers Following the baseline fre scenarios, with midstory” represented longleaf were simulated: 5, 10, and 15 more focused simulations were pine forest with a well-developed ignition lines for aerial/spot and 2, 4, completed to identify key trends in midstory of hardwoods dominated and 6 lines for strip ignition. phenomenology for specifc prescribed by oaks. A greater number of fre scenarios. Figure 5 shows simulations were chosen for For aerial/spot ignition, the number initial planned simulations for this “canopy with midstory” because this of ignition lines chosen represented component of the project. The study condition is typical of longleaf pine some typical trigger points. After a included four different elements (fg. 5): communities where prescribed fres certain number of ignition lines, a are conducted. fre manager will often halt ignition 1. Alignment of spot ignitions, to assess fre behavior (and adjust 2. Impact of dash fre ignition, Understory composition as well fring patterns if needed). The upper 3. Impact of midstory, and as tree sizes, structure, and range of 15 ignition lines is also 4. Impact of venting at fanks. distribution were derived from Eglin expected to present an opportunity AFB ecological monitoring data. for FIRETEC to model signifcant Alignment of spot ignitions. Modeling the relative contribution of thermal lift with associated indrafts Accurately aligning or perfectly vegetation structure to fre behavior and concentration of heat near staggering point source ignitions is important because structure the center of the fred area. This from a helicopter with regard affects midfame wind speeds, phenomenon of fre “drawing to to wind direction is impossible. surface fow, indrafts, convection, the middle,” particularly under low Nevertheless, this scenario set was and ultimately fre behavior. wind conditions, is a concern for designed to explore differences in fre managers. interactions between point source Each combination of vegetative ignitions under two different fring structure and ignition scenarios For strip head fre ignitions, patterns. Point source ignition is was modeled using wind speeds of the team chose two, four, and also a common technique when 5 miles per hour (8 km/h) and 12 six ignition lines. These values setting a prescribed fre by hand miles per hour (19 km/h). Limiting represented the typical upper and or when using a torch mounted the simulations to two wind speeds lower range of ignition lines that on an all-terrain vehicle. Either simplifed simulation combinations can be simultaneously ignited ignition method affords the ability while still allowing analysis of fre using hand torches or all-terrain to align or stagger ignition points. behavior at the upper and lower vehicles. For safety reasons, there Thus, differences in overall modeled range of wind speeds under which are typically at least two igniters fre intensity between inline and most prescribed fres occur. working simultaneously but rarely staggered aerial ignition points could more than six, making these offer insights useful to fre managers For the “canopy with midstory” scenarios a useful refection of for nonaerial point source ignition vegetation structure, both aerial/spot reality on the ground. strategies (fg. 5).

Figure 5—Schematic of the prescribed fre ignition strategy simulations in the fre phenomenology study. Gray boxes indicate FIRETEC model runs leveraged from baseline simulations in Figure 4, and black boxes represent additional simulations. The boxes are linked, as shown by black lines, to variables of wind speed, ignition type, and vegetation structure. Fire Management Today 50 Impact of dash fre ignition. The fre from the freline, “lacing up the differences in timing, strength, prescribed fre ignition strategy of fanks” to “create black.” Though and directions of wind gusts; and lighting varying lengths of dashes often a viable tactic in fghting differences in fuel arrangements, perpendicular to the prevailing wind wildfres, in the prescribed fre time of day, time of year, and drought direction produces lower overall fre arena this technique often causes index. These same confounding intensity than setting solid lines of unnecessarily intense burning that factors preclude the use of standard strip head fre. “Dash fring” produces damages resources. A FIRETEC statistical validation for fre models less wind-driven (head) fre and simulation where fanks were lit when comparing modeled outputs more fanking fre, which is typically offers a valuable visual training to actual fres. Accordingly, the focus lower intensity. The space between tool for fre managers, helping to of the FIRETEC simulations in this dashes also allows for more cool air minimize unnecessary resource project is to explore the trends in entrainment and convective cooling. damage from this practice while phenomenology associated with also testing FIRETEC’s capacity to various prescribed fre practices, not The study modeled fre behavior model this complex interaction of to predict exact spread rates, heat produced by two different prescribed faming fronts. release, and so forth for the various fre scenarios using different lengths scenarios. of dashes (fg. 5). The two scenarios Ignition Scenario Results were expected to serve as a natural Figure 6 shows snapshots from Fire behavior models, even one bridge for comparing point source several of the baseline fre scenarios as advanced as FIRETEC, cannot (least amount of fre applied per unit described in fgure 4. The 200-plus be expected to replicate exact fre area) and strip head fre (greatest managers who have viewed these behavior. It is also important to amount of fre applied per unit simulations have broadly agreed understand that standard statistical area). After some experimentation, that FIRETEC accurately captures evaluation of model performance dash lengths of 20 feet (6 m) and 46 the general phenomenology based on replication is not plausible feet (14 m) were used. Unlit strips associated with each of the scenarios. because no two fres are identical. between dashes were standardized at Specifcally, FIRETEC did well in Even when ignition patterns, weather 131 feet (40 m). modeling the relative differences forecast, and plot layouts are similar in spread rates and fre intensity for operational burns, numerous Impact of midstory. The impact of based on wind speed and vegetation- other factors will produce different an open midstory on fre behavior induced drag. fre behavior and fre effects, including was included in the project for a number of reasons. If longleaf pine forests are burned frequently, the midstory is reduced, as are fuel loadings. An open midstory decreases wind drag, resulting in higher instand winds than in a stand with a heavier midstory component. Moreover, an open midstory is what most managers of longleaf pine forests desire. Vegetation structure and composition data for “open midstory” were obtained from Eglin AFB’s ecological monitoring program for one of Eglin’s “high quality/restored” longleaf pine sites.

Impact of venting at fanks. Wildland frefghters learn that one of the “18 Situations That Shout Figure 6—Baseline fre scenarios modeled with FIRETEC illustrate appropriate relative Watch Out” is having unburned spread rates for varying vegetative structures and wind speeds and for general fre fuels between you and the fre. Many phenomenology associated with multiple ignition lines. The images are bounded by the automatically respond by setting fuel breaks and therefore do not show the entire computation domain. Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 51 Figure 7 shows screen captures for a fve-line iteration of conditions explored in the fre phenomenology study illustrated in fgure 5. Although analysis is not complete, visually FIRETEC seems to accurately predict the expected fre phenomenology for varying fring techniques under the same environmental conditions. For example, as more fre is applied per unit area, modeled fre behavior becomes more intense (fg. 7). “Closing the fanks” by lighting them after the interior is ignited seems, as expected, to produce the most Figure 7—Images from the fre phenomenology study, using fve-line ignitions, intense fre behavior overall. illustrate modeled differences from varying conditions and ignition patterns. The images are bounded by the fuel breaks and therefore do not show the entire computation Complex Scenarios and domain. The fve ignition lines encompass an area of 40.9 acres (16.6 ha). Next Steps This project represents the frst This is the second article in a three- This project was designed by fre attempt to model so many complex part series pertaining to FIRETEC managers who worked directly prescribed fre scenarios using a and this project. The next article with the developer of FIRETEC to physics-based fre behavior model. will provide additional results and accomplish multiple objectives. The project might also be unique in analysis and will delve more into Although testing and expanding the that it was designed, in large part, specifcs of project design. It will capabilities and utility of FIRETEC by fre managers seeking answers also provide updates regarding are a key objective of the project, to specifc “burning questions.” workshops and other outreach a key goal of the project’s fre FIRETEC’s performance thus far activities associated with the project. managers is to help accelerate the and the resulting simulations sometimes brutal learning curve have been impressive. This project associated with the successful Acknowledgments represents a unique opportunity application of prescribed fre. By The author thanks Dr. Rodman Linn, to explore the capabilities of next- better understanding fre behavior Judith Winterkamp, Brett Williams, generation fre models as well as the dynamics in relation to various and J. Kevin Hiers for their key roles phenomenon we call fre. ignition patterns and environmental in this project. Dr. Rodman Linn, the factors, fre managers will be able to developer of FIRETEC, is a senior Next steps for the project include: make better decisions regarding how scientist with the Computational to choose and modify fring patterns Earth Sciences Division, Los Alamos • A quantitative comparison of in order to meet specifed objectives. National Laboratory, Los Alamos, fre intensities for the different NM. Judith Winterkamp is a staff modeled scenarios; Fire behavior, including spread rates scientist with the Computational • A peer-reviewed publication on the and associated residence time, fame Earth Sciences Division, Los Alamos RxCADRE S–5 simulation; height, thermal lift, and overall National Laboratory, who produces • Continued outreach efforts, fre intensity, can be manipulated the FIRETEC visualizations that including presentations and poster by managers who understand and underpin this project. Brett Williams displays at various venues; choose appropriate fring patterns. is the wildland support module • Facilitation of workshops at several Of course, these phenomena are leader, Air Force Wildland Fire U.S. Department of Defense in turn correlated with certain Center, Eglin AFB, FL. J. Kevin Hiers installations; and aspects of ecological fre effects serves as a wildland fre scientist, • Additional simulations and analysis that may be either desirable or Tall Timbers Research Station, as time and budget allow. undesirable to the manager trying Tallahassee, FL. The author is solely to meet specifc objectives. responsible for any errors. ■ Fire Management Today 52 A FIRE IMAGINED

S.D. Fillmore

Author’s note: It has always made sense to me to see fre in terms of life. At various times, we ascribe human traits such as hunger, anger, malice, generosity, and even intent to wildfres. As I was driving home from this particular fre assignment, I refected on the experience of being in charge of a vulnerable new fre— veritably the parent of the fre. As an actual parent, I am experiencing the wondrous and uncertain process of tending a life that can ultimately go forth and do good or harm. Of course, we do this with new fres all the time … and the most cynical parents of fre are we. I believe this to be the source of the analogy. Who was involved and where it happened matter very little in the grand scheme of things. This really Prisoner Lake Fire in 2012 in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness. Even though it was in isn’t about one fre in one place. It is a wilderness area, a decision was made to suppress the fre. Photo: USDA Forest Service about all the times when a fre could (August 7, 2012). have been allowed to do what fres want to do … for good or ill. and lightning. The neighborhood the fragile new fre. The furrowed it was born in was both rough and and moss-draped Douglas-fr trees In tribute to 406. beautiful; the mountain formed minor loomed over the newcomer like peaks, valleys, and draws that spilled reproaching passersby. ike many before it, the wildfre down from the ridges into deeper cuts was conceived on a late summer and steeper slopes as the watercourses The instance of creation had occurred Lafternoon as a drifting monsoonal worked ever downward and outward suddenly, with abstract natural cell bunched up, gathered its energy, toward the Pacifc Northwest coastline. violence and few witnesses. The rain and raked over the mountainous uplift, kept the fre diminutive for its frst all the while spewing hard rain, wind, The wetness that came with the inchoate hours; however, the wisps storm dampened the usual sounds of gray smoke against the bluing sky of the forest in the frst few hours confessed to the fre’s existence before S.D. Fillmore is the forest prescribed after the fre’s arrival. The last it could learn to run. fre/fuels management specialist for the outfows of wind from the collapsing Cleveland National Forest, San Diego, CA cumulonimbus clouds streamed Authorities arrived swiftly; this . through the upper canopy, throwing had all been rehearsed before. *A version of the story frst appeared off beads of water that fell as false Professionals moving with intent under the title “The Unbidden Wildfre” in Wildfre Magazine (March 14, 2016) at raindrops. Curtains of steam rose made their way through the forest, http://wildfremagazine.org/article/the- from the surrounding boulders found the fre, and judged it on its unbidden-wildfre/. and swirled like midwives around merits. It was like so many others; Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 53 small, burning valiantly but gently actions. Patience would be required world and let it fully grow. There under a fr tree, hemmed in by the to let the fre exhibit its full would be the costs of watching over dripline where it was still dry and potential. Patience, time, and the it for weeks and months and perhaps protected. The branches hung low expertise of those who would watch longer. Would the fre’s watchers have like protective arms around it. it grow, steer it when it went in the the resources available to tend it? wrong direction, and teach it to go Who would watch the fre if they were The fre was to be easily controlled the right way. This potential future called away? with minimal effort. The frefghters is what the fre manager saw as he moved to do what was expected of stood there watching the tendrils of Is it more expensive to let a fre grow them. They were there to keep the fame struggle and writhe. He was that can be taught the correct way peace, to keep the neighborhood wistful perhaps—he could admit this to exist, or do people wait for the fre intact, and to cease the interruption to himself—but mostly hopeful that that is born at the bottom of the hill that this impertinent little fre was this time was the right time, that and wants not to be tamed, one that bringing to the area. this fre was the right fre, and that wants to feed hungrily at the fuel, he would be allowed to let this fre consumed in a gorge like a beggar An unexpected radio call stayed their grow into something auspicious. at the banquet table? The chronic hands before they had a chance to alternative is to endure a fre that begin their rote work. Another man casts aside the vain efforts to tame had listened to the fre report, and had it and that destroys the very house visualized the potential of the young The fre could grow to in which it briefy lives, raging only interloper. He wanted to meet the fre until the ropes of man’s efforts can be face to face and to assess for himself do both wonderful and slung over its neck and broken like a what potential it had in this world. terrible things if left stampeding horse, slowly, tediously, and with great risk; until fnally the He arrived at the fre under the late untouched. fre’s loud voice is muffed, tamed afternoon shadows of dissipating into submission, and all that is left is storm clouds. He recognized that the charred remains of what once was the fre, if left untouched, could and will never be again. grow to perform both wonderful and There would be hiccups. The fre terrible things. The good or ill extent would certainly make some mistakes “No,” the fre manager thought, of these effects would, of course, be along the way. A pocket of trees would “let’s allow this fre to fourish into largely in the eye of the beholder be scorched more severely than a productive thing, to see this fre and decided much later, after the hoped for; maybe an area that was contribute to the goals of nature in its fre had been allowed to mature and favored by the local owl pair would be own unique and individual way.” then fade. First, however, a group of diminished. The winds might blow people existed who must be consulted the smoke in the wrong direction There would be challenges in the regarding the future of the new fre. and the neighbors would consider endeavor, but he knew also that with complaining. The fre manager knew great challenges come great rewards. The fre manager noted the position that these disturbances would pass And so he made his plans and came to of the fre—near the top of the quickly and become a memory and a love the fre for what he knew in his ridge, with sparse fuels above. He learning experience. heart it could become. recognized that it could not burn wildly uphill and instead could be In its exuberance, the fre might Ever a servant to the complexities of tamely and deliberately nursed even hurt one of the people tending this world, he knew that the authority downhill. It would move slowly it. The very act of being there set that would allow him to fulfll his along the forest foor, eating that circumstance. However, the vision did not exist with him alone. and growing in the manner of magnitude of the effects of growing Standing by the fre’s edges, dreaming disturbances that the old trees a fre can never be known until the his dream, he gave his orders, and remembered only from long ago. privilege of hindsight is revealed. the frefghters walked back to their equipment to head for home. And so, Two good ridgelines fanked the He knew there would be other costs for this one long evening and night, fre; two good ridgelines that would as well—fnancial costs. It is no cheap the fre would be left to exist freely, be there to direct and control its proposition to bring a fre into this alone and without bounds. Fire Management Today 54 In the morning, the fre manager can you know that it will not take always comes down to. How could went to see the others, to explain his a mind to go a different way than he argue with the hypothetical visions for the fre. He spoke of the what you want?” wrong time, wrong place, and wrong possibilities that this fre could afford resources? How could he guarantee them. He extolled the positive effects The fre manager could only reply that that which can never be known? He of what letting the fre burn could do “we know there are no guarantees in a could promise only that he would try for the landscape, for the culture, and business such as ours.” his best utilizing the skills he now for the lessons that would be learned possessed. and shared. “And what about our wildlife,” the biologist asked. “How can you “True,” the fre manager said. While listening, the others thought ensure that the trees where they live “However, we can’t know that there of the past. They remembered a won’t be harmed? Can you tell me will be a fre later this year, and surely fre that they had tried to nurture for certain that the fre will behave you could see that the plans that I’ve before. That fre grew and then as you expect?” made for the fre are sound. I just surprised them; had fguratively need some help for a couple of weeks burned them and had not acted to help monitor it to the end.” according to their expectations. They did not forget the lesson It is no cheap “Who would come to help us?” the that fre has the potential to go proposition to bring a others asked cynically. “It’s just a fre differently from that which they that no one seems to want, and no desired. fre into this world and one wants to put money or energy let it fully grow. into it. The resources that we have “This new fre is different,” the fre are out dealing with the trouble fres. manager persisted. “This one is not Why make more headaches for us? able to race up the hill, this one can It’s so much easier to just put it out.” be guided the right way, and this one can achieve the things we all “Well, no, I cannot guarantee that,” “I know that we have been asked to hope it will.” the fre manager replied. “However, look for opportunities like this,” they I know that a fre born at the bottom went on, “but let someone else fnd a “But,” they retorted, “what will the of the hill, at the wrong time, will way to make it work. We can at least neighbors think? They could be almost certainly destroy the nests of have our guarantee of success with inconvenienced by this fre, annoyed all the birds in the forest between the that. The risk is not worth it to us.” even, especially when it grows more two ridges.” noticeable as it gets bigger.” And so it was decided, and so it was “We’re not talking about a fre in that the fre manager walked out of the “Let the neighbors get to know the future,” the others said. “We’re high offce and into the brightening the fre early,” the fre manager talking about the fre we have last light of the morning of the last suggested. “We’ll introduce them now. You have to see that there are day that the fre would heave its when the fre is still small. The neighbors nearby, and that the trees smoke into the sky. A brief radio call neighbors can take ownership in have been there a long time, and we was made to the frefghters who the growing of this fre and help to just don’t want to disturb the peace.” were already perched next to the fre, assume the risk that they have in watching it, perhaps even encouraging living in the same neighborhood.” “We understand why you want to let it in their own abstract way. this fre grow,” they went on, “but “They would never go for it,” the we don’t think that this is the right They were waiting for the fnal others said dismissively. time for it. Maybe if it were a bit later decision to come down, one way in the year, when the winter rain and or the other. The call came, they A fre like this was just too snow are closer at hand and we could understood the decision, and in a few inconvenient for everyone to deal with. know that the fre won’t move too far short hours the heat was gone, the … maybe then we could allow it.” smoke was gone, and the possibilities “Plus,” they asked, “How can you of a fre on a long summer’s day were guarantee that the fre will follow Inwardly, the fre manager knew gone, too. ■ your directions and intent? How that these are the reasons that it Volume 76 • No. 4 • 2018 55 today GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Fire Management Today (FMT) Include information for photo help readability. As a general rule of is an international quarterly captions and photographer’s name clear writing, use the active voice magazine for the wildland fre and affliation at the end of the (for example, write “Fire managers community. The purpose of FMT manuscript. Submit charts and know…” and not “It is known…”). is to share information and raise graphs along with the electronic Give spellouts for all abbreviations. issues related to wildland fre source fles or data needed to management for the beneft of reconstruct them and any special Tables the wildland fre community. FMT instructions for layout. Include a Tables should be logical and welcomes unsolicited manuscripts description of each illustration at understandable without reading the from readers on any subject the end of the manuscript for use text. Include tables at the end of the related to fre management. in the caption. manuscript with appropriate titles. However, FMT is not a forum for For all submissions, include airing personal grievances or for the complete name(s), title(s), Photographs marketing commercial products. affliation(s), and address(es) and Illustrations The Forest Service’s Fire and of the author(s), illustrator(s), Figures, illustrations, and clear Aviation Management staff reserves and photographer(s), as well photographs are often essential the right to decline submissions as their telephone number(s) to the understanding of articles. that do not meet the purpose of and email address(es). If the Clearly label all photographs the journal. same or a similar manuscript is and illustrations (fgure 1, 2, being submitted for publication 3; photograph A, B, C). At the Submissions elsewhere, include that end of the manuscript, include information also. Authors should Send electronic fles by email or clear, thorough fgure and photo submit a photograph of themselves traditional mail to: captions labeled in the same way or a logo for their agency, as the corresponding material institution, or organization. USDA Forest Service (fgure 1, 2, 3; photograph A, B, C). Fire Management Today Captions should make photographs 201 14th Street, SW Style and illustrations understandable Washington, D.C. 20250 Authors are responsible for using without reading the text. For photographs, indicate the name Email: wildland fre terminology that and affliation of the photographer [email protected] conforms to the latest standards set by the National Wildfre and the year the photo was taken. Submit electronic fles in PC Coordinating Group under the format. Submit manuscripts in National Interagency Incident Release Authorization Word (.doc or .docx). Submit Management System. FMT uses Non-Federal Government authors illustrations and photographs as the spelling, capitalization, must sign a release to allow their separate fles; do not include visual hyphenation, and other styles work to be placed in the public materials (such as photographs, recommended in the U.S. domain and on the World Wide maps, charts, or graphs) as Government Printing Offce Web. In addition, all photographs embedded illustrations in the Style Manual, as required by the and illustrations created by a non- electronic manuscript fle. You U.S. Department of Agriculture. Federal employee require a written may submit digital photographs Authors should use the U.S. release by the photographer or in JPEG, TIFF, EPS, or other system of weight and measure, illustrator. The author, photograph, format; they must be at high with equivalent values in the and illustration release forms resolution: at least 300 dpi at a metric system. Keep titles concise are available upon request at minimum size of 4 by 7 inches. and descriptive; subheadings and [email protected]. bulleted material are useful and Volume 76 • No. 2 • 2018 Fire Management Today 56 56