Prescribed Fire

What to Do After Wildfire

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"Take half, leave half" standard for defoliation by grazing and for fire breaks to lower impact to below-ground roots, nutrient-cycling, and regrowth of plants, especially our remaining and very important native plants, is supported by this paper.

Crider, FJ. 1955. Root-Growth Stoppage Resulting from Defoliation of Grass. Technical Bulletin No. 1102. USDA. Washington D.C. February 1955.

From Summary: Removals during the growing season of half or more of the foliage of grasses—cool-and warm-season species including bunch, rhizomatous, and stoloniferous types—caused root growth to stop for a time after each removal, with one exception. The exception was orchard-grass (Dactylis glomerata) after the first clipping.

Sonoma County Wildfire Fuel Mapper

Maps, resources, and information to help Sonoma County residents and land managers reduce fire fuel hazard. The Wildfire Fuel Mapper provides publicly accessible, parcel-scale mapping and tools for landowners to reduce wildfire risks on their own property. Made in collaboration between University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), Pepperwood and Tukman Geospatial. 

Grasslands - Summer 2019 Vol 29. No. 3 - Special Issue: Fire in California

• CNGA's 12th Annual Field Day at Hedgerow Farms
• Location and Seeding Affect the Outcomes of Controlled Burning of California Annual Rangeland
• Species Spotlight: Fire Poppy
• Invasive Weed Management Post-Wildfire: Closer Look at Camp Fire Invasive Weeds in Right-of-ways
• Grasslands Researcher: Sasha Berleman
• Burning by the Day: Why Cost/acre is not a Good Metric for Prescribed Fire
• Field Report: Building a Burn Trailer to Support Your Community's Prescribed Fire Efforts
• Going Native: Designing for Fire--Homeowner Guidelines and Considerations for Native Planting

Federal Fire Policy

Clark, S.A., Archer, J.N., Stephens, S.L. et al. Realignment of federal environmental policies to recognize fire’s role. Fire Ecology 20, 74 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42408-024-00301-y

ABSTRACT

Background

Enactment of the Clean Air Act (CAA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), three of the primary federal environmental laws, all coincided with the height of fire suppression and exclusion in the United States. These laws fail to acknowledge or account for the importance of fire in many fire-adapted and fire-dependent ecosystems, particularly in the American west, or the imperative for fire restoration to improve resiliency and reduce wildfire risk as identified by western science and Indigenous knowledge. We review the statutory and regulatory provisions of these federal laws to identify how the existing policy framework misaligns with the unique role of fire in ecosystems and with Tribal sovereignty, identify specific barriers and disincentives to beneficial fire use, and propose specific policy reforms.

Results

The CAA, the ESA, and NEPA inhibit the use of beneficial fire as they are founded in a policy framework that treats fire restoration and maintenance as a federal action or human activity, rather than as a natural, baseline, or keystone process. The emergency exceptions in these policies reduce accountability and incentivize the wrong kind of fire, and compliance creates a perverse outcome by disincentivizing fire restoration. Further, these federal policies impede Tribal sovereignty.

Conclusions

Modifications to these laws would better enable fire restoration in fire-dependent and fire-adapted ecosystems, reduce wildfire risk, and ultimately meet the statutes’ core purposes. Federal agencies and Congress should reform regulatory frameworks to explicitly recognize fire as a baseline, natural, or keystone process, such that restoring fire in fire-dependent and fire-adapted ecosystems at levels not significantly exceeding pre-1800 fire return intervals is not treated as a federal or agency action. Further, non-Tribal governments should not attempt to regulate cultural burning, as it is a retained right of Indigenous peoples.