Fire Management notes Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999
THE ART OF WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Editor’s note: This issue of Fire Management Notes celebrates the art of Notice to readers: Long ago, wildland fire management, acknowledging our debt to all the artists over Fire Management Notes the years who have used their talents to illustrate and commemorate outgrew the short formats wildland firefighting, fire use, and other forms of wildland fire typical of a “Notes.” For years, management. partly at the urging of our readers, we have discussed • Our featured artist in this issue is Patrick Michael Karnahan, whose changing the journal’s name. paintings capture the drama of wildland firefighting. (See page 4.) Now, thanks to Steve Barrett, • April Baily’s birthday tribute to Smokey Bear acknowledges 55 years of a contributor to the journal one of the most imaginative and far-reaching artistic campaigns in our and consulting fire ecologist Nation’s history, led by the USDA Forest Service in partnership with The in Kalispell, MT, we have Ad Council. (See page 8.) found the right name. • Finally, Steve Barrett’s allegorical sketch of wildland burning by Native Beginning with the Winter Americans, a first step into the realm of fiction for Fire Management 2000 issue (volume 60(1)), Notes, uses story-telling humor to show the ties between past and Fire Management Notes will present in wildland fire management. (See page 40.) become Fire Management Today. The artistic framework for this issue, which begins with visual art and ends with literary fiction, is designed to illustrate the multidimensionality of wildland fire management as a deeply human endeavor. We welcome you to submit your fire-related art for possible publication in Fire Man agement Notes. In particular, we invite you to submit your photographs for evaluation in the photo contest announced in this issue (see page 43). In tribute to the large and growing role of art in wildland fire manage ment today, a future issue of Fire Management Notes will feature the winning photos.
Fire Management Notes is published by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. The Secretary of Agriculture has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business required by law of this Department.
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Dan Glickman, Secretary April J. Baily U.S. Department of Agriculture General Manager
Mike Dombeck, Chief Robert H. “Hutch” Brown, Ph.D. Forest Service Editor
Jose Cruz, Director Fire and Aviation Management
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Disclaimer: The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official 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 Notes. Fire notes Management Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999
On the Cover: CONTENTS Patrick Michael Karnahan: An Artist on the Firelines ...... 4 Hutch Brown A Birthday Letter to Smokey ...... 8 April Baily Interagency Teams Prevent Fires From Alaska to Florida...... 13 Judith K. Kissinger “Siege of ‘96,” a painting by Patrick Michael Karnahan, commemorates one of the worst fire seasons in Why Burn Wilderness? ...... 18 California’s history—and the Nation’s. Stephen W. Barrett In 1996, more than 6 million acres (2.4 million ha) burned nationwide, including 666,000 acres (270,000 ha) Fire Use Training Academy Completes First Year ...... 22 in California. In early August, a week Mary Zabinski and Brad Washa of abnormally high temperatures in California was followed by lightning Those Really Bad Fire Days: storms, igniting hundreds of fires. Ninety-three fires escaped initial What Makes Them So Dangerous? ...... 27 attack and consumed more than Dan Thorpe 366,000 acres (148,000 ha) within 3 weeks. By mid-August, firefighters The Consumption Strategy: from across the Nation were converg ing on California. Karnahan’s Increasing Safety During Mopup ...... 30 depiction of hotshots, an engine, and a Tom Leuschen and Ken Frederick helitanker honors the various ground and aerial firefighting resources that Using Felled Timber as Water Bars were pitted against the flames during the Siege of ’96. Photo: Karl Perry, To Control Postfire Erosion...... 35 USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC, John Winchester 1999. (For more of Karnahan’s artwork, see the story beginning on page 4.) Spirit Fire Rules the Earth...... 40 Stephen W. Barrett The FIRE 21 symbol (shown below and on the cover) stands for the safe and effective use of wildland fire, now and in the 21st century. Its shape represents the fire triangle (oxygen, heat, SHORT FEATURES and fuel). The three outer red triangles represent the basic functions of wildland fire organi zations (planning, operations, and aviation Guidelines for Contributors...... 12 management), and the three critical aspects of wildland fire management (prevention, suppression, and prescription). The black Wildland Fire Fatality Report Available ...... 21 interior represents land affected by fire; the Dick Mangan emerging green points symbolize the growth, restoration, and sustainability associated with fire-adapted ecosystems. The flame represents A Glimpse Into Fire Prevention History ...... 39 fire itself as an ever-present force in nature. For Ken Strauss more information on FIRE 21 and the science, research, and innovative thinking behind it, contact Mike Apicello, National Interagency Fire Photo Contest ...... 43 Center, 208-387-5460.
Firefighter and public safety is our first priority. PATRICK MICHAEL KARNAHAN: AN ARTIST ON THE FIRELINES*
Hutch Brown
rt is often associated with ethereal subjects, not with Karnahan’s paintings, based on Agrim reality—and certainly years of wildland firefighting experience, not with the grimy drudgery are full of highly accurate detail. firefighters often face on the fireline. But not for Patrick Michael Karnahan. For more than 20 years, Karnahan has used his unique artistic talents to com memorate the heroic efforts and sacrifices made by wildland firefighters and to dramatize the ongoing need for sound wildland fire management.
Karnahan knows a lot about wildland fire. For 15 years, he worked for the USDA Forest Service as a seasonal firefighter and later as a graphic artist and public affairs specialist. He re mains under contract to prepare paintings for Forest Service posters and publications. His paintings, based on years of personal experience on the firelines, are full of highly accurate Artist Patrick Michael Karnahan poses with his work “Into the Unknown.” Photo: Courtesy of Patrick Michael Karnahan, Sonora, CA, ©1994. detail. They also reflect his emo tional commitment to wildland in recreation on the San Bernar on canvas for more than 20 years. firefighting and to conserving our dino National Forest. In addition, He has completed a calendar on public wildland treasures. he designed posters for public American railroads, and his education on the National Forest artwork has been featured on Karnahan spent most of his Forest System and implemented visual numerous book and magazine Service career in the Sierra Ne interpretation programs for the covers. He also promotes art vada, CA. He worked as a Stanislaus National Forest. He has education for children in local firefighter and in fuels manage also done design and interpretive schools. “It’s satisfying,” he says. ment on the Eldorado, Plumas, work for California’s Department “Usually, I’ll sell my paintings and and Sequoia National Forests; and of State Parks and Recreation. won’t see them again. What I’m doing becomes part of the Hutch Brown is the editor of Fire Manage Karnahan has been oil painting community.” ment Notes, Arlington, VA. since he was 8 years old. In addi tion to painting wildlands, But that’s not all. Karnahan also * This article is based on reports in The Sacramento Bee, 24–26 October 1997; and the Sonora Union Karnahan has been capturing the plays and writes music for the Democrat, 9 September 1988, 12 September 1997, and 25 September 1998. history of the American railroads Black Irish Band, which he founded in 1989 in his home town
4 Fire Management Notes of Sonora, CA. The band plays old That history, of course, includes Forest Service revised its standards and new music in many styles, wildland firefighting. One of for wildland firefighting. Karnahan including Celtic, Sicilian, Spanish, Karnahan’s songs is about the felt compelled to write a song railroad, Gold Rush, and maritime. Mann Gulch Fire, in which 13 about what happened. “People are “I write songs about people and smokejumpers lost their lives in a crying out, ‘Remember us, remem places and events that influence 1949 blowup on a Montana hillside. ber our time,’” he says. “To me, we my life,” says Karnahan, “and I’m After the disaster, which Karnahan all connect together. That’s what fascinated by history.” calls a modern tragedy, the makes us who we are.” ■
FIRESTORM AND AFTERMATH
The Forest Service posters The painting in the poster on the The poster on the right shows “Firestorm ‘87” and “Up From left suggests the scope and inten the aftermath of the fire. Ashes” feature paintings by sity of the fire. A DC–6 airtanker Smokey watches a mother and Patrick Michael Karnahan swoops over an exhausted child plant a seedling on the commemorating the Stanislaus firefighter toward a blazing lookout devastated forest, symbolizing Complex Fire in 1987 on tower, representing the various hope and rebirth—and a subtle California’s Stanislaus National firefighting and fire detection warning for the future. Both Forest. The fire complex burned resources used today and in the paintings illustrate the emotion more than 147,000 acres (59,000 past. Dimly outlined in the billow Karnahan invests in his work, ha) and took massive firefighting ing smoke are the features of David which functions in these posters resources to control, including Erickson, a firefighter killed on the not only to aesthetically please, 134 hand crews (more than firelines by a falling tree. Karnahan but also to give pause to reflect. 2,000 firefighters) and 13 also created a roadside monument Photos: Courtesy of Patrick airtankers. to Erickson that overlooks the spot Michael Karnahan, Sonora, CA, where he died. ©1995 and ©1989.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 5 THE DRAMA OF WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING
These paintings illustrate town of Arnold, CA. The Forest “Into the Unknown” (right), a Patrick Michael Karnahan’s Service joined the fray, and a tribute to Forest Service hotshot attention to detail in depicting backfire set by Fire Management crews, depicts the Stanislaus wildland firefighting. “Fight for Officer Bob Kress finally succeeded Hotshots on the Stanislaus Fullen Road” (left) commemo in turning the tide and saving the National Forest, along with rates pilot Roger Stark, who town. In a testimony to inter- the tools they use and the died while flying an S–2 agency wildland fire management, equipment they carry. The airtanker on the 1992 Old Gulch Karnahan’s painting shows a helitanker hovering overhead Fire, Stanislaus National Forest, Forest Service engine crew work represents the vital role that CA. Two weeks of backfires set ing side by side with a crew from aircraft play in supporting by the California Department of the CDF to hold a fireline, while a firefighters on the ground. Forestry and Fire Protection CDF S–2 airtanker overhead drops Photos: Karl Perry, USDA Forest (CDF) failed to stop the Old retardant along the flank of the Service, Washington, DC, 1999. Gulch Fire, which jumped fire. Fullen Road and threatened the
Karnahan’s paintings are full of history, functioning not only to aesthetically please, but also to commemorate the sacrifices wildland firefighters make to protect lives, property, and wildland resources.
6 Fire Management Notes A TRIBUTE TO WILDLAND FIRE AVIATION
Patrick Michael Karnahan’s fascination with history—including the history of Ameri can machines—emerges in these paintings of airtankers dropping retardant on wildland fires. The Consolidated PB4Y2 Privateer (top) was built for World War II as a long-range Navy bomber. Used since the 1960’s as a type 2 airtanker, the PB4Y2 has a limited future because replacement parts are hard to find. The Boeing KC–97 (bot tom), originally designed as a military transport, has served as a type 1 airtanker in Alaska. Photos: Courtesy of Patrick Michael Karnahan, Sonora, CA, ©1997 and ©1995.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 7 A BIRTHDAY LETTER TO SMOKEY
April Baily
Dear Smokey Bear,
Realizing that you celebrated your 55th birthday on August 9, 1999, I wanted to extend belated congratulations. You’ve done an outstanding job of preventing human-caused wildland fires!
I recently read your biography, Smokey Bear 20252—A Biography, by William Clifford Lawter, Jr. What a story it is! I was impressed by the efforts of all the people who helped make you the symbol of fire prevention. William Bergoffen, for example, in his position in the USDA Forest Service’s Division of Information and Education, was instrumental in your appearance today. To help you look more like the people you were talking to, he suggested that you wear dungarees. As Mr. Lawter says in his book, Bill Bergoffen became known thereafter as “the man who put the pants on Smokey.”
Some wonderful people were associated with you in your early years. For example, who could forget Albert Staehle, who’s credited with the very first poster of Smokey Bear? Another special man was Rudy Wendelin, an artist of national renown, who not only created some of your best posters, but also guided and protected your development as you grew into the character recognized today almost as widely as Santa Claus! James Hansen was the man who drew national attention to your prevention campaign with his poster of you kneeling, paws touching, with the caption, “… and please make people careful.” Other artists, such as Harry Rossoll, also helped make you the national symbol you are today.
But what’s a bear without a voice? In 1947, Jackson Weaver, announcer for radio station WMAL in Washington, DC, gave you your voice. Mr. Weaver became so closely associated with you that his 1995 death was announced as the passing of “the Voice of Smokey Bear.”
I know lots of people lately have criticized your prevention message, saying that the years of prevention have actually made the fire problem worse by allowing fuels to build up to the point where a conflagration is inevitable when a spark is struck. But I know that your message was always aimed at keeping people from carelessly starting the fires that destroy not just trees, but also the homes of people who share your wildlands. Don’t get discouraged. Your message is just as relevant today as ever!
Most of the people who helped you get started have passed on. But those of us still around say, “Thank you, Smokey Bear. Keep reminding us that it’s OUR job to prevent carelessness from causing wildland fires!”
Your friend, /s/ April Baily
April J. Baily is the Federal Excess Personal Property program officer for the USDA Forest Service, Fire and Aviation Management, Washington, DC; and the general manager of Fire Management Notes.
8 Fire Management Notes The first poster of Smokey Bear was prepared in 1944–45 from James Hansen, a well-known animal illustrator and sculptor, drawings by Albert Staehle, a renowned animal artist. The bear modified Albert Staehle’s early Smokey into a more human- was chosen over a squirrel, an owl, and a chipmunk, also drawn looking bear. Hansen’s 1948 poster of a kneeling, bare-headed by Staehle, for a wildland fire prevention campaign that would Smokey resonated widely with the American public. Photo: USDA appeal especially to children. Photo: USDA Forest Service, Forest Service, Washington, DC. Washington, DC.
Forest Service artist Rudy Wendelin is widely credited with putting the finishing touches on Smokey. Shown here at his desk in 1960, Wendelin devoted much of his time—even after his retirement in 1973—to drawing Smokey Bear. Photo: Courtesy of National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, Forest Service Photograph Collection, Beltsville, MD.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 9 “America’s best animal friend is a sturdy brown bear named Smokey. Not since the early days of Mickey Mouse and Bambi has any cartooned animal made such an impact on Americans.”
–Newsweek cover story, quoted in Fire Control Notes, October 1952
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, artists such as James Hansen, Chuck Kuderna, Harry Rossoll, and Rudy Wendelin refined Smokey’s appearance to what it is today. For example, Smokey’s name appeared on his belt buckle (left) and hatband (right). The 1950 poster on the left uses the Bambi theme, ever popular with children, and the “red” theme of a firestorm in the background to dramatize the destruction caused by careless fire use. By contrast, the 1964 poster on the right uses a “green” theme (above) to promote the benefits of firesafe practices and a “black” theme (below) to show the costs of carelessness with fire. The Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention Campaign frequently alternated among these themes in its posters. Photos: USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC.
SMOKEY PREVENTS A FIRE * In 1951, anglers on northern California’s McCloud Ranger District, Shasta National Forest, stopped in a nearby town to make some purchases on their way home to San Francisco. In the store window, they noticed a poster showing Smokey standing in front of a raging wildland fire and saying, “You Can Stop This Shameful Waste!” The poster made the anglers wonder whether they had completely extinguished their own campfire. Returning to their abandoned campsite, they found that smoldering coals had already ignited the thick pine duff near the campfire. The fire was beginning to spread, but the anglers managed to put it out. Then they reported the entire incident at the ranger station. “If the fire had gotten away under those burning conditions,” said District Ranger Earl F. Sullaway, “it could have easily blackened a great many acres. Smokey Bear sure did his part in keeping California green and golden!”
*Based on a report in Fire Control Notes 13(2): 41.
10 Fire Management Notes “The story of how Smokey was born and how he grew is a prize example of wholesome and energetic cooperation between government and business.”
–Newsweek cover story, quoted in Fire Control Notes, October 1952
William Bergoffen, who served in the USDA Forest Service’s By the 1970’s, Smokey was so well known nationwide that it was Division of Information and Education in Washington, DC, from no longer necessary for his posters to state any explicit message 1940 until his retirement in 1967, was part of a team that first against careless fire use. In this 1975 illustration (which includes developed the idea for Smokey Bear in August 1944. One of the contemporaneous “Thanks for Listening!” Smokey poster in several people who helped refine early drawings of Smokey by the background, whimsically altered), Rudy Wendelin pays tribute adding humanizing touches, Bergoffen suggested Smokey’s to the live bear identified with Smokey, an orphaned black bear dungarees. In 1967, Forest Service artist Rudy Wendelin cub rescued in 1950 after the Capitan Gap Fire on the Lincoln acknowledged Bergoffen’s role in creating Smokey Bear with a National Forest, NM. Amid great fanfare, the cub was named after humorous retirement card for “the man who put the pants on Smokey and transferred to the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Smokey.” Photo: Courtesy of National Agricultural Library, When he died in 1976, another young bear replaced him for awhile Special Collections, Forest Service Photograph Collection, as “the living symbol of Smokey Bear.” Photo: USDA Forest Beltsville, MD. Service, Washington, DC.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 11 CONTRIBUTORS WANTED
We need your fire-related articles and photographs for Fire Management Notes! Feature articles should be about 1,500 to 2,000 words in length. We also need short items of about 100 to 200 words. Subjects of articles published in Fire Management Notes include:
Aviation Firefighting experiences Communication Incident management Cooperation Information management (including systems) Ecosystem management Personnel Education Planning (including budgeting) Equipment and technology Preparedness Fire behavior Prevention Fire ecology Safety Fire effects Suppression Fire history Training Fire use (including prescribed fire) Weather Fuels management Wildland–urban interface
To help prepare your submission, see “Guidelines for Contributors” in this issue.
GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS Style. Authors are responsible for using of the manuscript, include clear, thorough Editorial Policy wildland fire terminology that conforms to the figure and photo captions labeled in the same Fire Management Notes (FMN) is an interna latest standards set by the National Wildfire way as the corresponding material (figure 1, 2, tional quarterly magazine for the wildland fire Coordinating Group under the National 3, etc.; photograph A, B, C, etc.). Captions community. FMN welcomes unsolicited Interagency Incident Management System. FMN should make photos and illustrations under manuscripts from readers on any subject related uses the spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, standable without reading the text. For photos, to wildland fire management. and other styles recommended in the United indicate the “top” and include the name and States Government Printing Office Style affiliation of the photographer and the year the Submission Guidelines Manual. Authors should use the U.S. system of photo was taken. weight and measure, with equivalent values in Submit manuscripts to either the general the metric system. Try to keep titles concise and Electronic Files. Please label all disks carefully manager or the editor at: descriptive; subheadings and bulleted material with name(s) of file(s) and system(s) used. If the are useful and help readability. As a general rule manuscript is word-processed, please submit a USDA Forest Service of clear writing, use the active voice (e.g., write, 3-1/2 inch, IBM-compatible disk together with Attn: April J. Baily, F&AM Staff “Fire managers know…” and not, “It is the paper copy (see above) as an electronic file P.O. Box 96090 known…”). Provide spellouts for all abbrevia in one of these formats: WordPerfect 5.1 for Washington, DC 20090-6090 tions. Consult recent issues (on the World Wide DOS; WordPerfect 7.0 or earlier for Windows 95; tel. 202-205-0891, fax 202-205-1272 Web at
12 Fire Management Notes INTERAGENCY TEAMS PREVENT FIRES FROM ALASKA TO FLORIDA
Judith K. Kissinger
n spring 1998, everything pointed to a severe fire season in Texas. WHAT ARE COOPERATIVE WILDLAND FIRE ITemperatures were high and PREVENTION/EDUCATION TEAMS? rainfall was scant; the moisture in green vegetation was half of what it should have been. The Keetch– National cooperative wildland fire prevention/education teams are Byram Drought Index, a measure available to support any geographic area preceding and during of soil moisture, was far above the periods of high fire danger or fire activity. Severity dollars are appro normal spring range of 200 to 300 priate for use in mobilizing a team. and already approaching the danger zone above 600. Purpose The purpose of national fire prevention/education teams is to help In May 1998, realizing the poten local units prevent human-caused wildland fires by working together tial for catastrophic wildland fires, to: the Texas Forest Service mobilized a national cooperative wildland fire • Complete fire risk assessments; prevention/education team to • Determine the severity of the situation; augment the agency’s own teams. • Facilitate community awareness and education in fire prevention, From its main office in the capital including prescribed burning; city of Austin, the national team • Coordinate announcement of interagency restrictions and closures; quickly established satellite offices • Coordinate fire prevention efforts with the public, special target in Waco, San Antonio, and Dallas– groups, State and local agencies, and elected officials; Ft. Worth. Each satellite unit had a • Promote public and personal responsibility regarding fire preven public information officer and two tion in the wildland–urban interface; and fire prevention specialists. The • Develop fire protection plans. team’s strategy was to: Benefits • Inform Texas residents and National fire prevention/education teams can help: visitors of the extreme fire danger, • Reduce the loss of human life and property; • Generate interest in preventing • Reduce resource losses; wildland fires, and • Reduce the cost of suppression; and • Bring about actions that could • Improve interagency relations. reduce the incidence of human- caused fires. Organization Each national fire prevention/education team consists of a team The bottom line was to protect leader, an operations specialist, a public affairs officer, one or more lives, property, and natural re fire prevention specialists, and trainees or other team members (such sources (see sidebar). as a finance officer or logistics specialist) as the situation warrants. Trained interagency fire prevention personnel can be mobilized Judy Kissinger is a public affairs specialist through normal dispatch channels (see National Interagency Mobili for the USDA Forest Service, Office of Communication, Washington Office, zation Guide, section 22.5.10). Washington, DC; and a national instructor for fire prevention/education workshops.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 13 Texas Teamwork The national fire prevention/education teams The team worked in tandem with have a proven record of preventing fires in States the Texas Forest Service, the city of from Alaska to Florida under conditions of extreme Austin, Travis County, and other entities under the direction of an drought and high temperatures. interagency overhead team, which also directed suppression efforts—a unique combination for the Inci • Participated in community • Developed partnerships with dent Command System. Employees outreach programs and special businesses, utility companies, also participated from the U.S. events for the public; and Federal, State, and local Department of the Interior’s • Contacted more than 200 fire agencies. (USDI’s) Bureau of Land Manage departments and met with city ment (BLM) and National Park councils, fire chief associations, The challenge of a fire prevention Service (NPS) and from the States homeowner associations, and team is not only to raise public of Alaska, Idaho, and New Mexico. county officials to plan commu awareness, but also to change Team members rotated every 2 to 3 nication campaigns in their behavior. For example, home weeks, usually one at a time to communities; owners must take responsibility for ensure continuity. The Texas Forest • Purchased weatherproof signs, protecting their own homes and Service provided people to work such as “No Fireworks” and neighborhoods from wildland fire; with the team toward common “Please Clear Around Your smokers should smoke in their goals in fire safety and to provide Home,” and distributed them to cars and use their ashtrays instead continuity for programs when the local fire departments, county of strolling through forests or national team was demobilized. agencies and parks, homeowner grasslands with lit smoking associations, the Texas Forest materials; fireworks vendors can The team focused on protecting Service, and the city of Austin for remove especially risky items from homes in the wildland–urban posting along roads and high their inventories; and campers can interface (figs. 1 and 2) and (prior ways; choose not to light campfires. to the Fourth of July) on fireworks • Distributed existing local publi hazards, with secondary emphases cations at meetings, presenta on safe fire use by campers, hikers, tions, and events; and smokers, and tourists. Among other things, the team:
• Presented programs on how to defend property against wildland fire to homeowner associations, 4–H leaders, fire chief associa tions, county councils, and other community groups; • Created and released statewide public service announcements and news releases, including a media campaign on fireworks called “Don’t Blow It!”; • Developed and distributed more than 300,000 interagency flyers, brochures, and other products (some in both English and Spanish) to homes, libraries, Figure 1—In 1998, the national fire prevention/education team in Texas helped develop a museums, and other civic project to assess homes in the wildland–urban interface for risk of wildland fire. This locations; homeowner, who volunteered for the project, helps by pruning dead branches from a tree, thereby reducing the quantity of ladder fuels on her property. Photo: Judy Kissinger, USDA Forest Service, Washington Office, Washington, DC, 1998.
14 Fire Management Notes All the individuals interviewed in States that have Origins—Teaming Up in used the national fire prevention/education teams the Southwest wanted the teams mobilized again during future The first national fire prevention/ education team was launched in severe fire situations—a sign of their success. 1996 in the Southwest. Unusual conditions—below-average pre cipitation, above-average tempera tures, and high winds—portended a severe fire season for the region. Realizing the danger, the South west Area Fire Management Board, an interagency coalition of land managers primarily devoted to regional fire suppression, decided to give unprecedented emphasis to fire prevention. The board consid ered it critical to prevent human- caused wildland fires to protect lives, property, and natural re sources.
The first national fire prevention/ education team included represen tatives from the USDA Forest Service; the USDI Bureau of Indian Figure 2—Workers in the wildland–urban interface project (top) prepare to clear away Affairs, BLM, NPS, and U.S. Fish fuels and widen a driveway to accommodate emergency vehicles. After work is complete (bottom), the home in the background is far more defensible from wildland fire. For and Wildlife Service; and the States homeowners who participated in the project, cooperating government agencies (including of Arizona and New Mexico. The the Texas Forest Service, the USDA Forest Service, the Lower Colorado River Authority, same Federal agencies have since the Federal Corrections Institute, Bastrop City, and Bastrop County) cut down dead trees, removed brush and leaves near houses, trimmed branches overhanging roofs, thinned cooperated on national fire preven highly inflammable vegetation, and performed other work to create defensible space tion/education teams in other around affected houses. Photo: Judy Kissinger, USDA Forest Service, Washington Office, States. The objectives for the Washington, DC, 1998. Southwest team included taking an interagency approach to all fire prevention activities, such as the strategies used and products released to audiences and the media in the Southwest. In its messages, the team emphasized the use of prescribed fire and the responsibility of owners to make their properties safer from wild- land fire.
The team reported to the South west Area Fire Management Board. After setting up an overhead unit in Santa Fe, NM, the team offered to establish satellite units of fire prevention specialists in 11 geo graphic zones throughout Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas. Ten of
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 15 the 11 zones took advantage of the homes and recreational cabins are varying periods of time over 21 offer. The overhead team oriented scattered across wildlands. The days. Other teams in 1998 went to and prepared the fire prevention Millers Reach No. 2 Fire, which Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah specialists for their roles in their destroyed 350 structures, under for shorter periods of time. assigned zones and then supported scored the need for a coordinated the satellite units in their zones. fire prevention program for Teamwork Success Based on the Southwest team’s residents, firefighters, and emer In their short history, the national experience, subsequent national gency services personnel in the fire prevention/education teams fire prevention/education teams wildland–urban interface. To have a proven record of preventing have included a public affairs promote coordination between fire fires in States from Alaska to officer in each satellite unit. protection agencies and commu Florida under conditions of ex nity members, the Alaska Wildland treme drought and high tempera The Arizona Interagency Fire Fire Coordinating Group mobilized tures. In the Southwest, during the Prevention and Information a national fire prevention/educa 60 days the team operated there in Center, located in Phoenix, was a tion team. The Alaska team split 1996, 31 team members devoted major hub for the media in Ari into two groups, with three mem 663 person-days at a cost of zona. Working closely with the bers going to Fairbanks and three $180,000. With fire suppression Arizona center, the Southwest to the Anchorage/Kenai Peninsula costs now reaching $1 million per team produced its own products area. These teams: day on some fires, if the team and conducted its own campaigns prevented just 1 day of fire sup from its base in New Mexico. • Presented programs on defen pression, the savings it achieved Because of its active approach to sible space and wildland safety; would easily have covered its costs. working with the public and • Met with the governor, local In fact, fire statistics indicate that media, the Arizona center was key commissioners, and fire protec the team’s educational efforts as a springboard for additional fire tion and other officials; reduced human-caused fires by up prevention activities. • Conducted home fire prevention to 25 percent (fig. 3)—an enor assessments; mous cost saving for taxpayers. The activities of the Southwest • Presented workshops for team included: homeowners; and In Texas, the number of human- • Conducted “train-the-trainer” caused wildland fires steadily • Developing wildland–urban workshops for fire protection climbed statewide from March 3 to interface plans; personnel so that a program of May 31, 1998. After the national • Delivering campfire programs wildland–urban interface fire fire prevention/education team and school curriculum materials; protection and prevention would became operational in late May, • Designing and producing numer continue after the national the number of human-caused fires ous interagency prevention team’s departure. steadily dropped until August (fig. handout materials; 4), even though heat and drought • Going door to door to tell Florida. In August 1998, well after conditions worsened. The correla homeowners, realtors, and fire a catastrophic fire season was tion of a decline in fires with team departments how to make already under way, the State of activities strongly suggests that communities defensible against Florida mobilized a national fire the team succeeded in protecting wildland fire; prevention/education team. Some lives, property, and natural re • Improving media contacts for 45,000 people had been evacuated sources from wildland fires. wildland fire prevention; and from their homes, and many found • Improving communication nothing but ashes when they were After the Texas fire season, key across agency lines. allowed to return. The Florida persons such as community team emphasized the benefits of leaders, local fire officials, and Teams in Other States prescribed burning and fire safety county judges were interviewed Alaska. At the same time the in the wildland–urban interface. In about the national fire prevention/ Southwest team was operating in addition, the team assisted the education team’s efforts. All 1996, fire in the wildland–urban State in developing a 3-year fire expressed great satisfaction with interface was becoming a growing prevention plan. Six individuals the team’s work. They were espe concern in Alaska, where many participated on the team for cially pleased with the work that
16 Fire Management Notes the team did directly with local fire in the States that have used them specialists formed a national fire departments, communities, and to request them again. All the prevention cadre to develop a neighborhoods. They confirmed individuals interviewed wanted training workshop for mobilizing that such activities significantly prevention teams mobilized during and operating national fire preven diminished the number of fires and future severe fire situations. tion/education teams. The cadre acres burned, reducing suppres has conducted four workshops. sion costs and losses of property Fire Prevention/ Workshop graduates are listed as and natural resources. A strong Education Workshops qualified fire prevention/education measure of success for the preven Following the 1996 fire season, fire specialists or public affairs special tion teams is the desire expressed prevention and public affairs ists trained to work with preven tion teams. The roster of these 25 specialists is invaluable in locating 20 qualified members for prevention teams. Others who are well quali 15 fied in fire prevention theory or are 10 Fire occurrence before prevention teams arrive experienced public affairs practitio 5 ners but have not yet attended a Number of ignitions of Number 0 workshop are also eligible to join a 1 2 3 4 team and might be asked to do so. Weeks 20 The cadre also developed a preven 15 tion kit for those assigned to 10 national fire prevention/education Fire occurrence after prevention teams arrive teams. The kit contains brochures, 5 pamphlets and videos, wildland fire
Number of ignitions of Number 0 prevention guidebooks, a Smokey 1 2 3 4 Weeks Bear graphic art CD, a teacher’s study guide, children’s activity Figure 3—The number of human-caused wildland fire ignitions per week in the South books, an instructor kit with slides west before (top) and after (bottom) mobilization of a national fire prevention/education team. Figures suggest that the team’s efforts reduced unwanted ignitions by up to 25 and handouts for communities, percent. and catalogs of additional items.
40 A trained national fire prevention/ Fire occurrence before education team can be mobilized 30 prevention teams arrive through normal dispatch channels. 20 Mobilization of a team is outlined in the National Interagency 10 Mobilization Guide (section Number of ignitions of Number 0 22.5.10) and can be ordered 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 121314 15 Weeks through the Geographic Area Coordination Centers (GACC’s). 80 Fire occurrence after GACC locations are posted on the prevention teams arrive 60 Internet at
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 17 WHY BURN WILDERNESS?
Stephen W. Barrett
ontroversy has arisen over a recent proposal by the USDA The goal of C Forest Service to use pre prescribed fire is scribed fire in central Idaho’s not to supplant Salmon River Canyon. For many years, fires have been promptly lightning fires, but extinguished in much of the rather to ease their Salmon River Canyon, especially inevitable return to near agency infrastructure and wilderness areas. private inholdings within wilder ness boundaries. As a result, fire- dependent forests have suffered.
Over the next 10 years, the Forest Service plans to burn vegetation in a number of drainages heavily affected by fire exclusion. About 60 percent of the 2-million-acre (800,000-ha) planning area is multiple-use land, and the rest is in the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness. The proposal has been criticized by loggers for “wasting timber” and by some environmentalists for “impactive” wilderness management. Fire History in Central Idaho The environmental impact state Researchers sample fire history from ment for the project was based a fire-scarred old-growth ponderosa largely on my fire history studies, pine. Because motorized equipment is generally forbidden in wilderness begun in 1983 (Barrett 1987; areas, researchers use a crosscut Barrett 1988a; Barrett 1988b; saw (top) to remove a thin slice from Barrett 1994a; Barrett 1994b; the tree (center) without seriously damaging the tree. Such samples Barrett 1998; Brown et al. 1994). often reveal 300 to 500 years of fire Results are alarming: history (bottom). Photos: Courtesy of Steve Barrett, Kalispell, MT, • Although many acres have ©1983. burned in the Salmon River Canyon in recent decades, the data still show a fourfold reduc tion in area fire occurrence from previous levels. Steve Barrett, a consulting fire ecologist in Kalispell, MT, has studied fire history in many parts of the northern Rocky Mountains for the past 20 years.
18 Fire Management Notes • Data from 76 stands in the ness—caused unnaturally heavy Some argue that the Great 1910 nonlethal fire regime suggest mortality, destroying diverse Burn, which spread across 3 that underburns occurred about vegetation mosaics. Such fires million acres (1.2 million ha) in every 17 years before 1900. have drastically altered large the northern Rocky Mountains, However, these stands have not portions of the Frank Church– proves that severe fires are not burned for the past 84 years, on River of No Return Wilderness, unprecedented in the region. But average. possibly for centuries. the 1910 fires were quite different • Whereas about 50 percent of the from the recent Salmon River canyon’s forests experienced Forest Ecosystems frequent low-intensity fires in Trouble before 1900, that total has declined to 33 percent. By Rafting down the main contrast, the stand-replacing fire Salmon River, you’ll pass regime has increased from an through the seemingly estimated 20 percent of the area endless Hida Point Fire historically to about 50 percent (1988), essentially now what I today. call a “nuclear shrub zone.” The fire destroyed several of These results clearly bode ill for my past sample stands, where old-growth ponderosa pines and old trees had revealed a 300 associated species. Without fre to 500-year-long record of quent low-intensity fire, ponderosa frequent low-intensity fires. pine stands are invaded by species In some forest types, an such as Douglas-fir, which form uncharacteristically intense dense thickets and ladder fuels. fire can return old-growth Subsequent fires can climb into forest to an early seral stage the canopy as uncharacteristically such as shrubland, which can intense crown fires, devastating persist indefinitely, particu forest ecosystems. larly when reburned.
Some environmentalists claim that recent fires in the Salmon River Canyon have not occurred outside the range of natural variability (Wilderness Watch 1998–99). However, the evidence shows otherwise. Since 1985 alone, many fires have exceeded the range of natural variability, such as the Corral Fire (118,000 acres [48,000 ha]), Chicken Fire (108,000 acres [44,000 ha]), Sliver Fire (54,000 acres [22,000 ha]), Ladder/Hida Fire Complex (49,000 acres [20,000 ha]), Long Tom Fire (30,000 acres [12,000 ha]), and French Creek Fire (15,000 acres [6,000 ha]). All of these fires— some of which burned as “pre scribed natural fires”* in wilder Under droughty conditions, fuel buildups are less prevalent in south-facing ponderosa pine stands in Idaho’s Salmon River Canyon (top right). By contrast, in the absence of * The term prescribed natural fire has been replaced by recurring fires, heavy ladder fuels encroach on north-slope ponderosa pines (bottom). the term wildland fire use (NIFC 1998). Photos: Courtesy of Steve Barrett, Kalispell, MT, ©1983.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 19 Wilderness means fostering natural communities lightning fires, but rather to ease that evolved over thousands of years, their inevitable return to drainages where fire exclusion has promoted often in tandem with human-caused fires. unnatural fuels. Some argue that setting fires in wilderness areas is “highly impactive” and therefore Canyon fires. Although stand- conditions were average to above improper. However, returning fires replacing fires have long been average, like those that produced to a fire-dependent ecosystem common in northern Idaho, a low-intensity fires before 1900. The simply cannot be compared to series of fires as severe as those uncharacteristically intense fires such highly artificial interventions between 1889 and 1934 is akin to a that nevertheless occurred were as liming lakes to offset acid rain. 1,000-year flood. The fires in that largely due to altered fuel condi In fact, American Indians ignited 45-year period coincided with one tions. And because the area’s lower fires in many ecosystems whenever of the most severe long-term elevation forests did not evolve it suited their needs. Therefore, drought eras recorded by tree rings with frequent severe fires, it many fire-dependent communities since the late 1600’s. Some of the remains unclear how they will evolved with frequent human- fires, including those in 1910, were respond after heavy burning. I caused fires. also the result of mass lightning doubt, however, that they will ignitions merging because of support the same array of species Controversy about burning in strong winds. Accordingly, the vast as before 1900. wilderness stems, in large part, shrubfields that persist in northern from differing philosophies. The Idaho today—prime elk habitat— Prescribed Fire enabling law, the Wilderness Act of resulted from severe reburns for Wilderness 1964, provides little management produced by a historical anomaly. Management direction other than vague word ing such as leaving wilderness Today, land managers are increas The recent wildland fires in central areas “untrammeled.” Although ingly using prescribed fire to Idaho’s drier forests occurred such terms might reasonably seem obtain desired management under very different circum to dictate that wilderness manag results, even in some remote stances. There was no severe ers should do nothing to control natural areas. The goal, as I drought coinciding with unusual nature, many wilderness areas understand it, is not to supplant fire weather. Instead, burning today can hardly be described as natural. Decades of fire exclu sion—perhaps the epitome of human attempts to control na ture—have so drastically altered some areas that the original Indian inhabitants would scarcely recog nize them.
To me, wilderness does not mean tolerating mutant ecosystems of our own making. Instead, it means fostering natural communities that evolved over thousands of years, often in tandem with human- caused fires. If wilderness, as some might have it, is to be nothing more than pretty scenery without mitigating action by thoughtful Floating through Idaho’s Salmon River Canyon, one can see open stands of ponderosa management, then species will pine on dry south slopes (left foreground) and the aftermath of the severe Hida Point Fire surely continue to decline. And in 1988 (background), where ladder fuels built up on moist north slopes. Photo: Courtesy primeval wilderness itself, land of Steve Barrett, Kalispell, MT, ©1998.
20 Fire Management Notes that sustained the first nations for Barrett, S.W. 1988a. Fire suppression’s Barrett, S.W. 1998. Fire regimes on the 10,000 years and awed European effects on forest succession within a Nez Perce National Forest, Papoose central Idaho wilderness. Western Allotment. Unpublished report on file at explorers with its splendor, might Journal of Applied Forestry. 3(3): 76–80. the USDA Forest Service, Nez Perce continue to go the way of the Barrett, S.W. 1988b. Fire history and fuels National Forest, Grangeville, ID. buffalo. At least part of that dimin assessment, South Fork Salmon River, Brown, J.K.; Arno, S.F.; Barrett, S.W.; Krassel Ranger District, Payette Menakis, J.P. 1994. Comparing the ishing splendor can be restored, National Forest. Unpublished report on prescribed natural fire program with both for its intrinsic value and for file at the USDA Forest Service, Krassel presettlement fires in the Selway– future generations, with the help Ranger District, McCall, ID. 13 p. Bitterroot Wilderness. International Barrett, S.W. 1994a. Fire regimes on the Journal of Wildland Fire. 4(3): 157–168. of prescribed fire. Clearwater and Nez Perce National NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center). Forests, north-central Idaho. Unpub 1998. Wildland and prescribed fire Literature Cited lished report on file at the USDA Forest management policy implementation Service, Clearwater National Forest, procedures reference guide. Boise, ID: Barrett, S.W. 1987. Fire history of the Orofino, ID; and Nez Perce National NIFC. 81 p. Rapid River drainage, Payette National Forest, Grangeville, ID. Wilderness Watch. 1998–99. Wilderness Forest. Unpublished report on file at the Barrett, S.W. 1994b. Fire regimes on the Watcher. 10(1). ■ USDA Forest Service, Payette National Payette National Forest, Bear Analysis Forest, New Meadows Ranger Station, Area. Unpublished report on file at the New Meadows, ID. USDA Forest Service, Payette National Forest, McCall, ID.
WILDLAND FIRE FATALITY REPORT AVAILABLE
Dick Mangan
rom 1990 to 1998, 133 The report groups fatalities by To help reduce the number of individuals died in 94 sepa cause, geographic area, and fire-related fatalities in the Frate incidents related to organizational affiliation of those future, the report makes specific wildland fire activities in the killed. For example: recommendations for improve United States. The USDA Forest ments in the areas of individual Service’s Missoula Technology • The main causes of death were responsibility, training, strategy and Development Center burnover (29 percent), aircraft and tactics, and PPE. The report (MTDC) in Missoula, MT, has accidents (23 percent), and heart can be downloaded from the released a report analyzing attack (21 percent). Forest Service Intranet at those incidents and making • Most burnovers occurred during
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 21 FIRE USE TRAINING ACADEMY COMPLETES FIRST YEAR
Mary Zabinski and Brad Washa
he Southwest Fire Use Training Academy (FUTA) is a new The Academy exposes trainees to the Tinteragency program blending full spectrum of interagency programs and classroom training and field fuel types across the Southwest, preparing them experience in prescribed and wildland fire use with the fuels to be future fuels program managers. management programs of different land management agencies throughout the Southwest. As its name implies, FUTA focuses on fire use. The interagency Wildland and Prescribed Fire Management Policy Implementation Procedures Reference Guide defines fire use as “the combination of wildland fire use and prescribed fire application to meet resource objectives” (NIFC 1998). The Academy offers training in the full array of fire use tech niques available to wildland fire managers today. Interagency Training Hosted by the Cibola National Forest (headquartered in Albuquer que, NM), the Academy is the result of a memorandum of understanding for interagency cooperation among:
• The Southwestern Region of the USDA Forest Service, including the 11 national forests in the region; • The Albuquerque, Navajo, and Phoenix Area Offices of the USDI Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA);
Mary Zabinski is a writer/editor for the USDA Forest Service, Southwestern Region, Public Affairs Office, Albuquerque, Forest Service District Ranger Pam Brown applies the terra torch to a NM; and Brad Washa is a fuels specialist grassland burn during a Southwest Fire Use Training Academy (FUTA) for the USDI Bureau of Land Manage project on the Kiowa National Grassland, NM. Photo: FUTA, Albuquer ment, Medford District, Medford, OR. que, NM, 1999.
22 Fire Management Notes “The Academy allowed me in 10 weeks to accom The Academy offered, in addition plish what would otherwise have taken me several to its core courses, several other NWCG courses. These additional years of training on the district.” NWCG courses were not restricted to FUTA attendees. Participants –Donna Nemeth, fire information specialist included 50 to 65 other fire man agement and resource personnel.
• The Arizona and New Mexico Courses and Projects FUTA attendees were split into State Offices of the USDI Bureau The Academy, which is run by a three modules, with a field coordi of Land Management (BLM); lead coordinator and three field nator from the Academy as the • The Intermountain Region of the coordinators, offers several courses supervisor for each module. The USDI National Park Service developed by the National Wildfire modules functioned together in (NPS); and Coordinating Group (NWCG) as a training and then traveled to • The Southwestern Region of the core curriculum (see sidebar on various locations in Arizona and USDI U.S. Fish and Wildlife page 26). The core curriculum New Mexico for specific projects Service. differs for each session, depending with different agencies, including upon program and trainee needs. the BLM, Forest Service, and NPS The first session ran for 10 weeks Practical training, in the form of (table 1). Each module was inte in fall 1998 and the second session short courses, was developed in grated into a local burn organiza for 8 weeks in spring 1999; the conjunction with prescribed fire tion to meet trainees’ needs and to third session is scheduled for fall managers throughout the South maximize their training experience 1999. The 45 participants who west, many of whom were able to while assisting the local unit. finished the first two FUTA ses offer their expertise as instructors. sions worked on completing Training sites for the short courses The training facility in Albuquer individual task books leading to were also selected to accommodate que is located at the Albuquerque qualification within the prescribed the needs of local and regional Mobilization Center, which serves fire qualification system. prescribed fire managers as well as as a training site and gathering the FUTA schedule. point for the Academy. Open during the fire season for mobiliz ing people and equipment in response to incidents, the Center has been adapted to accommodate Academy needs. Locations throughout the Southwest serve as additional training sites. Objectives The Academy’s main objective is to create a program that meets national qualification guidelines for both training and experience. “Our workforce and skill pool are shrinking,” explained Jerome Macdonald, FUTA program man ager. “The program is exposing trainees to the full spectrum of interagency programs and fuel Low-intensity night burning in ponderosa pine on Mount Trumbull formed part of the types across the Southwest, honing FUTA training project on the BLM’s Arizona Strip District. Photo: FUTA, Albuquerque, NM, their skills and experience in a 1999. focused, accelerated course to
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 23 Table 1—Project accomplishments by the Southwest Fire Use Training Academy in its fall 1998 and spring 1999 sessions.
Fire Project Name Locationa Agency Dates Acres Behavior Personnel Person Project Role Complexityc (ha) Fuel Modelb Assigned Hours
Hermosa Black Range Forest 06/23– 11,500 2, 6, 8 1 30 Support I RD, Gila NF Service 25/98 (4,650)
Senorita Albuquerque BLM 09/21– 800 2, 4 7 210 Support/ II Field Office 23/98 (320) training
San Juan Jemez RD, Forest 09/22– 7,200 8–11 22 869 Support/ I Santa Fe NF Service 25/98 (2,900) training
Swamp Booth Quemado RD, Forest 10/5– 400 2, 11 8 315 Support/ II Gila NF Service 9/98 (160) training
Crown King Bradshaw RD, Forest 10/5– 150 2, 4 7 445 Support/ II Prescott NF Service 10/98 (60) training
Chiminea Saguaro NP NPS 10/7– 2,000 2, 6, 9 8 720 Support/ II 12/98 (800) training
Sheppard Reserve RD, Forest 10/16– 2,100 2, 9–11 15 667.5 Support/ II Gila NF Service 19/98 (840) training
Priest Canyon Mountainair RD, Forest 10/19– 300 2, 13 21 269 Support/ III Fuelwood Cibola NF Service 20/98 (120) training
Micro Mt. Taylor RD, Forest 03/1– 300 9 18 574 Support/ II Cibola NF Service 3/99 (120) training
Upper Frijoles Bandelier NM NPS 03/3– 1,400 9 22 798 Support/ III 6/99 (570) training
Indian Peak Black Range Forest 03/15– 600 2, 9 20 1,271 Support/ II RD, Gila NF Service 18/99 (240) training
Wilson Canyon Albuquerque BLM 03/01– 130 2, 4 11 418 Support/ II District 31/99 (53) training
Kiowa Kiowa NG Forest 03/23– 1,400 1 14 353 Support/ II Grasslands Service 24/99 (570) training
Barbero Pecos RD, Forest 03/23– 2,000 2, 9 7 221 Support/ II Santa Fe NF Service 25/99 (800) training
Rye Flats Arizona Strip BLM 03/28– 30 9 5 293 Support/ II District 29/99 (12) training
Lone Big Bend NP NPS 04/4– 600 2, 6 12 994 Support/ II Mountain 10/99 (240) training
Guadalupe Guadalupe RD, Forest 04/5– 2,500 2, 6 9 360 Support/ II Lincoln NF Service 12/99 (1,000) training a. NF = National Forest; NG = National Grassland; NM = National Monument; NP = National Park; RD = Ranger District. b. 1 = short grass (1 foot [0.3 m]); 2 = timber (grass and understory); 4 = chaparral (6 feet [1.8 m]); 6 = dormant brush, hardwood slash; 8 = closed timber litter; 9 = hardwood litter; 10 = timber (litter and understory); 11 = light logging slash; 13 = heavy logging slash. See Anderson 1982. c. I = Complex/High; II = Intermediate/Moderate; III = Basic/Low. See Anderson 1982.
24 Fire Management Notes prepare them to be future fuels Womack, field coordinator for Donna Nemeth, a fire information program managers.” FUTA’s fall 1998 session. “For those specialist for the Forest Service, who came with task books for burn Cibola National Forest, Mount Training is individually tailored to boss, we work on those. All task Taylor Ranger District, Grants, fit each trainee’s experience level. books are initiated from the home NM, who graduated from the first “Our goal is not to make everybody unit. But the focus is on meeting session and helped organize the ‘burn boss’ qualified,” said Paul each trainee’s specific needs.” second, said, “It was an extremely supportive environment to learn in. It’s allowed me in 10 weeks to accomplish what would otherwise have taken me several years of training on the district.”
Macdonald attributes the pro gram’s initial success to the sup port of natural resource agencies throughout the Southwest and the efforts of detailers who helped put theory into practice. For FUTA’s first two sessions, these detailers included:
• Fall 1998— – Lead Coordinator Rich Dol phin, Forest Service Asheville Hotshots, National Forests of North Carolina; FUTA trainees conduct a spotted owl monitoring survey in mixed-conifer forest on the – Field Coordinator Mike Jemez Ranger District, Santa Fe National Forest, NM. Photo: FUTA, Albuquerque, NM, 1999. Sanchez, BIA Southern Pueb los Agency, Albuquerque, NM; – Field Coordinator Brad Washa, BLM Medford District, Medford, OR; and – Field Coordinator Paul Womack, Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Black Range Ranger District, Truth or Consequences, NM. • Spring 1999— – Lead Coordinator Danny Kellogg, Forest Service, Tonto National Forest, Cave Creek Ranger District, Cave Creek, AZ; – Field Coordinator Tony DeMasters, Boise BLM Smokejumpers, National Interagency Fire Center, Boise, ID; A Forest Service employee on the Guadalupe Ranger District, Lincoln National Forest, NM, shows FUTA trainees Elthie Kee, Jr. (center) and Sterling Littlegeorge (right) how to – Field Coordinator Bela use a fusee launcher. Photo: FUTA, Albuquerque, NM, 1999. Harrington, Santa Fe Inter- agency Hotshot Crew, Santa Fe, NM; and
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 25 – Field Coordinator Jeff Vanis, FIRE USE TRAINING ACADEMY COURSES Forest Service, Coconino National Forest, Sedona In its first year, the Southwest • Fuels inventory and fuel Ranger District, Sedona, AZ. Fire Use Training Academy moisture sampling; offered a curriculum of core • The Prescribed Fire Qualifica The Academy’s continued success courses developed by the tions and Training System; hinges on enlisting trainees and National Wildfire Coordinating • Global positioning system projects throughout the South Group (NWCG); short courses mapping; west, including Arizona, New for practical training developed • Prescribed fire operations, Mexico, and southern Colorado. If in conjunction with prescribed including ground-applied your unit is interested in sending a fire managers throughout the retardant, terra torch, trainee or receiving additional Southwest; and additional helitorch, and plastic sphere support for a prescribed fire pro NWCG courses. dispenser operation; ject, contact Jerome Macdonald, • Public contact plans for burn Cibola National Forest, 2113 Core NWCG courses included: ing in the wildland–urban Osuna Road, NE., Suite A, interface; Albuquerque, NM 87113-1001, • S–244, Field Observer; • Wildland fire use planning 505-346-2650 (voice), 505-346 • Rx–230/S–234, Ignition (wildland fire implementation 2633 (fax), jmacdonald/r3, cibola Operations; planning, fire management (Forest Service IBM e-mail), • Rx–300, Prescribed Fire Burn planning, and wilderness fire jmacdonald/[email protected] Boss; use); (Internet e-mail). For a full de • Rx–340, Introduction to Fire • Interagency policy and agree scription of the Southwest Fire Use Effects; and ments; and Training Academy, access the FUTA • Rx–450, Smoke Management • Spotted owl monitoring Website at the Southwest Area Techniques. surveys in mixed-conifer forest. Wildland Fire Operations homepage under “Fire Manage Topics for short courses Additional NWCG courses (not ment” at
26 Fire Management Notes THOSE REALLY BAD FIRE DAYS: WHAT MAKES THEM SO DANGEROUS?
Dan Thorpe
fter some fires, you often hear comments like this: “There Why were we catching some mid-elevation fires A was no way to catch that but losing others under what seemed thing,” or “We couldn’t have to be identical circumstances? caught that fire even if we’d been there when it started.” Unfortu nately, such comments are all too handles more than 1,000 alarms Next, we tried to isolate the often true. In southern Oregon, we annually, of which about 250 are common threads among the started to ask why that was so and statistical (bonafide) wildland escaped fires. On a planimetric what we could do about it. Why do fires and the rest smoke chases, map, we looked for a common we catch every fire on some days mutual-aid calls, and no-action geographical feature that contrib but lose control of fires right from responses. About 25 percent of the uted to the escapes. Did a wind the start on others, even when fires are caused by lightning and corridor, a lightning alley, a conditions are apparently the the rest by humans. Fire seasons roadless area, or steep slopes same? typically run from late May contribute to preventing control? through mid-October and average The Problem Fires about 150 days. When we overlaid the large fires The Southwest Oregon District of with some crude fuel typing, we the Oregon Department of For On the Southwest Oregon District, found that the major fires—the estry has about 2 million acres we began by mapping past fires ones responsible for 90 percent of (800,000 ha) and a quarter of a that had escaped initial attack. our total acres burned—all started million people. It ranges in eleva Then we asked our supervisors and in the mid-elevation zone (fig. 1). tion from about 500 feet (150 m) firefighters how we could have Further analysis revealed that we in the Rogue River corridor to stopped each fire. All agreed that were very successful in controlling more than 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in some fires had been impossible to the grass fires in the valley zone. the Cascade and Siskiyou Moun control during initial attack, no In fact, 96 percent of the valley tain ranges. The valleys are charac matter how many resources we fires were controlled at 10 acres terized by annual grasses; at threw at them; but on others, the (4 ha) or less. The same was true middle elevations, brushy fuels right resource at the right time for the fires in the upper elevation prevail; and second-growth conif would have made the difference coniferous forest. Although the erous forest dominates above between quickly controlling the coniferous zone had more light about 2,500 feet (750 m). Land fire and watching it grow into a ning ignitions than the valleys, we ownership is divided among rural project fire. We compared the succeeded in holding 94 percent of residents, industrial forestry answers we got to the results of the upper elevation fires to 10 operators, small nonindustrial our computer-modeled initial- acres (4 ha) or less. So why were landowners, homeowners in the attack analysis through the Na we less successful in the mid- wildland–urban interface, and the tional Fire Management Analysis elevation zone? Bureau of Land Management, System. Interestingly, the answers which contracts with the State of and results corroborated each We began to describe what was Oregon for fire protection. Na other—anecdotal evidence from different about the mid-elevation tional forests border the district in our managers agreed with our zone so we could later evaluate the west and east. The district computer models. potential changes using the
Dan Thorpe is the unit forester for the Southwest Oregon District, Oregon Department of Forestry, Central Point, OR.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 27 By integrating the Haines Index with information Historically, our large fires fre- on the fuel condition, we identified 10 days quently occurred during a signifi cant weather event that can now when high fire intensities were likely. be measured in terms of factors other than just wind or lightning. The Haines Index allows us to determine what the atmosphere is doing in terms of temperature and lapse rate (the rate at which temperature changes with chang ing height in the Earth’s atmo sphere). Changes in the atmo sphere have regional effects, and we found it interesting to note that our national forest neighbors frequently had trouble with large, plume-dominated fires on the same days that we did. As a result, resources for extended attack frequently became limited due to their use elsewhere in our region. In particular, fire retardant aircraft have often been busy on fires elsewhere right when we needed them.
Figure 1—The 1981 Tin Pan Peak Fire is an example of a plume-dominated fire burning in brushy fuels in the mid-elevation zone. Such fires are responsible for 90 percent of the By integrating the daily Haines total acres burned in the Southwest Oregon District. Photo: Southwest Oregon District, Index with information on the Oregon Department of Forestry, Medford, OR, 1981. daily and seasonal condition of our fuels, we were able to identify days computer models. We discovered These four factors contributed to when high fire intensities were four major differences: greater contiguous fuel beds, more likely. We completed analysis longer response times, higher fire to determine normal curing dates 1. The fuel type was brush rather intensities, and greater resistance for annual grasses and the bottoms than timber or grass; to control. None of this was news of the live fuel moisture curves. We 2. Slopes were steeper in the mid- to our fire managers. During their then compared these data with elevation zone—frequently too careers, they had controlled data on the thousand-hour fuels to steep for engines and dozers to hundreds of fires in the mid- obtain indices of extreme fire be fully effective; elevation zone. The real question danger. By examining past Haines 3. Because the mid-elevation zone was this: Why were we catching Indices, we determined that the was in the thermal belt, average some mid-elevation fires but losing district would have about 10 days temperatures were higher and others under what seemed to be per year when the Haines Index the relative humidity was similar circumstances? was high enough during periods of lower; and extreme fire danger to significantly 4. The road system was much less The Atmospheric change fire behavior, making a fire developed in the mid-elevation Factor much more difficult to control. We zone, due to steeper slopes and The answer came from the atmo dubbed the 10 bad fire days “Ira fewer timber resources. sphere by way of the Haines Index. days” after Ira Rambo, the princi
28 Fire Management Notes Our board of directors We discussed our findings with our enthusiastically embraced the idea cooperators, who embraced our proposed response and changed of spending money on those bad fire days to save their methods accordingly. Rural money in the long run through preparedness. fire districts agreed to increase staffing on IRA days to cover the valley zone while our crews patrol pal author of our project. Later, we But additional resources would the mid-elevation zone. Landown formalized the term by making it come at a cost—up to $5,000 per ers and our Federal cooperator into the acronym “IRA” (Increased day on 10 days per year. Was it agreed to provide staffing for Resource Availability). worth it? additional engines on IRA days and to have dozers prepared to respond So now we knew what type of days The answer was a resounding yes. immediately from logging sites. were really our worst. The National A break-even examination found The USDA Forest Service, which Weather Service agreed to give us a that if we stopped just one fire in manages the fire retardant pro daily prediction of the next day’s 100 years from becoming a project gram in Oregon, agreed to keep an Haines Index, providing us with at fire, we would still save the taxpay airtanker locally available on IRA least 12 hours’ advance notice ers money! Put another way, if we days. whenever one of those really bad spent an additional $50,000 per fire days might be coming. Now it year, we had 100 years to be Wildland agencies have known was time to put the information to successful and still make it pay. about and successfully used the practical use. But how? Our board of directors enthusiasti Haines Index for years. The con cally embraced the idea of spend cept of IRA days now allows us to Our Response ing money on IRA days to save integrate the Haines Index into our We took the same approach we do money in the long run. daily preparedness. For more in dealing with the threat of information on the concept of IRA lightning: we increased our We also made a few other changes days, contact Dan Thorpe, Oregon available resources. We asked our that cost little or nothing. On IRA Department of Forestry, 5286 Table fire managers, “What do you need days, we now: Rock Road, Central Point, OR in the mid-elevation zone to 97502, 541-664-3328 (voice), control a fire sooner on days when • Keep resources patrolling in the 541-776-6260 (fax), dthorpe@odf. plume-dominated fires are likely?” mid-elevation zones to minimize state.or.us (e-mail). Again, the answers were corrobo response times on potential rated by our computer models. On problem fires (and to help keep Acknowledgments fires from starting); those bad fire days—the IRA The author wishes to thank Forest • Automatically order retardant; days—we found that we needed: Officer Ira Rambo for leading the • Immediately launch our type 2 project team that developed the contract helicopter for initial • Additional aircraft, and sooner; concept of IRA days; Protection attack; • Larger engine crews (three Planner Jim Wolf for participating • Preassign structural task forces people per type 6 engine rather on the project team; Southwest and liaisons; and than two); Oregon District protection and • Immediately notify cooperators • Air attack to improve crew safety management staff for contributing of fire starts. and aircraft efficiency; and to the project team’s work; and • Additional dozers (more than National Weather Service staff for just two), and sooner, for initial collaborating with the project. ■ attack.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 29 THE CONSUMPTION STRATEGY: INCREASING SAFETY DURING MOPUP
Tom Leuschen and Ken Frederick
or many years, the wildland fire ▲ community has known that ▲ Start Is the fire contained? No Continue normal F mopping up a fire can be just as containment activities. dangerous as containing and ▲
controlling it. Unfortunately, we Yes ▲ have not always done the best job in mitigating the hazards that What is the potential High ▲ Use the conventional firefighters are exposed to during for the fire escaping? mopup approach.
this important phase of fire sup ▲ pression. Low ▲ Yes
Are gravity-related Is there a compelling A new approach is now available No ▲ hazards present (steep reason for aggressive for assessing the need for, and slopes, standing trees)? mopup? accomplishing, mopup on wildland fires. Known as the consumption Yes
strategy, the new approach departs ▲ No from traditional thinking by using Concentrate on the natural tendency of a fire to consumption of fuels burn itself out by consuming its adjacent to firelines. fuel. The consumption strategy Patrol lines, burn fuels ▲ realistically compares the risks and out, do not work the fire’s consequences associated with an interior. Consider shifting escaped fire to the risks and or demobilizing consequences associated with the personnel. hazards firefighters typically face during mopup, which tend to be Figure 1—Consumption strategy decision tree, for application separately to each section related to gravity (falling snags, of the fire. rolling materials, and tripping and mopup. It includes these steps not considered for lengthy falling). The strategy is designed to (fig. 1): operational assignments that improve firefighter safety while could place crews in harm’s still suppressing a fire. 1. Mopup strategy and standards way. flow from a determination 4. Sections of the fire avoided due The consumption strategy is made about the fire’s potential to gravity-related hazards are planned during containment and to escape across firelines after it still patrolled or otherwise implemented during control or is declared contained. monitored. “Patrolling” means 2. Sections of the fire that show a that crews or scouts hike along high potential for escape Tom Leuschen is the owner of Fire-Vision firelines in the avoided areas Enterprise Team and a former fire and receive the normal mopup (staying alert for falling or fuels specialist for the USDA Forest treatment. rolling material) to check for Service, Okanogan National Forest, 3. Sections of the fire that do not escapes of the fire across Okanogan, WA; and Ken Frederick is an information assistant for the Forest show a high potential for firelines but not to extinguish Service, Wenatchee National Forest, escape and that contain signifi flames or embers within the Chelan Ranger District, Chelan, WA. cant gravity-related hazards are firelines.
30 Fire Management Notes 5. Operational assignments in The consumption strategy for mopup avoided areas can include, in exploits a fire’s natural tendency addition to patrolling, tasks such as blacklining (burning to consume its fuels and burn itself out. fuels adjacent to firelines), flush-cutting staubs (reducing the woody stubs sticking up Leuschen had hiked the perimeter The Gold Creek incident made it from the ground on firelines), of the fire and determined that the increasingly obvious that we need trimming tree branches imme blaze posed little threat of escap a strategy for assessing risk to diately inside the lines, and ing. However, the operations and reduce firefighters’ exposure to gridding (searching systemati plans sections of the type 2 team hazards during mopup. Since the cally along gridlines) for spot managing the fire were still trying South Canyon tragedy in 1994, fires well outside of the lines. to control the fire according to risk assessment has focused Firelines can be strengthened, standards agreed to by the local primarily on avoiding fire entrap as long as crews maintain good line officer and the incident ments. In recent years, the wild- lookouts and do not linger in management team—and that land fire community has paid more dangerous spots. included risky mopup work inside attention to mitigating risk during the black. containment and control (con Origins of the structing and securing firelines) Consumption Strategy After the accident, Leuschen and than during mopup. We need to the district ranger walked out to rethink what mopup is. Are we out The consumption strategy origi the lines with the incident com there trying to physically put out nated in response to a near tragedy mander, safety officer, and opera every flame and ember, or are we during the 1997 fire season. The tions section chief to take a sober trying to prevent the fire from season was relatively quiet in look at the work. Although discus escaping control lines while those eastern Washington. In fact, the sion continued to focus on how flames and embers burn out? only project fire on the Wenatchee firefighters could work safely Depending on the situation, we National Forest was the Gold Creek inside the lines, Leuschen ques currently do both; but we should Fire on the Naches Ranger District tioned whether firefighters needed remember to distinguish between in August 1997, which burned to work inside the black at all. the two and to choose the ap about 480 acres (190 ha) of ponde Areas where firefighters had proach that best protects our rosa pine and Douglas-fir near completed several shifts of mopup crews. Cliffdell, WA. During mopup on the showed little difference in the incident, a Washington Depart kinds and amounts of smoldering Managers’ perceptions of the risks ment of Natural Resources debris from similar areas where no to firefighters must change with crewmember was struck and mopup had occurred. Residual changes in a given fire. At a certain seriously injured by a snag being interior smokes were not a threat point in a fire, the primary danger felled by a sawyer. Ironically, the to the lines. Furthermore, a large facing firefighters is no longer the accident occurred when areas percentage of the fire perimeter fire itself, but rather falling or inside the fireline were being consisted of sections where the fire rolling objects (fig. 2). As the fire “snagged” for firefighter safety. had backed downhill; in order to nears containment, entrapment escape in these areas, the fire risk decreases but gravity-related Tom Leuschen, the fire and fuels would have to jump the lines and risk increases. Trees, both live and specialist for Washington’s aggressively spread downhill, a dead, with fire in their bases Okanogan National Forest, was on highly unlikely eventuality. “As a become increasingly unstable; the Gold Creek Fire as a fire result of our observations,” stumps roll as they lose the old, behavior analyst. “It occurred to Leuschen said, “we recommended dry roots that have held them on me,” Leuschen recalled, “that we a change in mopup standards to the slope; and firefighter fatigue were asking the firefighters to the line officer.” The group had accumulates, reducing energy and work in hazardous areas to do learned a lesson: performing alertness and causing more trip mopup when there was minimal mopup where it wasn’t really ping and falling on steep terrain. risk of the fire escaping.” By the needed had nearly cost a life. third day of the Gold Creek Fire,
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 31 High
Risk of escape of fire Gravity-related risk No-work zone Risk Moderate Low
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Days Figure 2—Consumption strategy risk assessment on a fire in coniferous forest that is contained after 3 days. As the fire nears contain ment, gravity-related risks (such as falling trees, slippery slopes, and rolling rocks and stumps) exceed risks from an escaped fire. In sections of the fire where gravity-related risks exceed the risk of fire escape (the no-work zone), mopup should be avoided.
Entrapment during mopup obvi district as the fire management conditions necessary for applying ously remains a serious risk that officer for the summer. Second, the new approach (fig. 3). overhead and crews must never the Central Washington Area forget. However, we must elevate Incident Command Team, the Implementing the consumption our awareness of the risks to same team that had handled the strategy on the North 25 Fire firefighters from gravity-related Gold Creek Fire, was assigned to offered several immediate benefits: hazards during mopup. manage the North 25 Fire when it escaped initial attack. With the 1. Reduced risk of firefighter Operational Success Gold Creek experience still fresh in injury due to falling and rolling In August 1998, the 8,500-acre their minds, the team’s leaders materials on steep, rocky (3,400-ha) North 25 Fire on the were willing to consider a new slopes. Wenatchee National Forest’s approach. Third, District Ranger Al 2. Reduced need for resources and Chelan Ranger District in Wash Murphy and Forest Supervisor labor. Because much of the ington provided the first opportu Sonny O’Neal were both willing to North 25 Fire’s perimeter was nity to implement the consump accept the possibility of a longer inaccessible by road, conven tion strategy. A number of factors lasting or larger fire if the con tional mopup was likely to coincided to make testing possible sumption strategy were imple involve lots of crews, long under actual field conditions. First, mented. Finally, the North 25 Fire hoselays, and significant Tom Leuschen was detailed to the had the topographical and fuel helicopter use.
32 Fire Management Notes The consumption strategy saves labor assignments by scavenging a 20 and reduces costs, freeing resources foot (6.2-m) strip of ground just inside the lines for fuel and then for use on other incidents. constructing and burning numer ous small handpiles. The result was a cleanly burned and very 3. Reduced cost. Assisted by the The incident management team secure blackline. consumption of available fuels, carefully briefed all operational mopup would cost less than personnel on why and how the new According to Furlong, many crews traditional, labor-intensive mopup standards were to be understood that the incident mopup. implemented on the fire. Even management team was looking out 4. Reduced spread of noxious after several briefings, however, for firefighter safety in using the weeds, particularly the diffuse some crews still had trouble consumption strategy. “The crews knapweed (Centaurea diffusa). accepting the idea of merely that picked up on what we were Ranger Murphy saw that tilling patrolling firelines for 3 to 5 days doing were the hotshot crews,” less soil would reduce the while allowing the fire to consume Furlong noted. “I had a number of amount of prepared seedbed for fuels just inside the lines. “This superintendents come up to me weed propagation. “The North approach is a cultural shift in how and thank us for using this ap 25 Fire burned on both sides of we manage fires,” said Incident proach.” Twenty-two interagency one of the busiest roads on this Commander Jim Furlong. “We are hotshot crews from the Pacific district,” he said. “The less used to being aggressive in extin Northwest and California were on ground we dig up, the more we guishing fires, so being patient like the North 25 Fire. prevent weeds from spreading this feels a little unnatural.” Some outside of the road corridor.” crews modified their line patrol The consumption strategy suc ceeded. About a quarter of the fire perimeter was never considered for direct attack, let alone mopup, because it was on an extremely steep, rock-strewn slope overlook ing Lake Chelan (fig. 4). Around the remainder of the fire, the operations section chiefs opted for intensive mopup on only 22 percent of the firelines, based on the prevalence of unburned fuels next to the lines. For 3 to 5 days, more than 7 miles (11.2 km) of the 9.5 miles (15.2 km) of accessible perimeter were allowed to smolder under the watchful eyes of daily patrols. There were no accidents during mopup and no significant escapes. Because almost no hose was laid and operations were much Figure 3—A helitanker drops water on an inaccessible spot fire, part of the North 25 Fire, Chelan Ranger District, Wenatchee National Forest, WA, in August 1998. The steep terrain less labor intensive than under the and poor accessibility of the site called for applying the consumption strategy, which conventional mopup approach, succeeded in controlling the fire while minimizing the risks to firefighters from gravity- seven crews could be freed right related hazards such as falling snags and rolling logs. Photo: Paige Houston, USDA Forest Service, Okanogan National Forest, Tonasket Ranger District, Tonasket, WA, 1998. away for fire assignments else where.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 33 Lessons Learned • Fire behavior analysts should will likely do by itself—given just Several lessons can be learned measure the potential for escape a little time. from our experience with the on each section of line as it is consumption strategy on the completed. Each section must Safety must always be our first North 25 Fire: also be evaluated for gravity- priority in suppressing wildland related hazards. These data must fires. Applied correctly, the con • Firefighters should mop up in then be presented to the line sumption strategy offers a safer, areas of high gravity-related officer for determining mopup more cost-effective means of hazard only when necessary. Too standards. achieving the same objective— often we approach mopup based • Although perceiving mopup as wildland fire suppression. For on tradition and habit. Especially putting out the fire is often more information on the con in an age of increasingly large appropriate, sometimes a more sumption strategy, contact Ken fires across the West, the same reasonable interpretation of Frederick, Information Assistant, safety mindset should prevail for mopup is making sure the fire Chelan Ranger District, Wenatchee mopup as for line construction. does not cross control lines. National Forest, 428 W. Woodin Sometimes it might be safer and Making this subtle distinction Ave, Chelan, WA 98816, 509-682 more sensible to be vigilantly will help fire managers and 2576 (voice), 509-682-9004 (fax), patient for a few days while a fire firefighters avoid the potentially kfrederick/r6pnw_wenatchee@ ■ consumes its fuels than to high costs of doing what the fire fs.fed.us (e-mail). aggressively put it out. • Line officers and fire managers on project fires should reflect upon what might be a false sense of insecurity regarding how thoroughly a fire should be extinguished before the local administrative unit reassumes responsibility for the fire. Line officers should consider accept ing more risk of fire escape in exchange for less risk to firefighter safety. The risk of escape is often only marginally higher under the consumption strategy.
Figure 4—The North 25 Fire burns deep in Box Canyon on the south shore of Lake Chelan, Chelan Ranger District, Wenatchee National Forest, WA, in August 1998. About a quarter of the fire perimeter was never considered for direct attack, let alone mopup, because it was on an extremely steep, rock-strewn slope overlooking the lake. The consumption strategy is well suited for consideration on such sites. Photo: Paige Houston, USDA Forest Service, Okanogan National Forest, Tonasket Ranger District, Tonasket, WA, 1998.
34 Fire Management Notes USING FELLED TIMBER AS WATER BARS TO CONTROL POSTFIRE EROSION
John Winchester
ildland fires that remove protective canopy and To effectively disrupt the flow of water downhill, W consume vegetation on the tree trunks need to be firmly in contact forest floor leave burned areas with mineral soil. susceptible to erosion. One mea sure to reduce erosion until ground cover is reestablished is to as silt fence, they have several before they arrived on the scene. create water bars across exposed advantages: So began the Black Tiger Fire, slopes. which consumed 44 structures and •No material costs. 2,100 acres (850 ha) of coniferous Water, in and of itself, does not • No need for transporting materi forest in 4 days (NFPA n.d.). erode soil. It is the velocity of als to the site (which is particu water that provides the energy to larly advantageous for remote or After the fire, concern quickly move soil. The purpose of a water rugged sites). turned to the potential for erosion, bar is to pool, slow, or redirect •No leftover hazards. Unlike silt particularly since the average slope moving water, reducing its velocity fence, which can leave hazardous across the burned area is 23 so it will drop the sediment it is metal posts and synthetic fabric percent. Orchestrated by the carrying and not pick up any more for decades after placement, Colorado State Forest Service, in the immediate area. Water bars felled-tree water bars will be several agencies began implement can also be used to break up water covered by returning vegetation ing a variety of erosion control flowing in rills (channels small and eventually decompose into measures in the steepest parts of enough to be removed by standard the landscape. the watershed, including aerial farming machinery [Dunne and seeding of grass seed, installation Leopold 1978]) and make it flow in After 10 years of monitoring felled- of silt fence, and cross-slope tree sheets, thereby reducing the power timber water bars in Colorado’s felling to create water bars. available for channel formation. Black Tiger Gulch, we can now assess their performance and Efforts to control erosion were Like water bars on hiking trails, recommend specific construction focused on the lower slopes of which divert water to prevent methods to improve their effective Black Tiger Gulch, both because it erosion of the footpath, water bars ness. was the steepest terrain burned on open soils are susceptible to and because a filter strip at the rapid wear from wind, rain, and Placing Water Bars in bottom of the basin would help flowing water. One way to increase Black Tiger Gulch trap sediment moving off the their longevity is to reinforce them At about 12:30 on the afternoon of upper parts of the basin. Since the with large, solid materials such as July 9, 1989, a wisp of smoke area was not going to be logged for rocks or logs. In forested areas, began to curl up from the forest salvageable timber killed in the water bars can be easily fortified floor outside a small home west of fire, there were plenty of pine, with felled trees killed by the fire. Boulder, CO. The fire rapidly spruce, and fir trees from 6 to 18 Although felled-tree water bars spread into thick stands of ponde inches (15 to 45 cm) in diameter might not be as quickly erected rosa pine and raced uphill. Eight available for use in constructing minutes later, the Sugar Loaf water bars. Silt fence was installed Volunteer Fire Department was on a limited basis, and cross-slope John Winchester is a water resources dispatched to what they were told tree felling was carried out over engineer for Hydrosphere Resource was a small grass fire—a fire that approximately 25 acres (10 ha) in Consultants in Boulder, CO. had grown beyond control even the lowest portions of the water shed.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 35 In the fall of 1989, trees were cut washed into Middle Boulder Creek Tree Placement. The placement of in Black Tiger Gulch for the during an unusually heavy rain the tree trunk is key to a successful purpose of making water bars. storm in the summer of 1989, water bar. Only one location was Trees that did not fall across the there have been no slope failures found where water bars succeeded slope were placed that way by and no large-scale erosion or in trapping and holding the soil. hand. To keep the tree trunks from sedimentation problems. Ten years Unfortunately, this location was at being suspended off the ground, all after Black Tiger Gulch burned, the bottom of Black Tiger Gulch, branches were flush cut with the grasses again hold the sandy soil in and the trees were washed away trunk and the slash was cleared. place. Small stands of aspen have after the heavy rainstorm during The limbless trunks were pre returned, some with trees up to 12 the first summer. With that one vented from rolling downhill by feet (3.7 m) tall. exception, no water bars showed placing some trees against stumps any sign of water pooling or and chocking others with rocks on Observations were made in four sediment deposition. By contrast, the downhill sides. Then Black key areas regarding erosion in silt fence that was properly in Tiger Gulch was left to heal on its Black Tiger Gulch: stalled shortly after the fire both own. pooled water and retained sedi 1. The placement of trees for ment. Observation of Postfire successful water bars, Erosion 2. The necessary stabilization of Why did the water bars fail where Erosion in Black Tiger Gulch was trees used as water bars, silt fence succeeded? When the not as severe as some had feared, 3. The timing of soil movement, trees were felled across the slopes, partly due to erosion control and and they were not placed in continuous partly due to the thin, rocky soils. 4. The optimal number of water contact with the ground. Figure 1 Although one slug of sediment bars required to hold soil in shows a typical slope with felled place.
Figure 1—Ineffectively installed water bars in Black Tiger Gulch, CO. After a severe fire in 1989, trees were felled cross-slope for erosion control. Notice that between May 1990 (left) and May 1997 (right), no sediment accumulated behind the water bars. Inadequate installation permitted water flowing downhill to form rills under the trunks, rendering them useless as water bars. Photos: Courtesy of John Winchester, Boulder, CO, ©1990 and ©1997.
36 Fire Management Notes trees in May 1990 and again in May Water bars must be anchored solidly enough 1997. Notice that no sediment to stay in place until vegetation has become accumulated behind these trees. Even where trunks were in rela well established. tively continuous contact with the soil, after rills formed under the trunks, they became useless as water bars. To effectively disrupt and sediment to settle out and be Tiger Gulch, after about 2 to 3 the flow of water downhill, trees stored. The bigger the depression, years. need to be firmly in contact with the better. the soil. Contact can be made by Timing. Most of the material that digging a cup trench so the trunk Tree Stabilization. Over time, moved in Black Tiger Gulch as a is somewhat recessed into the some of the trees moved downhill, result of the fire did so in the first slope and backfilling against the making them useless as water bars. year after the fire. Figure 2 shows bole with soil or—where variations Some crept slowly downhill as sedimentation behind a silt fence in the trunk make this infeasible— branches and rocks supporting in May and July 1990 and again in using silt fence or filter fabric to them gave way or were pressed May 1997 (at the same elevation cover gaps between the tree trunk into the soil. Others moved sud and approximately 100 yards [109 and the ground. If fabric is used, it denly when their supports abruptly m] north of the area shown in should be well anchored to both failed. To be effective, water bar figure 1). Notice that accumulated the tree and the ground. Ideally, construction must provide suffi sediment was much heavier in July there should be a depression on cient support to hold the trunks in 1990 than in May 1997. This makes the uphill side of the tree that will place until vegetation has stabi sense intuitively, because the more provide a place for water to pool lized the soil—in the case of Black time passes, the more vegetation is
Figure 2—Silt fence installed in Black Tiger Gulch, CO, after a severe fire in 1989. Notice that accumulated sediment is much heavier in July 1990 (left) than in May 1997 (right). Because most erosion occurs during the first year after a fire, water bars are most effective for postfire erosion control when installed shortly after a fire. Photos: Courtesy of John Winchester, Boulder, CO, ©1990 and ©1997.
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 37 Water bars that are installed shortly after a fire soil movement decreases with are much more likely to catch sediment than ones time after the disturbance. 4. On long slopes, two or more installed after the first season. water bars should be placed in a series to shorten the distance that water can travel unob structed. The distance between reestablished and the more soil is measures must be taken to ensure water bars should also be held in place. Consequently, water the effectiveness of water bars: shortened for steep slopes, bars that are installed shortly after erosive soils, thin or slow- a fire are much more likely to 1. Like silt fence, trees used as growing vegetation, or areas catch sediment than ones installed water bars must be in continu with heavy precipitation. after the first season. ous contact with the ground. If the ground or tree trunk is For more information on water bar Number. Multiple rows of water irregular, contact must be use and construction, contact John bars were constructed on long created by trenching so the tree Winchester, P.E., Water Resources slopes in Black Tiger Gulch to is partially buried in the slope Engineer, Hydrosphere Resource decrease the distance that water and then mounding dirt against Consultants, 1002 Walnut Street, could travel unimpeded. Although the trunk, or by installing a Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302, 303 the spacing between water bars filter fabric on the uphill side of 443-7839 (voice), 303-442-0616 will vary from site to site because the tree between the ground (fax), [email protected] (e of differences in slope, soils, native and the tree trunk. mail). vegetation, and expected precipita 2. Tree trunks must be anchored tion, multiple water bars might be firmly enough to stay in place required to effectively slow until vegetation has become Literature Cited waterflow on long slopes. well established. Revegetation Dunne, T.; Leopold, L.B. 1978. Water in is likely to take from 1 to 3 environmental planning. New York, NY: years, depending on factors W.H. Freeman and Company. 818 p. Ensuring Water Bar NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency). Effectiveness such as the local environment No date. Case study of the wildland/ Using felled trees as water bars can and the severity of the fire. urban interface fire that destroyed 44 homes and other structures near be a fast and inexpensive means of 3. Water bars are most effective if they are installed as soon as Boulder, CO, July 9, 1989. Quincy, MA: erosion control. However, four NFPA. 40 p. ■ possible after the fire, because
38 Fire Management Notes A GLIMPSE INTO FIRE PREVENTION HISTORY
Ken Strauss
ong before Smokey Bear, and siltation of streams, destroy anglers, and we now use such the USDA Forest Service ing spawning habitat for salmon fires to promote wildlife Lused materials such as the and trout. Some types of fire are habitat on many of our brochure replicated below actually a boon to hunters and wildlands. ■ right* to promote wildland SIX RULES FOR PREVENTING UNITED STATES fire prevention. The two-sided FIRE IN THE FORESTS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE brochure is from the files of FOREST SERVICE 1. Matches—Be sure your match is out. Break Alfred Moore, the former it in two before you throw it away. alternate ranger on the Castle 2. Tobacco—Be sure that pipe ashes and cigar or cigarette stubs are dead before throwing them FOREST FIRES Creek Ranger District, Nez away. Never throw them into brush, leaves, or Perce National Forest, needles. OR GAME 3. Making Camp—Before building a fire scrape ? Grangeville, ID. Like today, away all inflammable material from a spot 5 feet in many wildland fires in the diameter. Dig a hole in the center and in it build your camp fire. Keep your fire small. Never build it 1920’s and 1930’s were against trees or logs or near brush. ignited by careless hunters and 4. Breaking Camp—Never break camp until your fire is out—dead out. anglers, often while camping. 5. Brush Burning—Never burn slash or brush By appealing to the interest of in windy weather or while there is the slightest dan ger that the fire will get away. sportsmen in preserving fish 6. How to Put Out a Camp Fire—Stir the coals while soaking them with water. Turn small sticks and game, the brochure seeks “AFTER THE FOREST FIRE” and drench both sides. Wet the ground around the to prevent careless fire use. fire. If you can’t get water stir in dirt and tread it down until packed tight over and around the fire. Be Today, preventing careless fire sure the last spark is dead. use on our Nation’s wildlands GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE M-5020 8—5731 remains one of our top priori ties. But our messages have THE WOODS AND WILDLIFE FIRE IS RUTHLESS “Human life is absolutely dependent upon wild For 12 years after a 50 square mile forest fire changed. We now fully accept life and forests. Without these things we would be in Canada, streams which had previously been the natural role that fire often come extinct as a race. abundantly supplied contained no trout. “If all vegetation, all wild life, and all forests Most of the waters are still barren. plays in sustaining habitat for should disappear to-morrow, the human race would fish and wildlife. Frequent become extinct upon the face of the earth within one FIRE DESTROYS GAME FOOD year.” During the deep snows of winter, white-tailed low-intensity fire in open —James Oliver Carwood. deer “yard up” on North Fork, in the Flathead stands of ponderosa pine, for FIRE IS THE ANGLER’S ENEMY Forest. In 1910 the Coal Creek–Anaconda fire burned example, promotes browse for In 1900 a severe fire on Slippery Brook, New Hampshire, was followed by a rain. the moss and willows on half of this yarding area. deer and prevents the buildup After the rain many dead fish were seen, presum The following winter the deer yarded as usual. ably killed by the alkaline ashes that washed into the Seventy per cent died of starvation before spring. of ladder fuels that could lead water. Many weakened deer were killed by coyotes be to devastating crown fires —Aldo Leopold in American Forestry Magazine, fore they had a chance to die of starvation. September, 1923. LOST TO SPORTSMEN followed by hillside erosion Ultimately fish depend on the smaller creatures and on plants for food. On a single 40-acre tract of brush land in Min Ken Strauss is the deputy director of Acquatic plants are affected by changes in qual nesota, planted to pine, eight nests of ruffed grouse Fire and Aviation Management for the ity of water. with 83 eggs were burned. USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Rising and falling water levels affect them still Destroyed in this fire: Region, Ogden, UT. more. Eight coveys of grouse. Forest fires affect the floor of lakes and streams Recreation for 12 men. * The cover photo of a fire-killed deer is similar to as much as the forest floor, though less suddenly. the one in the original brochure. Photo: Courtesy —P. E. Nobbs, in Illustrated Canadian Forestry Potential timber for 40 homes. of National Agricultural Library, Special Collec Magazine, May, 1923. tions, Forest Service Photograph Collection, 8—5731 Beltsville, MD (Leland J. Prater, 1953; 475290).
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 39 SPIRIT FIRE RULES THE EARTH *
Stephen W. Barrett
he year is 1697. In the Flat Long Valley, some Salish The People revere the Big Pines as the T Indians are resting under sacred guardians of the valley. Some trees are the shade of Father Old Pine, a so big that three men, fingertip to fingertip, huge ponderosa pine that has marked the trail for countless can barely reach around the trunks. generations—perhaps seven or eight centuries, no one knows for sure. But the tree’s lower “You mean when the Kootenais LITTLE BURNING BUSH interrupts. branches still hold the People’s were trapped in that canyon up “Wouldn’t Spirit Fire hurt the sacred offerings from long ago. north?” asks DANCING RED FLAME. People and Father Old Pine?”
“Yes,” replies CRYING BURNT FINGER, ROLLING THUNDERCLAP just laughs ROLLING THUNDERCLAP asks DANC “their ghosts are still wandering and says, “Don’t worry. The ING RED FLAME, “Were you awake during the storm last night?” near where the Great White Bears flames are small and the Big pick berries.” Pines have thick skin. The trees “Yes, Spirit Fire has returned will be the happier for it, and and the hills are coming alive.” (Some two centuries later, Spirit Spirit Fire will also create more Fire, now considered the enemy of food for the animals.” man, would again sweep through Suddenly, FLYING EMBER gives a yell. “Look! Smoke on Big the area as “The Great 1910 The People revere the Big Pines Mountain! When did it last Burn.”**) as the sacred guardians of the burn, 4 or 5 years ago?” valley. Some trees are so big After awhile, ROLLING THUNDERCLAP that three men, fingertip to asks CROOKED SMOKING TREE, “Is the fingertip, can barely reach “I don’t recall,” FLAMING NEEDLES replies happily, “but let’s go up game drive set for tomorrow?” around the trunks. And the there next year. Good hunting hunters often stalk deer by for sure!” The twin boys, SMALL SPARK and sneaking from tree to tree, LITTLE BURNING BUSH, don’t yet know moccasins whispering through the ways of the People. They ask the pinegrass. CROOKED SMOKING TREE agrees. “Yes, and plenty of berries in the men what they are talking that old burn my grandfather about. So CRYING BURNT FINGER (Two centuries later, new valley showed me, from the big Spirit explains how, after a brief cer dwellers would call the big trees Fire three generations ago.” emony, the People would form “Sawtimber” and log them in lines and torch the grass, driving the name of progress. Then, in the deer toward hunters hiding the late 1900’s, some folks behind the Big Pines. would call the few remaining Steve Barrett, a consulting fire trees “Ancient Old Growth” and ecologist in Kalispell, MT, has studied revere them as museum pieces.) fire history in many parts of the northern Rocky Mountains for the past 20 years. Spirit Fire has been burning on ** The 1910 fires burned 3 million acres (1.2 million ha) in the northern Rocky Mountains. A formative Big Mountain for some hours * This whimsical sketch illustrates Indian wildland experience for many foresters in the fledgling USDA burning practices documented by many Forest Service, the great fires of 1910 led indirectly to now, creeping here and spotting researchers, including the author (Barrett and the 10 A.M. Policy of suppressing all wildland fires, there; once a sheet of flame even Arno 1982) and other writers (Boyd 1999). The established in 1935. The 10 A.M. Policy was finally sketch is excerpted from Steve Barrett’s “A Rocky renounced in 1978 due to the growing realization that goes clear to the mountaintop. Mountain Allegory,” a fanciful fire history of some forest types require periodic fires to regenerate Montana’s Flathead Valley. and thrive. But the drowsing Indians don’t
40 Fire Management Notes Coeur d’Alenes in Idaho in about 1845 using fire to drive deer into a lake, where hunters wait in canoes to shoot them. The painting is by a Jesuit missionary, Father Nicolas Point, who lived with various native peoples in the northern Rocky Mountains from 1840 to 1847. Point’s stylized depiction of fire hunting, showing a crown fire dangerously close to the Indian encampment, probably reflects European fear of wildland fire rather than an actually observed event. The accompanying journal account on Indian fire hunting describes surface fires, not crown fires. Indians skilled and experienced in the use of fire rarely endangered their villages through wildland burning. Illustration: Courtesy of the Archives of the Society of Jesus, Quebec, Canada.
pay much mind, safe as they are “You’re thinking of Crane Moun “Father, tell me again about the under the shade of Father Old tain, on the east side of the Long time you fought the Blackfeet Pine. Deep Lake,” teases FLYING EMBER. near Badrock Canyon,” says SMALL SPARK. (Some three centuries later, a COUGHING GRAY SMOKE just laughs. new clan of people, the “No matter, the hunting and So ROLLING THUNDERCLAP proudly Smokejumpers, would spend gathering will be good all over.” retells the story, probably for the $10 million in taxpayer money 10th time. “And the fight was frantically trying to save luxury LITTLE BURNING BUSH is now becom going badly,” he concludes, homes on the same mountain.) ing restless. “Mother told me the “until FLYING EMBER and COUGHING women would be done burning GRAY SMOKE torched the grass. Stirring from his nap, YELLOW around the campsite by evening. Spirit Fire scattered the LIGHTNING BROTHER says to no one What’s taking so long?” Blackfeet like fool hens in the in particular, “Look! Spirit Fire’s bushes. But last year, when we awake on White Elk Mountain His father, ROLLING THUNDERCLAP, crossed the Backbone to hunt and Big Pine Ridge. Come to says, “Be patient, the burning blackhorns on the plains, the think of it, we haven’t burned ceremony always takes time.” Blackfeet pulled the same trick the ridge in, what, 2 or 3 years?” on us.”
Volume 59 • No. 4 • Fall 1999 41 So the Indians offer a few gifts to CRYING BURNT FINGER explains how, after a brief Father Old Pine and leave, but ceremony, the People would form lines and torch not before YELLOW LIGHTNING the grass, driving the deer toward hunters BROTHER shows the twins how to burn the trail, clearing it for next hiding behind the Big Pines. spring.
For the rest of that fall, Spirit By now, the North Valley is there’s CHIEF BLACK CLOUD Fire burns throughout the Flat filling with smoke. But the signaling for everyone to meet Long Valley, until the snows Indians don’t much care, for the at the Long Deep Lake.” finally come. Some flames even smoke won’t linger very long. make it to the Sun River coun A few minutes later, FLYING try, deep in the heart of the (Three centuries later, City EMBER tells FLAMING NEEDLES, “My Backbone. The People don’t pay Folks, some 70,000 strong, band is heading down the west much mind, because they are would complain bitterly about side of the lake the day after busy preparing for the winter smoke in the air from fires in tomorrow. We’d better burn the camp. the forest. A few would even hills for the deer.” protest to a council known as But, speaking in a language no the Environmental Protection “I’ll do the same on the east human can understand, the Agency.) side. We’ll see who gets the plants and animals all talk bigger smoke,” laughs FLAMING excitedly among themselves. CROOKED SMOKING TREE and HORSE NEEDLES. Grizzly Bear, king of the moun LIGHTNING suddenly point to the tains, speaks for all his subjects. southeast. “Look! Now there’s (Three hundred years later, “Spirit Fire has been good to us, smoke in Swan Valley!” someone named Fire Ecologist providing all we need to survive.” would find that fires had burned Then the plants and animals All eyes turn to see a dark cloud every few years on Crane gradually doze off, preparing to billowing toward the Big Fork. Mountain between 1500 and sleep away the long, dark winter 1920. But there was no sign of of 1698. COUGHING GRAY SMOKE says, “That Spirit Fire thereafter; some say must be RED COAL’s band coming she fled when the clans of Literature Cited to the winter camp. You can tell Firefighters came.) Barrett, S.W.; Arno, S.F. 1982. Indian the time is near, because he fires as an ecological influence in the always burns the grass on his Toward evening, CRYING BURNT Northern Rockies. Journal of Forestry. 80(10): 647–650. way back to the main valley.” FINGER stands up and says, “We’d Boyd, R., ed. 1999. Indians, fire, and the better signal back to BLACK land in the Pacific Northwest. YELLOW LIGHTNING BROTHER then CLOUD and RED COAL, while Portland, OR: Oregon State Univer spots a new smoke in the west, there’s still time.” sity. 320 p. ■ near Tallgrass Draw. “And
42 Fire Management Notes PHOTO CONTEST
Fire Management Notes invites • For every photo you submit, you • Photos are judged by a photogra you to submit your best fire- must indicate only one competi phy professional whose decision related photos to be judged in tion category. is final. competition. Winners in each • Each photo must be an original category will receive awards (first color slide. We are not respon Evaluation Criteria place—camera equipment and a sible for photos lost or damaged, • Photos without detailed captions 16- by 20-inch framed copy of your and photos submitted will not be or of low technical quality (for photo; second place—an 11- by 14 returned (so make a duplicate example, duplicates or photos inch framed copy of your photo; before submission). with soft focus or showing third place—an 8- by 10-inch • You must be the photographer or camera movement) will be framed copy of your photo). All own the rights to the photo eliminated from competition. contestants will receive a CD–ROM graph, and the photo must not • Evaluation will be based on such with all of the photos evaluated in have been published prior to criteria as subject (does the the competition. In addition, we submission. photo tell a story?), composition, will print winning photos in Fire • You must complete and sign a color, and patterns. Management Notes. statement granting rights to use your photo(s) to the USDA Postmark Deadline Forest Service (see sample Categories December 15, 1999 • Wildland fire statement below). Include your • Prescribed fire full name, agency or institu Send submissions to: • Wildland–urban interface fire tional affiliation (if any), address, Hutch Brown • Aerial firefighting resources and telephone number. Editor, Fire Management Notes • Ground firefighting resources • Every photo submitted must 4814 North 3rd Street • Other (fire effects; fire weather; have a detailed caption (includ Arlington, VA 22203 fire-dependent communities or ing, for example, name, location, species; etc.) and date of the fire; names of any people and/or their job descrip Rules tions; and descriptions of any vegetation and/or wildlife). • The contest is open to everyone. You may submit an unlimited number of entries from any place or time.
Sample Photo Release Statement (You may cut out and use this statement. It must be signed.) Enclosed is/are ______(number) slide(s) for publication by the USDA Forest Service. For each slide submitted, the contest category is indicated and a detailed caption is enclosed. I have the authority to give permission to the Forest Service to publish the enclosed photograph(s) and am aware that, if used, it or they will be in the public domain and appear on the World Wide Web.
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