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Prescribed Fire: Restoring Forest Health and Community Resilience in Butte County
I recently had the honor and privilege of being invited to a Prescribed Burn with the Butte PBA. This is the first of several videos from this great event.
Join David Mitchell Butte, Prescribed Burn Association, in Magalia, Butte County, as he explains the importance of prescribed fire in forest management and community safety. In this video, you'll see:
- How prescribed burns create a mosaic to encourage native species and control invasive plants.
- Efforts to change the local perception of fire from fear to a valuable land management tool.
- Collaboration between organizations like the Mechoopda Tribe, Butte PBA, Cal Fire, the Forest Service, and local landowners.
Learn how these carefully managed burns restore ecological balance by reducing hazardous fuels, controlling conifer encroachment, and protecting historic black oak populations. With flames kept low and resources carefully coordinated, this burn demonstrates how fire can be used safely and effectively.
Discover the role of community-driven initiatives like the Butte PBA and the importance of fire as a tool for resilience and restoration in fire-prone areas.
Watch to learn how prescribed fire is helping heal the land and reconnect communities with traditional forest management practices.
#ButteCounty#ChicoCalifornia#Fire#PrescribedFire#GoodFire#BringingFireBack#CommunityStewardship#ForestHealth#FireSafety#ParkFire#CampFire#Paradise
Hey folks. I'm David Mitchell, Butte RCD PBA out here in Butte County, Magalia. And we're doing a little prescribed fire behind me and strapping up ignitions. It went pretty well. It's some really good consumption on the more exposed parts of the fire and some of the more shaded parts were more patchy. But that's how we build the mosaic on these prescribed fires. And we're going to hopefully meet our objectives of killing off some of these Cedars that are coming in and killing off some of the. Invasive grasses and hopefully encouraging native species to come. The other objective here is to introduce the folks in Paradise and Magalia to the benefits of prescribed fire and how it can be done safely. There's been a lot of trauma in this area with the campfire N complex, etcetera, and we just want to. Offer people a different relationship with fire, you know, see it as a management tool instead of just a danger. We had some folks out here from the Machuka tribe, the big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve and as well as the bus PBA, which is a volunteer organization, just neighbors helping neighbors put good fire on the ground. And the RCD and Butte tracks, Butte cow tracks is kind of our. Bunch of different agencies and organizations working together, the Forest Service, Cal Fire, city of Chico, all different kinds of folks. Plume is under burn cooperative all kind of coming together to be able to get some of these more complex, bigger burns down in the in the in the forested areas. And then this is more of a smaller, I would say a PBA burn just for the community helping a landowner here that lives kind of on the Canyon. If you go down this way behind you, it's the Bear Creek Canyon. And justice loaded with fuels in just very hazardous. You got Cedars, dug fur and ponderosa pine or generally the big invaders here. So we call them like a native invasive or conifer encroachment. And they're just going to make a super thick forest. They're gonna choke out all the black oaks, which were the the species that were the dominant species here pre 1850. And so now those trees are getting. They're getting choked out by the other trees and without any fire. The the fire is really the management tool that the indigenous folks used here before, you know, along with other things, but primarily being able to do a light small burn underneath. As you can see, you know, we got flame fights, you know, one to two feet, very controllable, very manageable. Get tons of resources out here. And we're just honored that you could be out here with us, Jesse.
Did you know that the number of houses in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), where forests and communities meet, is on the rise?
Wildfire risks are highest in the WUI, and experience the most wildfire destruction. With greater development occurring in the WUI, more housing and other infrastructure is at risk, spurring on greater negative impacts of catastrophic wildfire.
By focusing on landscape restoration, we are not only protecting our landscapes, but our homes and communities. 💚🌲 #WUI#SustainableFuture#wildfire
A new database of federal funding dedicated to wildfires found about 52% of the funds go toward direct response, dwarfing spending on research, mitigation and recovery. This is not a new story. How do we break the cycle to urgently and adequately address the wildfire crisis out West and in other parts of the U.S.?
For our part, Forest Bridges promotes thoughtful and measured application of Western- and Indigenous-Science-based #ActiveConservationManagement, including thinning and #prescribedfire on western Oregon O&C dry forests and light-touch variable retention regeneration harvests on moist O&C forests to foster sustainable forest health and multi-species habitats and improve fire resilience where most needed.
What do you think needs to be done to break the cycle of insufficient wildfire recovery, mitigation and recovery?
Please join us in advancing Active Conservation Management on the 2.9 Million acres of BLM- and US Forest Service-managed O&C Lands of western Oregon by becoming a Friend of Forest Bridges today:
https://lnkd.in/ggvYFMxK
🔥🌲 From city skylines to forested landscapes, the proximity between urban spaces and wildlands demands action. This International Day of Forests, learn how the USDA Forest Service's Wildfire Crisis Strategy is tackling the blaze, reducing risks for communities across Southern California.
#internationaldayofforests#forestconservation#forestprotection
We talk a lot about the important role that prescribed fire has on our landscapes, but good fire is just one tool in our vegetation management strategy. We often prepare for fire by creating shaded fuel breaks – reducing surface and ladder fuels in strategic locations to slow fire spread and create buffer zones.
This winter, we worked with the talented teams at Spye General Engineering and Hanford to implement the Rodger’s Ridge Shaded Fuel Break at our Live Oaks Ranch Preserve. The one-mile-long, 16-acre stretch is a prominent ridgeline between Knight’s Valley and Calistoga, and is critical to slowing the movement of wildfire into the nearby city. We will now be able use the shaded fuel break as an anchor for prescribed fire and forest health thinning on an adjacent 22-acre hillside, which will reinforce the ridgeline work.
We secured funding from the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Sonoma County Ag + Open Space District’s Vegetation Management Grant Program to implement this multi-benefit project, preparing it for prescribed burning in partnership with Northern Sonoma Fire District in fall 2024. Returning good fire to our landscapes is the most effective method to improve forest health and build resilience to future wildfires.
Learn more about our Living with Fire program at https://ow.ly/hSVJ50RooyV#GoodFire#vegetationmanagement#PrescribedFire#SonomaLandTrust
As Erin notes, the partnerships among Basin agencies, the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, and the public have been key ingredients to Wildfire Resilience success. In helping agencies prepare the Tahoe Program Timberland EIR, Ascent has been grateful for the chance to add this tool to support efficient vegetation treatment project approvals that include substantial environmental protection.
David Elstone, RPF, GDBA on point, as always, on the growing risks of failing to address forest health through active, effective and truly sustainable forest management - and of failing to have real, fact-driven conversations about our #forests, #wildfire, and #publicsafety.
Our forest ecosystems, northern and rural communities, and regional economies and infrastructure depend on us stepping up and getting this right. It's time for this conversation.
Management Consultant at spartreegroup.com and Publisher of View From The Stump newsletter
As we are saddened about the destruction in Jasper due to wildfire, it absolutely stuns me that there is continued resistance and even a lawsuit over the forest health restoration work in City of Vancouver ‘s Stanley Park which was damaged by an insect, the Hemlock Looper, a few years ago. The infestation killed a large number of western hemlock trees, which pose tangible public safety concerns as well as a potential hazard as prime fuel for a fire should one occur. Remember the trees being cut are already dead!!!!!!!!
Did you know your landscaping can protect your Texas foundation from disaster? 🏡🌵 Our latest blog post reveals how proper landscaping choices can safeguard your home from extreme weather and soil conditions. Don't underestimate the power of plants! #landscaping#foundationrepair#TexasHomehttps://bit.ly/4cHLdmg
Fire season in full force once again in Canada. Evacuations and wildfire smoke make daily headlines. Will last years record 30 million acres destroyed be replicated? Soon wildfires in the US will surprise many states due large snow and rain starved forests the past two winters.
Shouldn’t the question be what policies and equipment pre positioning practices require change to reduce wildfire risk? Instead watch politicians soon announce patchwork legislation to attract headlines rather than enacting comprehensive wildfire suppression and forest management best practices.
The beat goes on, the beat goes on…
When will private public partnerships be developed to provide the funding required to provide the stewardship our forests deserve?
See www.WildfiresinAmerica.com for a free White Paper proposing a possible set of solutions.