The Butler Fire is spreading freely across the steep and rugged slopes of the Lower Salmon River Watershed, in Northwest California. My friend and colleague, Will Harling lives at the bottom of the mountain, and is watching the fire spread toward his neighborhood. Rather than packing up and running, he is setting up to conduct … Read more
Our 7/6/2025 NorCal Fire Report provided a detailed update on the Green Fire, Butler Fire, and Summit Fires in Northern California. This episode was sponsored by QTAC, WATERAX Pumps, and FyreBx. The Green Fire, located north of Redding, has grown from 96 acres on July 3 to 1,100 acres by July 6, doubling in size … Read more
The Green Fire has been burning for several days in a remote area northeast of Shasta Lake, and poses some special challenges for firefighters. This fire is going to burn for a while, and could reach over 10,000 acres in size. Here is a link to our livestream for this article. Read the material below … Read more
{AI summary, edited lightly by Zeke} Zeke Lunder provides a detailed update on the Madre Fire in Northern California, which has grown to over 72,000 acres. Using satellite imagery and infrared data, he maps the fire’s progress, noting minimal growth between 11 AM and noon. The fire is most active near Caliente Mountain and has … Read more
{Written by a robot, skimmed by Zeke} Zeke Lunder discussed the active wildfires in Northern California on July 4, 2025. Key fires included 2 small fires in Butte County, the Green Fire near Round Mountain/Shasta Lake, the Horse Fire between Lakehead and Trinity Lake, the Helena Fire west of Weaverville, and the Summit, Butler, and … Read more
7/3/2025 California Fire Report Zeke Lunder discussed the current fire situation in Northern California, highlighting several active fires. The Green Fire near Round Mountain is 100 acres, the Horse Fire near Lake Shasta is 220 acres, and the Helena Fire near the North Fork of the Trinity River is in difficult terrain. The Madre Fire … Read more
This post and video were inspired by a Facebook post from our local congressman, Doug LaMalfa, in regards to the Forest Service reforming the 2001 ‘Roadless Rule’, which placed large contiguous areas which were still unroaded in 1979 into a protected status which prevents future roadbuilding in these areas. My reply: Rep. LaMalfa claims “The … Read more
It is wildfire season in Northern California, yet? I get this question a lot. As of the third week in June, 2025, my answer is ‘not really’. How can I tell? Didn’t we just have Red Flag Warnings last week? Hasn’t the grass been dry for over a month? I need to qualify ‘fire season’. … Read more
On 4/18/2025, Terra Fuego Resource Foundation crews conducted a 60 acre prescribed burn for the Butte County Fire Safe Council on land owned and managed by the Paradise Unified School District. This project used fire to reduce forest undergrowth, pine needles, branches, and logs in an area that has been thinned, masticated, and chipped over … Read more
In March we took a spring break trip to the Santa Ynez Mountains above Santa Barbara, and the Santa Lucia Mountains east of Morro Bay. We looked at wildfire hazards in the tiny, cliff-dwelling of a town my wife grew up in, and returned to an area where I worked in 2001 to look at … Read more
I was invited to give a keynote address at Chico State’s ‘This Way To Resilience’ Symposium. My talk was titled ‘Telling Better Stories Around the Camp Fire’. It was about how the stories we choose to tell and amplify shape our relationship with the places they are about. Most of the stories we hear or … Read more
If you’ve followed our work, you’ve probably heard about my friend and colleague, Will Harling, who is a leader in bringing community-based prescribed fire back to the Klamath River after a century of fire exclusion and criminalization of native burning by local tribes. Locals on the River have been through a lot of fire, and … Read more
As the US Forest Service has lost internal capacity to get projects planned, awarded, and managed, it has become increasingly reliant on ‘partners’ – NGO agencies – to do a lot of the work Forest Service employees used to do. Until she was fired as a part of sweeping workforce reductions being carried out by … Read more
Summary In this video, we look at the geography of wild Chinook Salmon runs on Butte Creek, in the Northern Sacramento Valley region of California. We highlight the resilience of spring-run Chinook in returning year after year to Butte Creek from the Pacific Ocean, despite challenges like dams, levees and wildfires. We explain the migration … Read more
It’s wet in Northern California, and seems like a good time to talk about hydrology – the study of water movement on the earth’s surface. Here is tonight’s livestream, as summarized by a robot. Zeke Lunder, a geographer, discusses hydrology, focusing on the current storms in Northern California. He explains hydrology as the study … Read more
Following on our recent piece on California’s water management systems, here is a video we created two years ago in January during high flows on the Sacramento River and its tributaries. This discussion focused on Northern California’s water and flood management systems, emphasizing the complexities of managing floodwaters in the Sacramento Valley. We used mapping … Read more
Summary Zeke Lunder discusses California’s complex water management system, using GIS data and live mapping to visualize water supply, demand, and delivery systems. He explains that 75-80% of California’s water originates north of Sacramento, with 40% of annual flows used for agriculture and 10% for urban and industrial uses. Key rivers include the Klamath, Sacramento, … Read more
Current Situation The Hughes Fire started midday on 1/22/2025 east of Castaic Lake, California. It had grown to 9,000 acres by 6pm, and had spread vigorously to the west, driven by sustained NE winds and very low humidities. The winds are not severe enough to ground firefighting aircraft, and an enormous amount of water and … Read more
In this Lookout Livestream, we reviewed post-fire satellite imagery from Maxar and fire progression maps from Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2 to describe how the Palisades Fire spread, and the tactics used to contain it. The fire started near Skull Rock and quickly spread across Topanga Canyon Road and Palisades Drive. It advanced to … Read more
In this episode of The Lookout Livestream, Zeke Lunder and Michael Steinberg, a current CSUC pyrogeography student/storm chaser/videographer, reviewed mapping and on-scene videos captured by Michael during last week’s Palisades and Eaton Fires in Southern California. Steinberg documented the fire’s rapid spread, highlighting the critical role of embers and wind in igniting homes. He emphasized … Read more
We discussed the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Southern California, noting that both fires are mostly out despite ongoing wild weather. We highlighted the high-severity burn in vegetation-rich areas and the ecological benefits of lower-severity burning in the riparian zones. We talked about how the complex, bureaucratic post-fire cleanup process will roll out, based on … Read more
Since last night, the Palisades Fire has been quite active on the NE corner, between Topanga and the 405 corridor. Also, there have been active firing operations along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains between Topanga and San Vicente Mountain Park. Tonight’s Lookout Livestream looks at today’s major events on the Palisades Fire, and … Read more
When homes are densely packed in alignment with the direction of strong fire-season winds, it is nearly almost impossible to cut enough brush to make the homes defensible. Fire burns from house to house, no longer a ‘brush fire’, rather it is referred to as an ‘urban conflagration’ or simply a ‘conflagration’. Wind-driven brush fires … Read more
10pm Update – New Fire Spread Toward 405 Freeway and San Fernando Valley After sunset today, the Palisades Fire, influenced by more north-westerly winds, has shifted towards San Fernando Valley and the 405 corridor, with significant activity in Mandeville Canyon. Firing operations were observed to secure control lines, but the fire crossed a retardant line, … Read more
Destructive Fires Are Not A New Thing in SoCal! We just wrapped up an interview with my longtime friend and colleague, Tim Chavez, about the history of large, damaging Santa Ana wind-driven wildfires in Southern California. Some areas around Malibu have burned 5 times in the past 60 years! A summary of the interview and … Read more
8pm, 1/9/2025 We just finished our evening livestream. It covers today’s fire activity. Tonight, after covering today’s basic fire action, we did an interview with journalist Susie Cagle about ways communities work together after major disasters. A summary of the fire situation and our interview follows the video, below. Summary Lookout Director Zeke Lunder, a … Read more
UPDATE 2pm, 1/9/2025 The Palisades Fire is most active on the northeast corner, in the Mandeville Canyon area. Airtankers are currently running laps on a major ridge to the east of the fire to box it in from pushing farther toward Crestwood Hills, The Getty Museum, and the 405 corridor. Good morning! Here is … Read more
UPDATED 10:20pm, 1/8/2025 The Palisades and Eaton Fire were both active today. Both fires made major advances last night, and throughout the daylight hours, today, and with the exception of some growth to the north on the Palisades Fire, the fires largely burned out previously unburned areas and consumed structures within their morning footprints. Lookout … Read more
Santa Ana Winds Drive Major Wildfire Growth in Southern California 1/8/2025 – 8am. Two large fires started in Southern California during a strong Santa Ana windstorm on Tuesday, January 7. They are the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire. They had burned about 30,000 acres, combined, by Wednesday morning. In this morning’s report (below) I … Read more
Storms like the one we just had here in Northern California are a real learning experience. If you want to understand the hydrology of a place, there is no substitute for being out on the ground when water is flowing. Our newest Lookout video is a mashup of on-the-ground video, maps, and commentary on things … Read more