USFS Halts Prescribed Burns

[Shangobango]

Statement of Forest Service Chief Randy Moore Announcing Pause of Prescribed Fire Operations on National Forest System Lands | US Forest Service

Today, because of the current extreme wildfire risk conditions in the field, I am initiating a pause on prescribed fire operations on National Forest System lands while we conduct a 90-day review of protocols, decision support tools and practices ahead of planned operations this fall.

www.fs.usda.gov

Apparently this has something to do with the current fire in New Mexico.

Thoughts?

 

[jrabq]

Barn door, horse.

 

[hank4elk]

It would have been good to revisit the process a year ago.
We used to do our control burns in winter, into spring.

 

[BigHornRam]

Kind of late in the spring season to be doing controlled burns without major risk, anyway. If it hasn't been done by now, plan it for fall.

 

[TLowell02]

Staffing is a massive issue. Can't burn when all the seasonal employees are laid off. Also difficult to convince personnel who have been run ragged on wildfires all summer to continue taking prescribed fire assignments in the "off-season".

 

[TheTone]

Staffing is a massive issue. Can't burn when all the seasonal employees are laid off. Also difficult to convince personnel who have been run ragged on wildfires all summer to continue taking prescribed fire assignments in the "off-season".

Kinda funny, I talked to a retired district ranger a few years ago about fires. He mentioned that he used to do a lot of early season spring burning where they would burn off entire hillsides with just one or two people. He didn’t have much good to say about current personnel on the forests he worked on

 

[WapitiBob]

Apparently this has something to do with the current fire in New Mexico.

Thoughts?

The FS started that fire.

We used to drive by prescribed burns on our way home from logging after quitting mid morning because of fire danger.

 

[flatcoat]

NM fire started as an RX burn that got away. We burned yesterday on the Forest, but also had to wait for snow to burn off slash piles so we're in a better situation than most.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Slash piles can often be burned when snow is on the ground if prepared properly. That's the best time to take care of them. I seem to recall that spring was not the best time for prescribe burns anyway due to several factors (more wind or poor air quality).

Sometimes a prescribed burn that gets away is good medicine in the long run. Back in the sixties there was a devastating wildfire out of Oakhurst, CA that took several lives. It was clocked at something like a hundred mph from a lookout tower. Vehicles trying to outrun it on the highway with pedal to the medal just watched the fire fly past them. Back then there were 1,500 homes between Yosemite and Oakhurst. Today there's about 22,000 homes! Of course, no chance of prescribed burn with that kind of density. Drive down that highway and just take a look. The ladder fuels now are right against the roof and siding of every home! I will definitely live long enough to see a horrible calamity there. No way can everyone get out on that skinny highway ... even if their cars could outrun the fire. And when it's done, just maybe the developments in places like that will be done too. Prescription filled! We can only hope.

 

[hossblur]

Can anyone imagine Amazon, or Walmart, or Mc Donald's, or any mom and pa shop in America, needing to take 3 months to figure out if they are capable of doing their job? Fire was the original task of the FS.

Things like this are what give ammo to the transfer crowd.

90 day studies are CYA, not leadership. Just kick the can down the road, until snow starts falling in Sept.

 

[RoughCountry]

That fire near Las Vegas NM started as a prescribed burn by the USFS it got away from them and has now burnt over 311,000 acres of beautiful country and hundreds of homes. Biggest wildfire in NM history. The liberal Governor is running her campaign on all the good she claims she’s done for the people and this huge wildfire. She forgets to say that the USFS and government are financially responsible for the largest wildfire in NM history.

 

[hank4elk]

That fire near Las Vegas NM started as a prescribed burn by the USFS it got away from them and has now burnt over 311,000 acres of beautiful country and hundreds of homes. Biggest wildfire in NM history. The liberal Governor is running her campaign on all the good she claims she’s done for the people and this huge wildfire. She forgets to say that the USFS and government are financially responsible for the largest wildfire in NM history.

Prescribed burns are a useful tool. We used to do them all winter. Slash piles.
But we never left one unobserved.

 

[Akcabin]

I'm kinda thinking that if they had timber sales and used the trees it would be better than planned prescribed burns. And have access roads for firefighters when needed, create green belts of diversified forest habitat. Reduce costs for better management

 

[Trophy Cow]

I'm kinda thinking that if they had timber sales and used the trees it would be better than planned prescribed burns. And have access roads for firefighters when needed, create green belts of diversified forest habitat. Reduce costs for better management

Prescribed burns aren't meant to run as crown fires in old growth. They're meant to clean out undergrowth and ladder fuels to prevent large fires.

 

[hank4elk]

The Calf fire was slash piles set ablaze in Jan. 2 snows on it and some piles just kept burning.
Not a standard prescribed burn.
The Hermit fire was a planned prescribed burn set on a very windy day.
Now combined into the largest in history.