This video shares video, maps, and photos collected in the year since the Park Fire burned over 400,000 acres in Northern California, north of Chico, California. The audio for this episode was recorded on 7/31/2024, during an interview for the Blue Dot Report, a week into the fire. The Blue Dot Report is a science … Read more
Introduction to Today’s Video Wildfire ‘severity’ describes the ecological effects of a fire. At a landscape-scale, severity is measured using satellite imagery. This process uses images of the vegetation from before and after the fire to create colored maps which show how much plant life is still alive after the fire. In this episode, we … Read more
Today’s Lookout Livestream We look at the potential for continued spread of the Green Fire, north of Shasta Lake, the Summit Fire, in the Marble Mountain Wilderness, near the town of Etna, California, and the Butler Fire, east of Somes Bar, on the Salmon River. Also, we take a first look at the Dragon Bavo … Read more
I was in a burn plan writing workshop at Chico State this week, and ran into retired US Forest Service leader, Patty Grantham. She is a Lookout fan, and said yes when I asked her to sit for an interview! We discussed her 41-year career. She detailed her tenure on the Klamath National Forest from … Read more
The Green, Butler, and Summit Fires continue to spread in far-Northern California. We look at today’s events on each fire, and at the Neil Creek, Demming, and Elk Fires, in Southern Oregon. Today’s Livestream  Situation Status Hot weather has settled in over much of NorCal, under a ridge of high atmospheric pressure. This is … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
The Shoe Fire is burning in timber on Fenders Ferry Road, between McCloud River and Pit River, north of Lake Shasta. It has been building steadily since about 1:45pm, in an area with very little fire history, poor access, and heavy fuels. Webcam here: https://ops.alertcalifornia.org/cam-console/15596 Area Fire History The Bagley Fire burned to the north, … Read more
Successful Firing Operation at the Park Fire: A Case Study Satellite imagery by Zeke Lunder Written by Ryan Stephens In late July, we took a trip up Highway 32 to observe the aftermath of a firing operation conducted to control the spread of the Park Fire. This operation was a critical measure to mitigate the … Read more
The Lookout’s Zeke Lunder was on KQED’s forum on Friday, 8/2/2024 to talk about the Park Fire and wildfire resilience in California, in general. Here is a transcription of our conversation. You can listen to the broadcast here: Mina Kim Welcome to forum. I’m Mina Kim. Hotter temperatures expected this weekend and possible dry … Read more
July 30th Update – Ryan Cowper Stephens Firefighting efforts on the Park Fire have yielded notable progress, though the situation remains dynamic, and with some seemingly insurmountable challenges to overcome, particularly on the Northern and Eastern flanks of the fire. The fire continues to burn very actively in remote, steep and inaccessible terrain. The added … Read more
Today the European Space Agency’s Sentinel Satellite went over the Park Fire. This satellite passes over every 5 days, and has sensors which can see through smoke and detect heat. We use Sentinel data a lot in my day job for vegetation and fuel mapping, but during wildfires, especially on fires as large as the … Read more
Hey everyone, happy Thanksgiving. Today we’ve got a special feature – an interview with Bruno Seraphin and Deniss Martinez, who recently helped write a paper on indigenous fire futures which puts forward the thesis that if we are talking about giving land back to Native Americans, many communities won’t be able to thrive or manage … Read more
Five years ago this week, the Camp Fire roared through Butte County, California, torching the town of Paradise and killing 85 people in its path, becoming the deadliest wildfire in California’s recorded history. The anniversary of the fire, which ignited the morning of November 8, 2018, has prompted many in Butte County to reflect on … Read more
While many of the managers overseeing prescribed burns are former firefighters, there are others who take different roads into fire leadership. Claire Monahan is on one of those alternative paths. Claire has worked in increasingly complex roles as a prescribed fire practitioner and fire scientist on the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve. Claire was introduced … Read more
Will Harling and I are sort of like brothers from different mothers. Both of us were raised up by the long-haired wolves, timber fallers, mechanics, railroaders, gold miners, and other outlaws who populate the hillbilly sticks of far Northern California. First opening day fishing trip with the grown-ups, Mill Creek, California, 1985. Not surprisingly, as … Read more
Rain is coming, but will high winds spread the fire farther north before it begins in earnest? We take a quick look at IR mapping from the evening of 9/23/2023 and assess current fire spread and tactics. We also watch footage of a very low drop from a DC-10 airtanker on the NE corner of … Read more
Rain is coming! In today’s video, we look at weather satellites, assess the current lay of the Anvil and SRF Complex Fires, and talk about lighting large prescribed fires out ahead of weather systems. Also, we interview Rachel Smith, Klamath National Forest Supervisor. We couldn’t get a video interview, so had to use a puppet. … Read more
The Anvil Fire has been active, with drier, windier conditions over the past couple days. This fire has been burning for nearly a month just inland of Port Orford, Oregon. It spread slowly for the first several weeks, but over the past week, it has seen major growth in most directions. We look at the … Read more
Strong winds have pushed the Anvil Fire around a bit in the past couple days. This fire has been burning for about 3 weeks just inland of Port Orford, Oregon. It spread slowly for the first two weeks, but in the past several days, it has seen major growth. We look at the geography of … Read more
Today, we’re sharing an interview we recorded in the spring with Will Harling, who works to reintroduce prescribed fire and managed wildfire in Northern California’s remote Klamath Mountains. In the interview, we discuss some of the challenges we’re facing as a result of the way wildfires are currently managed, and talk about how we might … Read more
The Anvil Fire has been burning for about 3 weeks just inland of Port Orford, Oregon. It spread slowly for the first two weeks, but in the past several days, it has seen major growth. We look at the geography of the fire, and review detailed maps of its recent movements. We also look at … Read more
The Anvil Fire has been burning for about 3 weeks just inland of Port Orford, Oregon. It spread slowly for the first two weeks, but in the past several days, it has seen major growth. We look at the geography of the fire, and review detailed maps of its recent movements. We also look at … Read more
The Anvil Fire has been burning for about 3 weeks just inland of Port Orford, Oregon. It spread slowly for the first two weeks, but in the past several days, it has seen major growth. We look at the geography of the fire, and review detailed maps of its recent movements. ” Thanks always … Read more
In mid-August, 2023, lightning ignited many fires across NW California. Several became large, but most have stayed fairly small by modern standards. Rain knocked most of these fires down over the first few days of September, but even before then, the majority of the fire effects on these fires were low-moderate severity and ecologically beneficial. … Read more
Not much new spread to report this morning on NW Ca. fires. After the rains 2 weeks ago, technical specialists on the incident management teams in NW California said we shouldn’t expect things to dry out enough to burn until right about now. In addition to relatively mild conditions, one factor affecting the lack of … Read more
Over the past 3 weeks, lightning has ignited many fires in NW California and Western Oregon and several have become large. Rain knocked most of these fires down over the first few days of September, and since then, though conditions have been slowly drying, there has been very little active fire spread. This video looks … Read more