Creek Fire Fresno and Madera Counties (Sept 2020) Three Years Later

I was inspired to write about the still ongoing recovery from the September 2020 Creek Fire after reading Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day Newsletter on September 5th. He shared a September 4th report from ABC30 Action News. According to CAL FIRE's incident report on the Creek Fire, the fire burned 379,895 acres, destroying 856 structures, damaging 71 structures with 26 confirmed injuries. Bill Gabbert wrote extensively about the Creek Fire in Wildfire Today, see for example his September 5th 2020 article. Bill's Creek Fire archives may be found here.

ABC30 Action News sat down with Shaver Lake Fire Chief Steve McQuillan, he started off by saying

"It's easy for me sometimes to forget the devastation because here in the immediate vicinity of Shaver, you look out our windows, and all you see is green. When we respond to a call at Huntington Lake, as soon as you get past Shaver Lake and start heading up into the high country, it's nothing but devastation. Any direction you look, trees gone, and really not much has grown back," explained McQuillan. "A lot of time has gone by since then. We have had to adjust our training a little bit in anticipation of what we might next experience. Of course, we are living on a knife's edge with the threat coming from the East. East of Shaver Lake, the fire did not get to, so we still have miles and miles and miles of green forest, which have still, unfortunately, a large number of dead trees as a result of bark beetle.

The Shaver Lake Volunteer Fire Department had eleven members at the time of the Creek Fire, only six were to respond to the fire. Three members lost their homes. I hope that you take a few moments to read the report from ABC30 Action News.

Communities impacted by large, destructive wildfires may take time to recover, the story of the ongoing recovery from the 2020 Creek Fire is but one story. There are many more stories I am not able to share here. My heart goes out to all who suffered the loss of their homes, businesses, and the loss of loved one.

Direct link to video on YouTube from ABC30 Action News

Reflections: Rebuilding Paradise CA after the Camp Fire

It was been over two year since the Camp Fire destroyed much of Paradise California. 

Direct link to video from National Geographic

I had an opportunity to watch Ron Howard's Rebuilding Paradise last weekend. The film is available on various platforms, I am fortunate to have the National Geographic on my cable so I was able to watch it for free. If you are so inclined and have access through one of the platforms, especially free access, I would recommend watching the film. The film touched me because the focus was on the first year after the Camp Fire and the challenges of the residents in Paradise to rebuild their homes and their town. I was reminded in a way that only a film like this can, that a wildfire such as the Camp Fire or the many wildfires that have decimated California towns this year have severe and sometimes lasting effects on the residents who lost their homes as well those who did not lose their homes but are nonetheless affected by the destruction around them. 

I can say that I care, which is why I write this blog. The film I reminded me that after the wildland fire crews leave, the residents of the affected towns are left with emotional trauma and the visual reminder of seeing the burned areas in their towns as they work to rebuild their homes and their lives, bury their dead, and rebuild their town. The film left me with the uncomfortable awareness that I may have written about the wildland firefighters and the crews who work to clean up the town after the wildfire at the expense of the affected residents. 

As I consider this devastating 2020 wildfire season, which is not over yet in the western United States, I want to pause and say a prayer for all those who have died, those who have lost loved ones, those who lost their homes, and those whose home is still standing but live with the reminder of the wildfire around them. My heart goes out to you. I am sincere in this. I can not say that I know that what you are going through because I do not. But I can say that I care. 

NJ Pine Barrens can recover from a wildfire

I have found it sad to see a large area of my beloved NJ Pine Barrens burned, see for example this awesome NJ Advance Media article By Stephen Stirling with interactive satellite imagery before and after the Spring Hill Fire burned 11,600 acres last weekend; I need to warn you that you will have at least temporarily disable your ad blocker in order to see the article. However I can personally attest to seeing the Pine Barrens come back fairly quickly after a wildfire, this is the point of this article.

You may be interested in this short video report from NJ Network taken in 2008, a year after the 2007 Warren Grove Fire burned over 17,000 acres in the NJ Pine Barrens. You will see how the area burned had begun to regrow a year after the fire went through.


Direct link to video report from NJ Network

There is a good article from the NY Times published on September 25, 2018 (with photos) discussing how an area burned by a 860 acre in the NJ Pine Barrens in May 2018 had begun to regenerate by September. For those of you who are interested in the fire adapted ecosystem of the NJ Pine Barrens I found some information two evergreen trees that are commonly found in the NJ Pine Barrens and how they have adapted and even depend on fire to reproduce, the pitch pine and the shortleaf pine, and the Pinelands Alliance has a good fire ecology page (be warned that one of the videos  and the slide show requires the flash video plug-in which some of you may not want to use for security concerns).

I live a couple of hours away from the NJ Pine Barrens, I try to get down there at least once or twice a year. I usually drive by an area burned by the Warren Grove Fire a mile or south of the ignition point. I pull off in the pull off and take photos if I have my camera with me. The first three photos were taken in August 2008, about 15 months after the Warren Grove Fire. Note that you can see the cones on the dwarf pitch pines (aka pymgy pines) that only open after a fire. In the last picture you can still see evidence of the fire but of note is the growth that happened in the 15 months after the Warren Grove Fire.

Photo taken August 2008 at Stafford Forge (Rte 539 South), Warren Grove NJ 

Photo taken August 2008 at Stafford Forge (Rte 539 South), Warren Grove NJ 

Photo taken August 2008 at Stafford Forge (Rte 539 South), Warren Grove NJ 

In the following photo, taken at the same spot three years after the Warren Grove Fire, you can see the difference. You would hardly know that the area was burned in a wildfire three years prior.

Photo taken May 2010 at Stafford Forge (Rte 539 South), Warren Grove NJ 

2018 wildfire season: more on post-fire clean-up

I have recently written about the post-fire hazardous waste and debris removal following the Camp Fire in Butte County, the Woolsey Fire (Ventura and Los Angeles County) and the Hill Fire in Ventura County which burned close to the Woolsey Fire ( see my February 27th article which includes links to earlier articles). According to the CAL Fire incident database, structures destroyed in each fire are as follows:

Hill Fire: 4 buildings destroyed.
Woolsey Fire: 1,643 destroyed and 341 damaged.
Camp Fire: 18,804 buildings destroyed.

I know about the magnitude of the Camp Fire clean-up, I also know that disasters that destroy a large number of properties such as tornadoes, massive flooding, hurricanes have the potential to at least put a strain on local landfill capacity. At the same time, I know from my work on earlier articles about the 2019 post-fire clean-ups that each of the affected counties have put in a lot of work in planning their respective clean-ups including finding landfills that can take both hazardous and non-hazardous debris as well as ash. I also understand that some debris, e.g. concrete and metal, will be recycled. With all this in mind, I did a search on the internet earlier today and found a January 10,  2019 article, updated on January 29th from the Sacramento Bee reporting on some challenges facing local and state officials involved in the Camp Fire clean-up. This article reports that the recycling of concrete and metal is controversial because near-by Chico residents are understandably hesitant about plans to have a scrapyard in their town (in addition, see my January 11th article). As I write this article, I don't know where this scrapyard is located.

I was interested in a second challenge cited in the Sacramento Bee article, a controversy involving one of the subsidiaries of the contractor awarded the soil testing contract,  two employees plead guilty to faking soil tests on an earlier project and sentenced to prison. The company, Tetra Tech said that they were rogue employees and have addressed the problems. CalRecycle, one of the California agencies involved in the post-fire clean-up said:

CalRecycle officials said Thursday Tetra Tech was the lowest responsible bidder for the contract and that the state has confidence in the company’s work. 

“In previous wildfire debris removal operations, Tetra Tech has proven to be a reliable debris management contractor, meeting CalRecycle’s high standards for health and safety, performance, and operational accountability,” spokesman Lance Klug said in an email to The Bee.

Klug said CalRecycle has, however, implemented a new auditing process as an additional layer of oversight on current and future projects, in part because of the large size of the Camp Fire contracts. 

“All CalRecycle-managed wildfire debris removal operations are conducted with strict contractor oversight measures to protect the health of wildfire survivors, communities, and all workers involved in debris removal efforts, in addition to internal auditing systems to ensure operational accountability,” Klug wrote.

Hopefully Tetra Tech has corrected the problems and updated their procedures so that employee fraud won't happen again and that CalRecycles new audit procedures will address potential problems in the clean-up so that they can be corrected before the clean-up is completed.

The third challenge that I read about in the Sacramento Bee article concerns the question that I had: Where will the debris from the Camp Fire go? Apparently, local officials have identified three landfills that  will accept Camp Fire debris (with requisite permits). There is a nice map locating likely and possible landfills that could take Camp Fire debris. According to the Sacramento Bee:

The massive cleanup prompts other longer-term concerns. If wildfires continue to happen, are California landfills at risk of being over taxed? . . . 

Waste Management, one of the biggest haulers and landfill operators in the country, owns the Anderson landfill near Red Bluff, which just finished taking most of the Carr Fire debris and is now prepping new space for the Camp Fire. Ken Lewis, an executive with the company, says its Anderson landfill has about 60 years of capacity left. But the Camp Fire debris alone could shorten that lifespan by five years. Still, he said, he’s lobbying for the Camp Fire waste to come to his door.

Is California's landfill capacity adequate to take the waste from the 2018 wildfires, especially debris from the Camp Fire? I hope so. I know from all of my reading that the local and state officials have worked hard on the planning for the post-fire clean-up but not limited to identifying landfills that will accept the waste. I am cautiously hopeful that there is enough landfill capacity to take debris from these three wildfires, but you never know. For good or bad, time will tell. Looking to the future, since debris from each large wildfire can shorten the lifespan of a landfill, what will happen if these mega-fires in California continue?

I have only been writing about mega-wildfires in California. Mega wildfires can occur anywhere so other states and countries may well face the issue of adequate landfill capacity sometime down the road.

2018 wildfire season: Woolsey and Hill Fires post-fire hazardous waste clean-up

I have written four articles to date on the Camp Fire post-fire hazardous waste clean-up, see the end of this article for a listing and summary of each of the four articles. For the last several weeks, the residents and businesses who lost their residences and or places of business (or had substantial damage) as a result of the Camp Fire have been going through the post-fire hazardous waste assessment removal process (part 1). Once part 1 was complete meaning that the household hazardous waste has been removed (the property will be tagged after part 1 is complete). the clean-up moves to (part 2), debris removal. During this same time period, the residents and businesses who lost their residences and/or places of business as a result of the Woolsey and Hill Fires were going through the same two-part clean-up process. Please see the summary of my earlier four articles at the end of this article for information on where to find more information on the post-fire hazardous waste and debris removal programs.

The Woolsey Fire burned portions of Los Angeles and Ventura County while the Hill Fire burned in Ventura County. Much of what I wrote about in my four articles about post-fire clean-up after the Camp Fire will apply to the Woolsey and Hill Fires. At the time I wrote this article, part 1, household hazardous waste removal for properties burned by the Woolsey and Hill Fires is complete and the debris removal phase (part 2) is under way. Each county has a webpage (all links current as of the date I wrote this article) devoted to the post-fire hazardous waste removal and debris removal process:

Ventura County Recovers, page on debris removal
Los Angeles County Recovers, page on debris removal
CAL Recycle page on wildfire debris removal and clean-up

As I write this, it has been over three months since the Woolsey and Hill Fires were extinguished (mid-November 2018), but consequences to public health from the fire debris as well as the ash may still remain. Perhaps mold will be an issue because of the water used to extinguish the fire as well as the heavy rains that have occurred over the fire area. Once the household hazardous waste is cleaned up ash that will be removed in part 2, debris removal. Ash can be dangerous to health, so precautions are still important. It is important to obey any restrictions on re-entry, even after the property has been certified to be free of household hazardous waste (propane tanks, lead batteries, paint, asbestos, solvents, pesticides etc.) as local and state officials may still have restrictions on re-entry especially when the part 2 debris removal is going on. In my December 19th article on the clean-up after the Camp Fire, I summarized what happens in both phases of the post-fire clean-up. The same process applies to clean-up after the Woolsey and Hill Fires.

I don't know if local officials are still giving out appropriate protective suits and respirators to affected property owners, if not before going to your property talk to your local health department about how to protect yourself with pants, long sleeved shirts, and where to to get goggles and respirators. I know that this process has to be frustrating, but protecting your health and that of your families is top priority (see my January 4th article for more information). Go to any public meetings, call your local officials if you have any questions. If you have any health concerns -- including but not limited to asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease and other respiratory conditions, heart disease, and allergies -- at a minimum you will want to follow the precautions that I wrote about on January 4th, and perhaps talk to your health care provider before entering the property or have someone else go to the property in your place.

One of the reasons I wanted to write this article on the clean-up following the Woolsey and Hill Fires is because I came across a short report with audio from KPCC 89.3 Southern California Public Radio, this should be a direct link to the audio report from KPCC. The reporter paints a picture with words of the process of debris removal from one house that was destroyed in the Woolsey Fire.

I hope to be able to write more about the debris removal (part 2) phase of the post-fire clean-up affecting the Woolsey, Hill and Camp Fire in a couple of days, stay tuned.

Summary of articles to date about post fire hazardous waste clean-up and debris removal in California:

• December 19, 2018: Camp Fire, Paradise California. Summary of post-fire clean-up, part 1 (household hazardous waste removal and part 2 (debris removal).
• January 4, 2019: update on progress to date of Camp Fire household hazardous waste clean-up, excerpt from Butte County Hazard Advisory on precautions residents should take when re-entering their property after household hazardous waste (part 1) clean-up is complete but before debris removal (and ash removal, soil testing) is complete.
• January 11, 2019: update on progress to date of Camp Fire household hazardous waste clean-up. Conundrum on where to put non-hazardous debris from Camp Fire.
• February 13, 2019 discussion of California government sponsored debris removal (part 2) and what is and is not eligible to be removed under this program. References in this article are to Butte County, but the information would apply to the Woolsey and Hill Fires. Residents also have the option to use their own contractors but must comply with state and local regulations, see this page on property clean-up from Butte County for more information (link is active as of the date I wrote this article).

2018 wildfire season: Camp Fire post fire hazardous waste clean-up: a conundrum where to put non-hazardous debris?

The clean-up after the Camp Fire is still in phase one, the clean-up of hazardous waste where according to this Butte County website, 61.6 percent of properties in Paradise have been designated and signed as having hazardous wastes removed, see my January 4th article for more information. Once the hazardous waste clean-up is completed then phase two starts, debris removal. Where debris removal includes non-hazardous debris including but not limited to remnants of burned structures, furniture,non-hazardous household items and personal effects. See the Butte County Debris Removal website and my December 19th article for more information

I am not quite sure if ash is removed during phase one or phase two.

There are thousands of properties that will be included in phase two of the post Camp Fire clean-up. The conundrum is where will the non-hazardous debris go?  There are designated landfills for hazardous debris in California and Nevada. Officials are looking at nearby towns in northern California for a "temporary scrapyard" to store burned non-hazardous debris. Residents of these towns have understandable environmental and public health concerns. I have no answer for the conundrum of where to put the debris. But I can say that it is not uncommon that residents do not want such a scrapyard in their town. There is an article from Emergency Management reporting on various issues involving where to put non-hazardous debris from the Camp Fire.

As I said, I have no answers. It is a conundrum. This is a question facing both disaster officials and the residents of nearby towns who have been approached about hosting this scrapyard. Public comments from residents of towns under consideration to host this scrapyard have been solicited. At some point a site for this scrapyard will be chosen and people are going to be unhappy.

My thanks to Mike Archer of Wildfire News of the Day for sharing the article from Emergency Management the other day.

2018 wildfire season: Camp Fire post fire hazardous waste clean-up

After I finished graduate school, I spent some time on a job where I had to have a passing familiarity with remediation of household, commercial, and industrial hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is any type of waste that poses a risk to public health, animals and the environment. No I am not any kind of expert in remediation or in environmental science or engineering. But I had to know the lingo and have a passing familiarity with what was involved with remediating sites contaminated with hazardous waste. At the very least, I had to be able listen and understand. That was over fifteen years ago. So when I was perusing some recent articles on the Camp Fire that recently decimated Paradise California, I was interested to see an article from KQED about the hazardous waste clean-up from the Camp Fire, go here to read the article.

I know that this is not the first large fire where hazardous waste clean-up is necessary. However, I was paying attention this time and because of my background fifteen plus years ago, I knew that I had to write about the hazardous waste clean-up in Paradise following the Camp Fire. It is important to consider that the hazardous waste clean-up is ongoing in Paradise at the time I write this and will be for awhile.

The hazardous waste clean-up in Paradise started on or about Monday, December 3rd. However, evacuation orders had to be lifted before work could start in a specific neighborhood. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the lead agency. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) as assisting the EPA. Various agencies in Paradise are assisting including but not limited to the Police. My understanding is that the first phase of the post-fire debris removal program involves the cleaning up and removing household hazardous waste without cost to the homeowner. Commercial hazardous waste is also cleaned up in phase one. Household hazardous waste includes but is not limited to: asbestos, batteries (lead), paints, solvents, pesticides and herbicides, propane tanks, cleaners, etc. Once the household hazardous waste is removed that property will identified by means of a tag.

Only when the household hazardous waste has been removed, then part two, debris removal can begin. In part two the soil from the ash footprint will be scraped down to 3 to 6 inches with samples sent to a lab for analysis. If the soil testing indicates contamination, than more soil is removed and another soil sample is taken until the soil test is clear of contaminants. Go to this Butte County site on post-fire debris removal  for more information. As I write this, I am assuming that this site will be available until the debris removal is completed. It is my understanding that ash is removed in part 2, debris removal.

I don’t know exactly know how long the hazardous waste clean-up will take, and then there will part two, debris removal. I am also aware that there have to be other issues that homeowners whose residences are more or less intact after the Camp Fire may have to contend with, such as damage to private water wells and septic systems. Public water supplies are likely to be contaminated as well and residents should pay attention to any advisories regarding using their water, including but not limited to boil water advisories. Then there will be the health effects if any ash is left. And of course, the electric infrastructure is damaged.

Soda Fire (2015): Burned Area Emergency Response: more maps & reflections

I have been writing about the Soda Fire Burned Area Emergency Response of late. I know that there are stabilization treatments ongoing at the Soda Fire burn area that I have not written about. Should you so desire, these treatments along with a time schedule are described in the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization And Rehabilitation (ES&R) Plan. I'll post some other links a little later where you might find updates. I am hoping that this post is not my last post on the subject, but this may be my last post for awhile. With winter coming on, if it hasn’t already arrived at the Soda Fire burn area, I’m not sure how much more active emergency stabilization and rehabilitation treatments that they can do this winter. But what do I know? Perhaps there are things that they can do in the winter. Time will tell.

In the meantime, I will keep reading some of the documents that I talked about last week as well as doing my best to keep my eyes out for media reports and report back here.

I don’t know about you, but I have learned a lot about the lands that were burned in the Soda Fire as well as the all important Burned Area Emergency Response. I have grown to appreciate the sagebrush-steppe ecosystem. And of course, there is that magnificent bird, the sage grouse. Through the documents that are available (see the link above), the various photos and videos, and media reports, this little corner of a sagebrush-steppe ecosystem has come alive. I know that the ecosystem is hurting after the fire and I am very glad to know something about the Soda Fire Burned Area Emergency Response Plan that will be ongoing for the next five years. 

I am delighted that there have been a lot of media attention on the Soda Fire Burned Area Emergency Response as well as good information available through the Bureau of Land Management. As I write this the Facebook page is updated at least every few days with photos and links to local media reports.

• BLM Idaho Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation
• Soda Fire 2015 -- Facebook
• Soda Fire November 10th Drill Seeding photos & Videos on Flickr

I have been promising to focus a little on some of the Soda Fire ES&R maps available to the public that may be found here. Each map is about 18 MB and is in a pdf file. I love maps and is this case it gives me an idea of what areas are being treated. I was especially interested in two maps which I downloaded and converted to smaller graphic files (jpeg) that I am sharing here. These are the map showing all vegetation treatments and 2015 drill seeding that I referred to on November 30th and December 2nd. The images below are not high resolution, if you want higher resolution files you will want to go the links in the preceding sentence and download them.

Obtained on December 2, 2015 from BLM Idaho -- https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/mapset_view.do?projectId=52963&currentPageId=68942&documentId=64055

Obtained on December 2, 2015 from BLM Idaho -- https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/mapset_view.do?projectId=52963&currentPageId=68942&documentId=64060

Soda Fire (2015): Burned Area Emergency Response: Drill Seeding

On November 30th I wrote about the challenges that invasive weeds pose after the loss of so much natural vegetation such as sagebrush that burned in the recent Soda Fire. If my understanding is correct, there may already be some established invasive weeds such as medusahead and cheatgrass. The concern here is how to prevent invasive weeds such as cheatgrass and medusahead from spreading to the sagebrush-steepe ecosystem that was burned in the Soda Fire. 

The BLM has recently begun to the crucial phase of emergency stabilization. The Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ES&R) Plan encompasses treatments for many threats, one of which is the threat posed by invasive weeds.  The treatment that I will discuss here involves seeding perennial grasses to prevent invasive weeds from taking over. Seeding will be done on the ground by drill seeding as well as aerial seeding from aircraft. Timing is crucial, the hope is that the perennial grass seeding that is being done this fall and early winter will germinate in the spring and thus prevent the invasive weeds from taking over. Perennial Grasses also make for good sage grouse habitat. Follow along as I share a few sources with you on the drill seeding treatment component of the Soda Fire ES&R. I don’t want to leave out aerial seeding operations which I understand are also going on, but I have no videos at the moment about the aerial seeding operations. If my understanding is correct, drill and aerial seeding will be going on for a total of five years including this year.

In the video from BLM Idaho that I am embedding below you will be introduced to the use of what are known as rangeland drills to begin to stabilize the burned areas to both stabilize the soil and prevent invasive weeds. As I understand it, the rangeland drills that the BLM is using are standard rangeland drills used in farming that are modified for use in this habitat. Rangeland drills prepare the land for seeding as well as spreading seed at appropriate depth.

Direct link to video from BLM Idaho on Youtube

BLM Idaho has a nice Flickr page with photos and a few short videos showing rangeland drills working on November 10th in the Soda Fire burn area.

On November 10th, at least two Idaho broadcast media outlets ran stories on reseeding areas burned in the Soda Fire, 7-KTVB and KIVI-TV6. I am never certain how long these links will be available, so if you are arriving at this post sometime later and these links are dead you will know why.  In the story from kivi-tv6 story and video from Kivi on drill seeding (video embedded below) Robert Bennett, a range technician for the BLM says:

When an area becomes dominated by invasive annuals, it does tend to burn more often. They are very fire prone.

And Cindy Fritz, a natural resource specialist for the BLM speaks about the Fall 2015 the drill seeding operations which are laying out perennial grasses in the burned area:

We’re putting them out this late in the year which is ideal. We want them to go through the winter and when they wake up and germinate in the spring, they are in perfect conditions.

Fritz goes on to speak to the fact that it will take 15 to 20 years to get back to the conditions that existed before the Soda Fire.

Here us a nice story with video from KIVI-TV6 about the BLM's emergency stabilization post Soda Fire.

In a report (with video) on drill seeding from 7KTVB,  Robert Bennet spaces about the threats to the sage grouse and how these threats are being addressed by the ES&R:

The two biggest threats for sage grouse are increase fire return and invasive annual grasses, which play into your fire return interval. So putting desirable plants out here to compete with invasive annuals will send this on a trajectory toward improved sage grouse habitat, or recovering the safe grouse habitat.

In addition to the sources that I have linked to above, you might also enjoy BLM Idaho's page devoted to the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation and the 2015 Soda Fire Facebook Page (with pictures and comments about the Soda Fire ES&R efforts this fall.

I do hope to write more about the Soda Fire Burned Area Emergency Response this coming Friday, December 4th. Stay tuned. 

Soda Fire (2015): Burned Area Emergency Response: challenges ahead & invasive weeds

The Soda Fire burned tens of thousands of acres of sagebrush. Sagebrush is the habitat for the Sage Grouse, see my November 27th article to learn more about the Sage Grouse and U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell's secretarial order 3336 -- Rangeland Fire Prevention, Management and Restoration. Invasive plants (or weeds) pose a very real challenge to the post-fire recovery. With the loss of so much sagebrush from the Soda Fire, if nothing is done, the loss of so much sagebrush could give invasive weeds a foothold before the sagebrush and other natural vegetation have a chance to grow back. The Sage Grouse, a magnificent bird, needs sagebrush. Among the treatments under the Soda Fire ESR Plan are treatments aimed at preventing invasive weeds such as cheatgrass and medusahead from taking over.

In the video below, you will learn a little about more about the challenges facing the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation. This will be the first test of secretarial order 3336.


Direct link to video from Idaho Statesmen on Youtube

The second video is also from the Idaho Statesmen and you will listen to learn a little about the strategy for protecting and restoring the sagebrush steepe environment from invasive weeds, go here to watch the video.

Here are a few more articles on the Soda Fire ES&R from last August and the visit of BLM Director Neil Kornze:

• Idaho Statesmen, August 17th, rehab starting before fire contained
• Idaho Statesmen, Letters from the West, Neil Kornze visit, August 27, 2015
• KBOI news 2, August 26th, Neil Kornze visit
• Idaho Statesmen, September 22nd, Sage Grouse decision, Fish & Wildlife Service decision that Sage Grouse can survive without endangered species status.

The BLM has a nice webpage on the 2015 Soda Fire Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation that may be found here, with links to more documents and maps (See the article that I wrote on November 25th for a short discussion on some of these documents. I'll be referring to some of the maps in later articles.

Here is a map that I obtained from the  Soda Post-Fire Rehabilitation Inciweb maps page on November 19, 2015. According to the description on the Soda Post-Fire Rehabilitation Inciweb maps page, this is a"Fire map showing Sage Grouse habitat posted on August 22, 2015 at 7:44 PM."

"2015_08_22-19.44.49.188-CDT" obtained on November 19, 2015 from http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/maps/4546/

I am still working on the remaining articles in this series, so stay tuned. I'll be posting the next article in this series on December 2nd. 

Soda Fire (2015): Burned Area Emergency Response - Intro (3 of 3)

My final post in my three-part introduction to the Soda Fire (2015) Burned Area Emergency Response concerns Secretarial Order 3336. A friend told me about Secretarial Order 3336 that applies to the ES&R treatments. Not knowing much other than it applies to the ES&R at the Soda Fire, I did a quick internet search. Fortunately, the first link that I came was a news release on the main NIFC page. I don’t know how to link to this, fortunately, the summary on the implementation of Secretarial Order 3336 — Rangeland Fire Prevention, Management and Restoration should still be on the main page. This is what NIFC has to say about Secretarial Order 3336:

This Implementation Plan (“Plan”) is the roadmap to accomplish the objectives of Secretarial Order 336 — Rangeland Fire Prevention, Management, and Restoration (“Order’) signed by Secretary Jewell on January 5, 2015. The plan provides a short background describing the importance of the sagebrush-steppe ecosystem and why the Order was issued.

Go here  for more information where you will see a discussion of the importance of the sage-steppe rangeland ecosystem as a breeding habit for the sage-grouse. One of the habitats for the sage-grouse is the area that was burned in the 2015 Soda Fire. As I understand it, one of the objectives of the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization & Rehabilitation (ES&R) treatments referred to in the Soda Fire ES&R planning document is to restore the grasses and vegetation that the sage-grouse depends on.

I found more information for you on conserving the Sage-Grouse Habitat that may be found on this webpage from the BLM. Finally, I have never seen a Sage-Grouse, I enjoyed the two videos that I am embedding below and I hope that you do as well.

Direct link to video by Bob Wick, BLM

Direct link to video from BLM National

Next week I will continue with writing about the Soda Fire (2015): Burned Area Emergency Response by writing about some of the ES&R treatments.

Soda Fire (2015): Burned Area Emergency Response - Intro (2 of 3)

My introduction to the Soda Fire (2015): Burned Area Emergency Response has morphed into three parts. (Part 1 may be found here) Next week I will write more about some of the treatments and activities that are included in the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (Soda Fire ES&R). But first, I am going to spend a little time in this article giving a brief description of the Soda Fire ES&R planning document and a couple of documents tied into Federal and State regulations (discussed below). I will be referring to these documents in later articles so it is appropriate to provide this brief introduction. I will be posting my final introductory article (part 3) on November 27th on Secretarial Order 3336.

Before I go any further, for those of you who might want to bypass my brief description of the documents I discuss below and get right to learning more about the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation, please go to the Idaho BLM page on the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation and/or the Soda Fire (2015) Facebook Page (should be available to public without a Facebook account).

One of the many pieces of Federal and State Legislation and Regulations that those who prepared the Soda Fire ESR Plan (released on September 30, 2015) had to consider and be in compliance with is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). See the Soda Fire ESR Final Decision (p. 4-5) for a full listing of Federal and State legislation and regulations as well as Land Use Plans that the Soda Fire ESR Plan conforms with.

NEPA and the various types of documents that NEPA requires are somewhat complicated. In searching for a simple explanation of NEPA, I came upon a nice webpage from the Colorado Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that briefly describes how the BLM uses NEPA. They refer to the Colorado BLM but I believe that their description applies to the Idaho and Oregon BLM:

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) assures that the BLM (and other federal agencies) will consider the impact of an action on the human environment before decisions are made and the action is taken. It requires that NEPA documents concentrate on issues that are significant to the action in question. The NEPA process is intended to help public officials make better decisions based on an understanding of environmental consequences, and take actions that protect, restore, and enhance the human environment.

When an activity or action is proposed on BLM administered public lands in Colorado, we conduct an interdisciplinary review of the environmental effects of the proposal so that the relevant environmental information is available to citizens and public officials. (obtained on November 24, 2015 from the Colorado Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

In regards to NEPA and the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation, I believe that the other activity or action referred to above is the the Soda Fire ES&R planning document.

The first step in preparing the ES&R planning document is that an Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ES&R) team (aka the Soda Fire Interdisciplinary Team) started field work on or about August 20th. Recall that the Soda Fire was contained on August 23rd. The ES&R team did five days of field work, finishing on or about August 25, 2015. See these two news releases for more information:

• Soda Fire ES&R field work begins 
• Soda Fire ES&R field work ends

Public participation is an important part of this process. According to the news releases on the Inciweb Soda Fire Post Rehab news release page the ES&R team met with various members of the public including but not limited to Ranchers and other private landowners, the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, and representatives of nearby State and Local agencies. The Soda Fire ESR Plan was released on September 30, 2015 (see below).

Note, the Inciweb Soda Fire Post Rehab page is still available as I write this, but is no longer being updated.

If you go to the document page for the Soda Fire ESR/BAER Plan there are three documents listed as of November 25, 2015. I will be referring to some or all of these documents in later documents.

• Soda Fire ESR Plan (released September 30, 2015) The ESR plan outlines costs and treatments under the Soda Fire ES&R Plan for Oregon and Idaho.
• Soda Fire ESR Plan Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA) (released October 19, 2015) "documents that previously prepared NEPA documents adequately describe the environmental consequences of a newly proposed action" (obtained on November 24, 2015 from http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Information/nepa/definitions.html#documentation_of_nepa_adequacy. In our case, I believe that the newly proposed action is the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Plan.
• Soda Fire ESR Final Decision (released October 19, 2015). This is a notice of the BLM Manager’s Final Decision regarding the Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Plan. That is, the Boise ID BLM District  and the Vale OR District determined that the an Environmental Impact Statement is not required (see this NEPA definition page from the Colorado BLM for a very brief defintion of an Environmental Impact Statement). Both Managers say: "With completion of DOI-BLM-ID-B030-2015-0016-DNA, I have determined that implementing proposed Soda Fire ESR treatments identified in this decision would have similar or the same effects as described in the NEPA documents identified above and does not constitute as a major Federal action that will not adversely impact the human environment.  Therefore the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement is not required" (Soda Fire ESR Final Decision, p. 6 and p 21).

Soda Fire (2015): Burned Area Emergency Response - Intro (1 of 3)

The Soda Fire, probably caused by lightning on or about August 10th of this year, burned 279,144 acres before it was controlled on August 25th. The fire was declared "out" on September 9th. See the Inciweb page for the Soda Fire and the Soda Fire 2015 Facebook Page for more information. If you are arriving on this page some time after I first posted this article, I am not quite sure how long either the Inciweb page for the 2015 Soda Fire or the Soda Fire 2015 Facebook page, probably for several months.

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today did a great job reporting on the Soda Fire in this post (scroll to bottom for earliest information) and he shared a video of a fire whirl shot by Graig Fluer on August 17th.

Here is some footage of the Soda Fire shot on August 20th


Direct link to video

And a 48 hour time lapse of the fire (August 12th to August 14th)


Direct link to video

Shortly after the fire was contained planning begain for the burned area emergency response. I'll be writing a couple of articles on the plans for the emergency stabilization and rehabilitation of the burned area starting on November 20th. In the meantime, if you want to see my earlier posts on Burned Area Emergency Response, go to this link (posts tagged BAER).

Before leaving, here is some aerial footage of the burned area shot on August 18th.


Direct link to video

Rim Fire one year later - debate over plans for forest recovery

In my wonderings, thanks to Michael Archer's Wildfire News of the Day on August 19, 2014, I saw this interesting story (hopefully embedded above) on a debate surrounding forest recovery in the aftermath of the Rim Fire of one year ago. I wrote a two part series last November on the Burned Area Emergency Response on November 6, 2013 and November 11, 2013 (with video of burned area).

A direct link to the National Public Radio article and audio may be found here. I post this without comment, I'll let you decide what you think about this debate.

Rim Fire - Burned Area Emergency Response (2 of 2)

direct link to video

This video from the Tuolumne River Trust shows aerial footage shot in 2008 of the area burned in the Rim Fire in the first two minutes of the video. In the final two minutes you will see some footage shot on the ground in early September 2013 of some of the burn area. I believe that the river you see in the footage is the Tuolumne River which runs through the area burned by the Rim Fire, go here to see a map of the Rim Fire burn area on inciweb (it might take a couple of minutes to load).

I found the video when I read a nice article from a KQED report on the Rim Fire BAER. I also found a Sept. 8, 2013 article from the Huff Post Green (with photos) on the team of scientists involved in the Rim Fire BAER.

I was interested in some pictures of the Rim Fire Burned Area Emergency Response that are posted on this flickr page. In addition there are some more photos, some of them seem to be identical or similar to the ones posted on flickr that I found on Inciweb's Rim -- BAER photo page, with captions so you know exactly what you are looking at. There are over 60 photos on this page, I was interested in the damage to the soil and how the area has recovered in the weeks immediately following the fire, so I am highlighting these photos here:

soil damage

soil stabilization

water repellency

recovery 1

recovery 2

recovery 3

recovery 4

Revised on November 19, 2015 to correct URLs to Rim Fire - BAER on Inciweb. I am never quite certain how long such links remain active.

Rim Fire - Burned Area Emergency Response (1 of 2)

Some wildfires cause damage that if unchecked could jeopardize the ecosystem, watersheds, and even human populations (see U.S. Forest Service on Burned Area Emergency Response). Where there is post fire damage Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) kicks in, the USFS has a webpage with some background information on BAER that may be found here.

It has been a couple of years since I have written about BAER, and when I saw a couple of references on the internet about the Rim Fire BAER, I thought I'd write an article or two about BAER. Recall that the Rim Fire burned 257,314 acres or 402 square miles late last summer and was not fully contained until Oct. 24th.

There are three main stages of rehabilitation after a wildfire (see the Rim Fire - BAER page on inciweb for more information, 

1. fire suppression repair

2. emergency stabilization - BAER

3. long-term recovery and restoration

The latest progress report (Oct 30th, 2013) available to me as I write this on 6 November of BAER accomplishments at the Stanislaus National Forest where the Rim Fire burned may be found on this inciweb page. Among other things, one focus of BAER in the aftermath of the Rim Fire is to prepare for rain.

Stay tuned for more on the Rim Fire BAER in my next article.

Revised on November 19, 2015 to correct URLs to Rim Fire - BAER on Inciweb. I am never quite certain how long such links remain active.

wrapping up BAER and hydromulching, and what's next

As I sit here in the early stages of yet another snow event affecting the mid-Atlantic region, I have been wondering how I was going to wrap up this series of posts on burned area emergency response (BAER) and aerial hydromulching operations. I'm not sure that I have all that much to say. For I think that the videos that I embedded speak for themselves.

That being said, I find myself thinking that aerial wildland firefighting often times does not stop with tankers dropping retardant or water-foam on wildfires. In some areas where the burn has been severe and/or erosion can be a real problem, aircraft such as the AT-802 and the Erickson Air Crane perform an important role in post-fire rehabilitation. So, as time goes on, I will periodically revisit BAER progress after wildland fires, including but not necessarily limited to aerial hydromulching operations.

As for what's next, I have continued to correspond with Larry Kraus, pilot-in-command of tanker -62, one of Butler Aircraft's DC-7 tankers that will be under contract with the Oregon Dept. of Forestry later this year. I'll be make a few more posts on the DC-7 tanker next week into early the following week. Stay tuned!

Hydromulching: k-max

I enjoyed this short video of the Kaman K-Max helicopter performing hydromulch operations on Starky Slope near Parachute, Colorado. According to the information on youtube, the area being hydromulched is over or near a pipeline owned by Williams Gas. While it appears that this particular hydromulching operation may not be related post-fire rehabilitation, it does suggest that the K-max helicopter can be used in Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) related hydromulching operations

Hydromulching: Erickson Aircrane

This is a slightly shorter version of a video from Erickson Air Crane showing how the "Crane is used in hydromulching operations. The footage shown is of hydromuclhing operations of Griffith Park after a 2007 wildfire. The complete version of the video may be viewed at this location, you will have to scroll down and select the "hydroseeding" video.

Hydromulching: BAER for 2002 Hayman Fire (CO)

To wrap up, for now, these articles on BAER and hydromulching, I am posting some information about the Burned Area Emergency Response, in particular hydromulching, after the 2002 Hayman Fire in Colorado, the largest fire in Colorado history. This human caused fire burned 137,000 acres southwest of Denver. Before moving to the BAER efforts, please take eight to nine minutes and watch the video that I embedded, a compilation of photos from the North Fork (CO) Volunteer Fire Department.

A map of the area burned by the Hayman Fire and rehabilitation areas may be found here.

The International Erosion Control Association reports on their efforts in hydromulching in an article with pictures that may be found here. Note that the Erickson Air Crane was used in these hydromulching operations. There is also a picture vegetation returning after seven growing seasons to an area that was burned in 1996.

There is some good information on some specific BAER efforts from the Coalition for the Upper South Platte with details on aerial and ground operations, and some links to some links to some videos (at the bottom of the webpage) that may be found here, and you might want to check out the Hayman Fire burn severity map.

A 2003 article from cyberwest magazine with more information about hydromulching and other aspects of BAER for the Hayman burn may be found here.

November 19, 2015: Many of the URLs that I included when I first wrote the artcile are no longer active. I have crossed out the references to the invalid links.