Mudslide and flood threat prompts evacuations in burnt Southern California as major storm looms

Mudslides and flash floods, or at least the potential for them, raised new danger for Southern California on Monday as mandatory evacuations were issued for regions already devastated by wildfires and now facing the first major rainstorm of the season. "This strong storm is expected to produce heavy rain, high winds and extremely dangerous flash flooding, mud and debris flows," Santa Barbara County officials warned. "Flash floods, mud and debris flows can happen with little or no warning."On Monday afternoon, light to moderate rain had spread over much of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, according to the National Weather Service office in Los Angeles. By 4:20 p.m. (7:20 p.m. ET) the weather service said on Twitter that "widespread rain" across the Los Angeles Basin would affect the Monday evening commute...more

Southern California Fire Forces New Evacuations, Threatens Coastal Communities

The Thomas Fire in Southern California has raged for nearly two weeks, and on Saturday new evacuation orders were issued in Santa Barbara County as a local zoo made preparations to move some of its animals out of the danger zone. The wildfire, which has burned 259,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 structures, is considered the third-largest in state history. Officials said about 18,000 homes and other buildings are threatened by the blaze, which is only 40 percent contained. "Though the Santa Ana winds died down a bit overnight, the National Weather Service is forecasting winds will pick up this weekend," Jeanine Herbst reports for NPR's Newscast unit. The winds are driving the fire toward wealthy communities in the coastal mountains northwest of Los Angeles, member station KPCC reported. One of those communities, Montecito, is home to Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities and it is among the areas in Santa Barbara County that were ordered evacuated on Saturday...more

Thomas Fire, 5th-Largest In Modern California History, Shows Few Signs Of Slowing

As Monday dawned in California's Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, firefighters found themselves still locked in a desperate struggle with what has become the fifth-largest wildfire in modern state history. The Thomas Fire, which for a time Sunday was ratcheted down just 10 percent contained, has ticked back upward to 15 percent containment — but authorities are warning that the dry, gusty winds in the area "will continue to promote significant fire growth." All told, the fire covers a span of more than 230,000 acres — tens of thousands of acres larger than all of New York City combined. Nearly 1,000 homes and other structures have been either damaged or destroyed. The cost of the fire has crested $38 million, according to fire officials, and with roughly 18,000 more structures threatened, that cost is likely to increase. The news surrounding the smaller fires currently raging elsewhere in Southern California offered a significantly more positive outlook. Authorities say the Skirball, Creek, Rye and Lilac fires all are more than 80 percent contained, and some — like the Creek — are inching closer to full containment. The Liberty Fire that has been burning in Riverside County has been fully contained. More than 4,000 firefighters are now engaged in battling the flames...more

Fires rage from San Diego to the San Fernando Valley

Flames roar through Southern California

Powerful Santa Ana winds helped fuel new destructive wildfires across Southern California on Thursday that forced evacuations as firefighters slowly made progress on others. In northern San Diego County, a fire spread through the Bonsall area, charring more than 4,000 acres, destroying 20 structures and threatening 1,000 more in the rural area of horses and agricultural land. In Murrieta, a fast-moving wildfire destroyed at least one home and triggered evacuations. The blaze, reported about 1:15 p.m. near Los Alamos and Liberty roads, scorched 300 acres in about three hours, according to Cal Fire. Los Angeles Times

More about the fires

— Driven by erratic winds through parched narrow canyons, the hydra-headed Thomas fire in Ventura County continued its onslaught on many fronts Thursday, roaring through beach communities, suburbs, fruit orchards and rugged mountain redoubts. Los Angeles Times

— The Thomas fire was yet another in the string of harrowing wildfires that are searing 2017 into the state’s record books. They all have had one thing in common — fierce, dry winds from the interior that quickly turn a fire into an inferno. Los Angeles Times

— What’s different about the Santa Ana winds this year? The air is the driest it’s been in recorded history, said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. Los Angeles Times

— What do hungry firefighters eat for breakfast? Try 10,000 eggs and 4,500 strips of bacon. Los Angeles Times

— Times columnist Robin Abcarian was up in Ventura County this week and writes about being mesmerized by the terrible beauty of the flames, while waiting for the Santa Anas to do their worst. Los Angeles Times

7,700 homes evacuated in Ventura as fire rages; traffic jams as residents flee

The fast-moving wildfire above Ventura forced thousands to evacuate their homes early Tuesday. Authorities said more than 7,700 homes were under the evacuation order. Some homes have burned in the city of Ventura. An army of firefighters set up strike teams along foothill communities in Ventura and Santa Paula as the Thomas fire, pushed by 50-mph winds, inched close to homes. The evacuations caused traffic jams on several streets as residents fled. At the same time, firefighters were rushing into the hills to set up defenses...more

More than 150 structures destroyed, 27,000 people evacuated in raging Ventura wildfire

A fast-moving, wind-fueled wildfire swept into the city of Ventura early Tuesday, burning 31,000 acres, destroying homes and forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. At least 150 structures — including at least one large apartment complex — were consumed by flames, and many more were threatened as the fire crept about a quarter-mile away from City Hall. But the destruction appears to be much worse as the sun rose Tuesday, revealing fire sweeping through whole neighborhoods in the hills above Ventura. Engulfed in flames, the Hawaiian Village Apartments collapsed about 4 a.m. Water gushed down North Laurel Street as firefighters worked to put out the flaming complex and residents watched, holding cameras and cellphones. The sound of bursting propane tanks filled the air. Hundreds of firefighters working through the night tried to prevent the blaze from spreading, block by block, as they were confronted by wind gusts of up to 50 mph...more

Wildfires pollute much more than previously thought

Summer wildfires boost air pollution considerably more than previously believed. Naturally burning timber and brush launch what are called fine particles into the air at a rate three times as high as levels noted in emissions inventories at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a new study. The microscopic specks that form aerosols are a hazard to human health, particularly to the lungs and heart. “Burning biomass produces lots of pollution. These are really bad aerosols to breathe from a health point of view,” said Greg Huey, an atmospheric scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and lead author of the new study published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. The research also describes other chemicals in wildfire smoke, some never before measured, and it raises the estimated annual emission of particulate matter in the western United States significantly. The previous EPA data had been based on plume samples taken in controlled burns ignited by forestry professionals. Measuring plumes so thoroughly, from the sky, directly in the thick of a wildfire had not been possible before this study.. Particulate matter, some of which contains oxidants that cause genetic damage, are in the resulting aerosols. They can drift over long distances into populated areas. People are exposed to harmful aerosols from industrial sources, too, but fires produce more aerosol per amount of fuel burned. “Cars and power plants with pollution controls burn things much more cleanly,” Huey said....more

Help California rebuild by managing our forests

By Bob Zybach 

...Last month Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue joined forces in directing their agencies to “prevent and combat the spread of catastrophic wildfires through robust fuel reduction and pre-suppression techniques.”

These statements were made before the California wildfires took place. Much of their focus was on controlling and suppressing wildfires, but “robust fuel reduction and pre-suppression techniques” imply long-term solutions via active management of our forests. That would signal a major shift from how many federal lands and wildfires have been managed during the past 30-plus years.

From 1951 until 1987, only one forest fire in Western Oregon exceeded 10,000 acres. Since 1987 there have been dozens of such fires, including 10 this year alone. Almost all of these fires have been on federal lands. Very few large fires in the past 70 years have burned on private or state lands — and those few were mostly affected by adjacent burning federal lands.

The principal difference is that private lands are actively managed for use and protection of their resources, while federal lands have increasingly become passively managed, allowing “natural processes” to take place with little or no human interference.

Active management in forested environments involves timely marketing and salvage of dead and dying trees; selective thinning of some areas; clearcutting, prescribed burning or reforestation in other areas; good road access; maintaining native wildlife populations and providing recreational opportunities. From World War II until the 1980s, most federal forests were actively managed to provide for national defense, post-war housing, wildfire control, public recreation and wildlife habitat. There were only a few large-scale wildfires during those years.

Passive management of federal forestlands largely began with the 1964 Wilderness Act, creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

This process accelerated in following decades with government land-use designations, burgeoning ESA and EPA policies, and public litigation resulting in roadless areas, spotted owl habitat, and other large preserves in which active forest management was discouraged or even outlawed.

Recurring large-scale and catastrophic wildfires in these areas has become a predictable result, beginning in 1987 and growing worse since then.

Quickly salvaging trees killed in this year’s fires would produce thousands of direct and indirect jobs, greatly improve the economies of rural Oregon and California, rebuild infrastructures harmed by the fires, reduce future wildfire risks and costs, and help provide economical, high-grade construction materials to restore ruined homes, businesses and communities. Safer, more beautiful forests for both people and wildlife would be another important result. 

READ ENTIRE COLUMN

 

‘Out of the ashes:’ Harrowing accounts from the front lines

By SARAH DETTMER Great Falls Tribune

Alaina Browning’s pickup truck slowly rumbles down the dirt road to her home at the convergence of the Musselshell River and Calf Creek. Progress is slow because the innumerable amount of trucks and traffic that have traveled the normally lazy road have churned up sharp rocks and dug sand pits deep enough to bottom out low-riding cars. Then she hits the brakes. Out of the passenger window, she sees three rebellious cows she thought she lost in the fire. “Out of the ashes, girls,” Alaina said. “You made it.” Alaina is calm and matter-of-fact as she cruises the dusty road. It’s hard to imagine that less than a week earlier, she and her husband Travis were racing through walls of flames down the same path to make sure their daughters and home weren’t taken by the 270,200-acre Lodgepole Complex Fire. “Travis was sent to the Square Butte Fire and then to the South Breaks Fire (two of the fires in what has been called the Lodgepole Complex),” Alaina said. “I was with him to provide support from our fuel truck. We heard radio traffic saying a local was injured at Calf Creek, and they were being taken by ambulance. We didn’t know if it was one of our kids.” The Brownings have six daughters: Tristany, Tierany, Tory, Tylee, Tawny and Tinley and a 17-month-old grandson named Reid. All but Tristany were at the house as the flames poured over ridges and toward the Browning Ranch. Alaina said she climbed to the top of Square Butte to get cell reception, but the smoke was so thick that she couldn’t get a signal. After radio chatter reported incoming high winds, Alaina and Travis jumped into the fuel truck and raced to their ranch. Fire climbed the ponderosa and pines beside the road; the grass and sage brush were blazing. Flames jumped across road and around the fuel truck. “There were flames and embers shooting over the hill,” Alaina said. “It only took the fire three minutes to get from one ridge to another. There were fire tornados. The fire was so hot, it was making its own lightning...The word I kept thinking was ‘Armageddon.’ There was black and fire everywhere.”...more

Lawsuit halted fire mitigation work in area now burning near Lincoln

Two Lincoln-area wildfires are burning within an area the Forest Service approved for fire mitigation work starting this year, but is currently under federal court injunction. Now a coalition of groups and individuals will get to weigh in on the court case and urge a federal judge to allow the project to proceed. Late last summer the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest greenlighted a timber and prescribed burning project called the Stonewall Vegetation Project north and northwest of Lincoln. Within a 24,000-acre project area, the agency approved commercial logging and thinning on 2,100 acres and prescribed fire on 2,700 acres. “It was about creating resilient forest conditions, and part of that being protection for the community of Lincoln,” said Bill Avey, forest supervisor. “There’s fuel loading with high mortality and there’s a history of fire starts in that area that’ve been increasingly hard to catch.” Earlier this month lightning sparked the Park Creek and Arrastra Creek wildfires in the project area, burning more than 6,000 acres to date and still largely uncontained. Last winter, environmental watchdogs Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit challenging the project. The groups contended it would negatively impact elk and grizzly bears while exemptions allowing logging in Canada lynx habitat were misapplied.With the first timber sale sold to a contractor, this spring a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction temporarily halting the project. Judge Dana Christensen ruled that an injunction only temporarily postpones the potential benefits of the project and found the risk of fire was not imminent and did not outweigh the Forest Service’s obligation to follow the Endangered Species Act...more

HT: Howard Hutchinson

video - Forest Fires, Global Warming or Poor Management?

Published on Jun 9, 2017

Subcommittee on Federal Lands Oversight Hearing on Burdensome Litigation and Federal Bureaucratic Roadblocks to Manage our Nation’s Overgrown, Fire-Prone National Forests

https://youtu.be/MPsbBF0aGHE

Rancher Associations work with BLM to fight fires

The Bureau of Land Management and Idaho Department of Lands hope to improve relations and firefighting efforts with ranchers in east Idaho. Eight Rangeland Fire Protection Associations have sprung up in many western regions of the gem state with just one so far in north eastern Idaho near Dubois. These associations allow trained ranchers in a rangeland to provide a quick initial attack on wildfires. A program like this would have benefited ranchers who wanted to fight the Henry's Creek Fire but couldn't due to lack of training and proper protective gear. "The RFPA's(Rangeland Fire Protection Associations) allow a channel for those landowners and ranchers to assist us in ways that they want to while also meeting our expectations of safety and communication" said Jesse Bender, Fire Information and Education Specialist. The Idaho Department of Land is hoping to create two new associations in east Idaho, one east of Idaho Falls and the other near Rockland.  KPVI

Ranchers rally

The flames of the Cottonwood Fire that blazed through western South Dakota have been tamed, and in the ashes of the now charred rangeland, the ranching community is banding together to help one another. Grady Crew ranches with his family near Wall, S.D., and his pastures were in the direct path of the fire that burned around 65 square miles on Sunday, Oct. 16. Officials declared the fire completely contained by 8 p.m. Tuesday, but have remained on-scene in the days since to monitor the area and prevent any flare-ups. “We have 20 quarters of land in Forest Service permits, and every single acre burnt except for 80,” said Crew. “We lost 30 cows and 20 calves, and I think we will end up losing a few more that were burned marginally bad and now have bad udders and eye problems. We lost corrals, water tanks and virtually all of our fences.” In addition to precious grass and cattle being lost, miles of fence lines were also destroyed. “Every fence is gone; it’s unfathomable,” said Crew. “Miles of fence will need to be rebuilt, and that’s a daunting task — both financially and the labor required to put up new fence. Some of these fences go back to the homestead days; this is generations of hard work lost in one afternoon.”...more

Final report details destructive New Mexico wildfire

Investigators have determined a wildfire that destroyed a dozen homes as it raced through part of the Manzano Mountains earlier this year started after a wood-chipping machine struck a rock and sent sparks flying into brush and forest debris. It took just minutes for a small patch of flames to erupt into a blaze that would burn for weeks and end up costing more than $10 million to put out. Details of the fire’s cause and the response by firefighters are outlined in a report released this week by forest officials. The Dog Head Fire charred about 28 square miles after it started in June. Residents in several communities along the eastern side of the central New Mexico mountain range were forced to gather their belongings and round up their livestock before fleeing their homes as the fire ballooned. The three-person crew that was using the machine to thin the area in hopes of preventing such a fire was armed with a shovel, an axe and one fire extinguisher. The report states the crew did not fight the flames because they were too intense. AP

UPDATE 

The Albq. journal has a more complete article here.

Senators push wildfire legislation in energy bill negotiations

Two western senators urged members of the conference committee negotiating a comprehensive energy package to move quickly because their states have been devastated by this year's wildfire season. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Steve Daines, D-Mont., sent a letter Tuesday to the top lawmakers on the energy bill conference committee to include changes to the way wildfires are fought by the federal government. Reforms to the U.S. Forest Service's management of wildfires are included in the legislation. Lawmakers want to end the Forest Service's practice of fire borrowing, or taking money from other parts of the agency's budget to fight wildfires. About half of the Forest Service's budget is now spent on fighting wildfires. Daines and Feinstein co-sponsored legislation to allow the federal government to declare wildfires natural disasters, which would open new streams of funding. According to the letter, more than 630,000 acres of California and 100,000 acres of Montana have been burned in wildfires this year. Millions more acres are considered in danger of burning. The senators also pushed for several other provisions in the legislation that would allow for more reform of the wildfire fighting process, including additional fire-risk mapping and moving forward with projects that would reduce hazardous fuels, such as fallen trees...more

Audit: Forest Service wildfire reduction poorly planned

As wildfires continue to burn large swaths of California, an audit faults the U.S. Forest Service’s hazardous fuels reduction program for failing to prioritize or accurately account for efforts aimed at minimizing fire intensity. The report, released last week by the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says priorities for reducing ground fuel aren’t being made based on risk. The report was based on visits to three of nine regional offices and conversations with officials in Redding, Vallejo and San Bernardino, among others. The National Forest Service has identified just under 100 million acres of agency land with at least moderate potential to burn, including 58 million acres at high risk in areas known as the wildland-urban interface where population and forests overlap. Because the Forest Service has limited funding – more than half its money goes for preparing for or fighting fires – the agency can treat only about 2.9 million acres a year. About 1.5 million of those acres are in the urban interfaces. The inspector general’s office also found that some projects’ acreage was counted twice or three times, depending on what procedures were used to mitigate fuel loads on the same land. “The overall objective of the hazardous fuels reduction project is to reduce the risk of wildfire to the landscape and surrounding communities by removing hazardous fuels,” the report said. “This inaccurate reporting caused (the Forest Service) to over-report its hazardous fuels reduction accomplishments in … 2012-2014 by 103,459 acres out of 3,703,848, or a difference of 2.8 percent.” The 34-page audit said the Forest Service overstated the number of acres it treated for hazardous fuels reduction within “high-priority (wildland-urban interface) areas.” It said the inaccurate figures found their way into annual reports to Congress that are used to make funding decisions...more

Out of the ashes comes a silver lining

Rancher Brian Alexander stepped over a tiny stream and into waist-high grasses, bushes, brambles and wildflowers. “Six months ago, this was mostly bare dirt under a canopy of red cedars,” Alexander said. “This spring probably hasn’t run in the last 20 years because of all the cedars taking water.” Rising from this small valley and neighboring prairie were the charred skeletons of cedars that would never sap water or growing space from the Red Hills again. Alexander’s 7,000 acres were part of the estimated 390,000 acres burned in late March by the Anderson Creek Fire, which started in Oklahoma before moving north into Kansas. The horrific blaze was named for its ignition spot in Oklahoma. It is the biggest wildfire in Kansas history. “Our ranch looked like the surface of the moon, only black,” rancher Dave Brass said of his 10,000-acre spread. “There was no noise. No birds singing. Nothing. “It was almost eerie.” The fire led to the deaths of hundreds of cattle, damaged or destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of fencing and torched several homes and other possessions. But now ranchers are finding a silver lining in the massive fire. “It’s kind of the best of times coming out of the worst of times,” said Mark Huddler, a rancher who lost 27 miles of fence and several buildings. “We’ve got water in streams that haven’t run for years because the fire decimated so many cedars.” An Oklahoma State University study says a 12-inch cedar tree can use up to 42 gallons of water per day. Many thousands of cedars died in the fire. “The pastures look good, really good,” said David Johnson, who lost about 70 cattle, several buildings and vehicles. “In the long run, we’re going to be better off.” But Huddler, Johnson and other ranchers said they worry about the future. “What’s been the worst fire is going to become the second-worst fire if we don’t pay attention to this,” said Ted Alexander, Brian’s father. “This will happen again.” Controlled burning, proponents argue, is the only way to rid the prairie of cedar trees and other fuel and prevent another major wildfire. “Prairie needs fire almost as much as it needs water if it’s going to stay healthy,” Ted Alexander said...more

Mexican National Who Caused Massive CA Forest Fire Must Pay $61M

Hours after federal prosecutors filed charges against him, a Mexican national pleaded guilty Thursday to starting a wildfire that recently burned more than 45 square miles in the Sequoia National Forest. A federal judge sentenced Angel Gilberto Garcia-Avalos, 29, to 13 months in prison and ordered him to pay $61 million in restitution for damage caused by the Cedar fire, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Garcia-Avalos, a resident of Michoacan, Mexico, was driving off-road illegally Aug. 16 when his Nissan Maxima got stuck on a berm and his catalytic converter and muffler ignited dead grass. The fire swiftly spread and burned 29,322 acres in Kern and Tulare counties, according to Acting U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert. Flames destroyed six homes and triggered mandatory evacuations of several communities in both counties. Prosecutors charged Garcia-Avalos with one count of causing a fire to burn in the forest and two counts of giving false information to a forest officer. At his first court appearance Thursday in Bakersfield, he entered the guilty plea and was sentenced. While imposing the penalty, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer L. Thurston commented that Garcia-Avalos exhibited "significant negligence" and made no effort to get help after the blaze erupted...more

As California's wildfire risks grow, are home builders getting the message?

With a historic drought and high temperatures, California is seeing longer and deadlier wildfire seasons – but the threat has not deterred developers from rebuilding homes in wilderness areas most prone to fires. Since 1990, the number of homes located in or near wilderness areas has grown by nearly 25 percent in the 13 Western states where 70 percent of the nation’s wildfire occurs, according to research by the US Forest Service and the University of Wisconsin, as the Wall Street Journal reports. Data from the Forest Service finds that California has the highest concentration of housing units in wilderness areas of all 50 states, followed by Texas and Florida. And that figure could keep rising: 84 percent of the state's private wildlands are available for development, according to Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit group researching land management.  "We are increasingly building our homes ... in fire-prone ecosystems," Dominik Kulakowski, an associate professor of geography at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., told The Christian Science Monitor in 2013.  Doing that "in many of the forests of the Western US ... is like building homes on the side of an active volcano." The threat of fire has not diminished the thirst for development in wilderness, some analysts say, because the developers are not expected to shoulder the cost of firefighting – and the the demand for housing in these areas is too high to ignore.  Firefighting for wildfires is paid by the Forest Service, although the extent of recent fires have triggered debate in Congress about who should pay for the increasingly costly efforts. Fifty-two percent of the Forest Service's budget was set aside for fire suppression last year; 20 years ago, that was just 16 percent. And California has the highest total fire expenditures in the country, according to US Forest Service data. In a single week in 2015, the cost of fighting its fires reached a record $243 million. The reason for those high costs: more Californians live near wilderness areas. Often, fire crews will let truly wild areas burn under surveillance, but protecting homes at the edge of the wilderness demand comes at a high cost. Building houses near wilderness areas can be dangerous because the development is in close proximity with dry fuels – bushes and trees – that can burn easily, especially during dry and hot seasons. But housing demand in these areas continues to increase, especially for seasonal homes, as the location often boasts scenic views and quiet settings. Population growth compounded with the expected retirement of more Baby Boomers are expected to boost the trend, especially as housing costs in cities continue to push home buyers out into relatively rural areas. This occurs even as scientists predict larger, more frequent and intense wildfire seasons. LeRoy Westerling, a professor at University of California-Merced, found that the number of fires on public lands in the west has increased by 500 percent since the late 1970s, as Scientific American reports...more 

I can't help but notice they seem more concerned about the 25 percent increase in home building than they do the 500 percent increase in forest fires.

As Wildfire Risk Grows in the West, So Does Home Building

Along a scrubby mountain range on the northern rim of Los Angeles, a developer is planning to build a 188-unit luxury community in one of the state’s highest-risk wildfire zones. In the hills of San Diego County, 150 miles to the south, builders are planning a project featuring more than 1,800 homes, 20,000 square feet of commercial space and a hotel on land scorched during one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in California’s history, in 2003. As wildfire seasons in the Western U.S. have grown longer and deadlier over the last three decades, the pace of development has accelerated in areas most at risk. In the 13 Western states where 70% of the nation’s wildfire activity occurs, the number of homes located in or near wilderness areas has grown by nearly 25% since 1990, to more than 14.3 million, according to an analysis by researchers at the U.S. Forest Service and the University of Wisconsin. The overall number of housing units in those 13 states expanded by 37% over the same period, though in fast-growing states such as Colorado, the housing expansion in wilderness-adjacent areas outpaced growth in the rest of the state. More than 897,000 homes worth some $237 billion in those states are considered to be at high or very high risk of wildfire damage, according to data company CoreLogic, with more than a third of those houses located in California...more