We took a little day-trip to visit relatives in Cameron Park this week, and it got me thinking about the debate around ‘Zone Zero’ – new regulations which will mandate wildfire mitigation (removal of flammable vegetation and materials) within 5 feet of homes in the most fire-prone areas of California. We’ve got a short new … Read more
We sat down with Bobbie Scopa, Executive Secretary of the Grassroots Firefighters organization and 45-year wildland fire veteran to talk about current issues facing Federal wildland firefighters. Topics included pay, mental health, organizational inefficiencies, and the government shutdown. Bobbie highlighted the inefficiencies in the federal fire system, including the lack of advocacy within the US … Read more
I am proud of the storytelling we did tonight on The Lookout, even if it made me cry. It’s one of the rawer broadcasts we’ve done. We talked about the Dillon Fire, which was poised, during our broadcast, to take out my friend’s 125 year-old homestead on the Klamath River. We talked about how lightning … Read more
The Gifford Fire is burning east of Santa Maria, California, on the NE corner of the San Rafael Wilderness. We talk about the firing operations tactics, and potential outcomes. Cover photo: Los Padres National Forest
Tonight’s Lookout Livestream covered today’s Ponderosa Fire, in Yuba County, taking a detailed look at the incredible fuel loading and fire hazards found across large portions of the Yuba County Foothills. The fire had a very aggressive aerial attack, this afternoon, which knocked the fire down, substantially, and held it to under 100 acres by … Read more
The Butler Fire jumped the Salmon River late yesterday afternoon and made a run. By 3am the slopover was 285 acres. Firefighting on the new front will be quite the puzzle, there’s a lot of line near the slop from the Jacket Fire, earlier this month, and a 2021 fire upstream on the North Fork … 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
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
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
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
Heads up over next 24 hours, as a strong storm system moves over the Park Fire area! We captured some ‘Gigapan’ photography of different areas within the 2024 Park Fire to document fire effects on the vegetation and soils. The images of Bidwell Park were captured about 3 weeks after the area burned. Mill Creek … Read more
August 16, 2024: Overall, things are looking good around the fire today. Over the past 24 hours, crews have continued to make progress, particularly on the north and west sides of the fire where mopping up and securing firelines have been the primary focus. The recent cooler temperatures and higher humidity levels have moderated fire … 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
This essay was sent to us by a long-time US Forest Service employee in response to comments I made yesterday on the Lookout Livestream. It addresses some of the structural problems crippling the US Forest Service, and provides their perspective on major changes they experienced across their career on the Lassen National Forest, in Northern … 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
The Park Fire has burned across an estimated 307,368 acres in Northern California’s Butte and Tehama counties, becoming one of the state’s largest wildfires on record. By Friday morning, the fire had crossed Highway 36 at Paynes Creek, roughly 40 miles northwest from where it was ignited by arson Wednesday afternoon in Chico’s Bidwell Park. … Read more
Hello everyone, Our 7/22/2024 Mill Fire YouTube Livestream and 7/23/2024 newsletter featured commentary about the widespread structural challenges to maintaining wildfire-resilient vegetation conditions in forested subpisions. We covered this topic because it falls within the purview of our coverage of forestry, fire, and rural culture. As our video was focused on a fire in Eastern … Read more
A Northern California wildfire that ignited next to a two-year-old burn scar this week could offer new insight into fire behavior in recently-burned areas. Called the Hill Fire, the fire was sparked by lightning Tuesday in Humboldt County, south of the community of Willow Creek, in the Mosquito Creek drainage. Over the course of two … Read more
California’s second-largest wildfire of the season has come close to a halt. The Shelly Fire, near the town of Etna in Siskiyou County, has burned across 15,460 acres in the far northwest corner of California over the past two weeks. Firefighters reported it was 18% contained on Thursday. There was active fire on the north … Read more
A hydropower flume sprung a major leak in Upper Butte Creek, above Chico, California on the 9th of August, 2023, spilling millions of gallons onto a forested hillside, and triggering a landslide which dumped over 1,000 cubic yards of rock, gravel, dirt, and clay into Butte Creek. This event caused widespread water pollution on the … Read more
Wolfy Rougle is Conservation Project Manager with the Butte County Resource Conservation District. She is a botanist, farmer, land tender, and illustrator. Among other things, she has written books about edible plants, and started the Butte Prescribed Burn Association (PBA). We met up with Wolfy to talk about her vision for citizen-led burning in Butte … 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
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
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