Ready for Wildfires
Wildfires are growing bigger, faster and more unpredictable. Drought conditions and years of accumulated dry vegetation continue to raise the stakes, and the U.S. Forest Service is prepared.The Forest Service coordinates the largest and most capable firefighting systems in the world. The mission: keep the public and firefighters safe, protect communities and actively manage forests.A National…
#Priorities, #Recreation, #ForestInventoryAndAnalysis, #Fire, #EmergencyPreparedness, #Wildfire, #EmergencyResponse, #Aviation, #Firefighters, #FirefighterSafety, #Firesafety, #Smokejumpers, #Helicopter
Reducing fuels on steep slopes
Tahoe National Forest’s North Yuba watershed is a highly productive water source for downstream residents and the agricultural industry across northern California. Although it is the largest continuous unburned landscape in the Central Sierras, it is also one of the most difficult forests to keep safe…
#NorthYubaForestPartnership, #Helicopter, #NationalForestFoundation, #HazardousFuels, #Wildfire, #Fire, #TahoeNationalForest
The fire that never starts
When 95% of wildfires are started by humans — especially in a part of the country like Southern California with 25 million people — stopping wildfires before they start is a lofty goal.But for Nicole Molinari, an ecologist for the Forest Service, a recent mapping effort contains a compelling insight — nearly two thirds of human-caused fires occur along roadsides in the area…
#Fire, #FirePrevention, #WildfirePrevention, #Grasslands, #NativePlants, #Wildfire, #WildfireRiskReduction
Post-wildfire restoration in the 2018 Camp Fire area on the Plumas National Forest
Editor’s note: Across the West, land managers are working together to accomplish what they cannot do alone — to restore massive areas affected by past wildfire while also strategically planning how to best suppress the next.Forest Service firefighter James Lico, and Julia Sidman, a forestry program manager for the Butte County Resource Conservation District talk about the work that's needed to…
#Campfire, #PrescribedFire, #ControlledBurn, #PileBurning, #Wildfire, #WildfireRiskReduction, #WildfireCrisis, #Fire, #PlumasNationalForest
Community roots, lasting impact
The Salmon-Challis National Forest is no stranger to wildfire. Its rugged terrain spans 4.3 million acres across Central Idaho with much of the land affected by fires over the past few decades.The need to accelerate reforestation has only grown. The small yet dedicated forest silviculture crew took on the main responsibility for that work. But that changed three years ago when the Salmon-Challis…
#SalmonChallisNationalForest, #Wildfire, #Idaho, #Silviculture, #SharedStewardship, #PostFireRecovery, #Timber, #Reforestation, #WildfireRecovery, #ForestRestoration, #Partnerships, #ForestHealth, #NaturalResourceManagement
Keeping the lights on and the fires out in rural Montana
Wildfires are everyone’s concern—they threaten not just the forests in which they burn, but the lives, property and livelihoods of nearby communities. Many communities that live in the shadow of wildfire risk understand this danger and have banded together to address it. One such organization is FireSafe Flathead, which consists of local, county and state representatives, along with officials…