January 15, 2025

Observations From a Former California Forest Firefighter

When fire is aggressively excluded from our forests, the buildup of debris causes increased fuel loads leading to larger, more severe fires.

By Benjamin Martin

I recently retired from a career with the National Park Service. I have spent decades involved in forest management and preservation.

In 1974, while working my first government job as a forest firefighter with the California Division of Forestry, I vividly recall cutting fire lines on steep burning hillsides while eating smoke so thick I could barely see the other firefighters on the line next to me. Back then, a wet handkerchief tied over my face was the best we could do to avoid breathing the smoke from the six-foot-high bushes of burning poison oak.

During that fire season, just one thunderstorm that blew through northern California ignited 200 lightning-caused fires. Since creation, this has been the pattern in that part of the world. Much of nature has adapted to fire. In fact, the pine cones of some tree species will not disperse the seeds contained within until the resinous pitch of the cone has been melted by fire. Plant disease and tree-destroying insects are minimized by regular ground fires in the western forests. Low-temperature ground fires release nutrients into the soil.

What I’m saying here is, despite the fact that I spent years working for Smokey the Bear, that public relations program is not without problems. The public face of Smokey the Bear encouraging fire safety is a good thing. It must be acknowledged, however, that fire is an element of the natural world that helps to maintain healthy forests. When fire is aggressively excluded from our forests, the buildup of debris causes increased fuel loads leading to larger, more severe fires that occur during times of high fire danger.

The harvesting of trees often results in large amounts of tree limbs not usable as lumber. Forestry land managers often will burn an area that has been logged. This slash, as it’s called, is dead fuel that creates fire hazards and may clog up streams. It is common for skilled forestry fire bosses to plan out a prescribed burn of these logged areas. Careful planning involves consideration of meteorological conditions so winds are favorable and smoke isn’t blown into urban areas.

This same use of carefully prescribed burns is often used in management of the wildland/urban interface. That is, where population has encroached into heavily forested areas. Land managers can utilize controlled burns that reduce forest fuel loads and wildfire danger. Winds, humidity, slope, measurable fuel moisture, and proximity to urban structures are all elements a fire boss will consider when planning a burn.

While as a Fire Prevention Technician with the U.S. Forest Service, I worked on very large controlled burns where the fire crew first constructs a containment line around the site. Fire apparatus is strategically positioned and the area is burned from the top down in narrow strips. A well-planned burn will leave the area with reduced logging residue/fuel loads and cleared areas ready to be reforested with newly planted small trees. The burned areas will soon fill with native plants and the wildlife they attract.

Many people might have noticed that farmers often burn their fields after harvesting. The burning of farm harvest stubble and other residue reduces crop-destructive insects and weeds, thus reducing the use of pesticides and herbicides.

According to research on fire prevention and management: “Field burning is a practice that most residents witness, but few understand the process. Field burning entails just that — farmers burn their fields to remove buildup of certain grasses and unwanted byproducts of the previous crop before seeding a new crop. Not all crops are burned.” Furthermore, “As far as burning is concerned, if you go all the way back to the Gregorian monks and commercial cultivation in the first place, burning in commercial agriculture is one of the oldest tools that we have in agricultural cultivation.”

While working with the National Park Service, I was tasked with management of creating defensible spaces around structures so firefighters have safe spaces from which to defend structures from uncontrolled blazes. It involved planning the removal of wildland vegetation and other combustibles to a prescribed distance from infrastructure in the park.

These forest management practices must be utilized in densely populated suburban areas that are expanding into heavily forested locations.

To learn more, read “How Smokey Bear Has Worsened California’s Wildfire Problem.”

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