March 28, 2023 - Evening Update – Today’s burn operations have concluded, there may still be smoke visible through the night, all piles are holding in place. This will be in patrol status and monitored. There was a total of 10 acres accomplished.

#PrescribedBurn #PrescribedFire #ForestHealth #CranstonReforestationPrescribedBurn

March 28, 2023 - The San Bernardino National Forest (SBNF) San Jacinto Ranger District will be conducting pile-burning operations today weather and environmental conditions allowed. Operations will begin around 9:00am and continue until approximately 7:00pm. There is a plan to burn approximately 20 acres occurring in the Cranston Reforestation area near Southeast Mountain Center. Residents and visitors will see flames and smoke visible throughout the day and evening. Firefighters will be monitoring the area until all piles are extinguished.

Prescribed fire plays an important role in forest health and in reducing extreme wildfires and their negative impact. These fires also help reduce heavy fuel loads while simultaneously opening the conifer forest structure and maintaining the health of meadow habitats. Fire is also used to enhance native plant communities and cultural landscapes and improve wildlife habitats. Another goal is to provide defensible space for communities and developed areas within and surrounding the SBNF. With all fire comes smoke, and the U.S. Forest Service work to mitigate smoke impacts from prescribed fires on the communities in the area.

#PrescribedBurn #PrescribedFire #ForestHealth #CranstonReforestationPrescribedBurn

The San Bernardino National Forest has experienced a series of weather events in the last month.  During this time, all districts have been taking advantage of favorable weather conditions to achieve fuel treatment projects as possible.  Some districts dealt with a large amount of snow and rain that have saturated previously cut and piled vegetation.  Please know that fire managers monitor the weather daily to continue to work towards fuel treatment goals across the Forest.  We will send out notifications through social media when prescribed burn projects occur.

Published March 21, 2023

With ignitions completed on this year’s efforts for the Willow Piles on the Tres Piedras Ranger District, Carson National Forest fire crews have transitioned their focus to patrolling and monitoring the piles, which continue to burn down. One new monitoring method being tested after last year’s prescribed fire pause and review are uncrewed aerial systems, commonly known to the public as drones, equipped with infrared sensors. On March 9, crew members traveled to the remote Willow Piles site and flew a drone, detecting heat still existing in the piles. 

“The test flight showed us that uncrewed aerial systems have the potential to help us monitor prescribed fire sites,” said Fire Management Officer Jamie Long. “There’s still more testing to do, but so far we are pleased with the initial results, including the additional safety component this brings to prescribed fire monitoring.” 

Crews plan to perform another test in the next couple of weeks. 

The Willow Piles are located in an area where seasonal snowfall is so far 112 percent of normal with an average of three to four feet on the ground. Piles from 417-acres of thinning were treated on Feb. 9 and 28. The snowpack mitigates the spread of the prescribed fire escaping during wind events. As snowmelt and seasonal spring conditions set in, patrolling and monitoring activities will become more frequent and continue until the fire is called out. 

The Willow Piles are just one part of addressing the long-term forest health of Carson National Forest, which is part of the 3.8 million-acre Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project in New Mexico and Colorado. The multistate project aims to improve and maintain water quality and watershed function and restore natural fire regimes using prescribed fire as one of the many tools across all lands in the project area. More prescribed fire is planned for the Willow Piles area and throughout the two-state project footprint on federal and non-federal lands. 

How do fire managers decide when to burn? 

• For a burn to be implemented it must meet the ‘prescription’ established during the planning process.   
• Ahead of a burn, significant planning is done to identify appropriate conditions for the prescribed burn to achieve the desired objectives, minimize the risk of escape, and limit the negative impacts from smoke.

How do fire managers manage a prescribed burn? 

• Fire managers take advantage of existing fire breaks like roads, trails, rocky areas, or if need be, create new control features by thinning trees and/or digging fireline to create a fire break. This helps fire managers safely keep the prescribed fire within its designated area.
• Sometimes snow will be used as a control feature on the Forsythe II prescribed burn. The project’s burn units are oriented so that there is an opportunity to burn south-facing slopes when north-facing slopes are still covered in snow. The north-facing slopes will keep snow longer into the spring, providing a lower-risk opportunity to burn due to the moisture covering the fuels. 
• Fire managers staff the fire until it is deemed secure and patrol the prescribed fire until it is declared out.  

How do you manage smoke during a prescribed fire? 

• All prescribed burns must comply with local air quality regulations to minimize impacts to communities. 
• Smoke will be in the air during a prescribed burn, but fire managers work closely with experts to minimize the impacts to the extent possible. 
• We aim for a time when seeing smoke in the air is not a cause for safety concern, but a time when we recognize important forest restoration work is getting done. 
• Air quality is carefully monitored before and during a prescribed fire.
• Unlike a wildfire, fire managers can manage when a prescribed fire starts, choosing the best weather conditions and giving smoke sensitive residents the chance to plan around those impacts.  

What Ignition pattern will be used?  

• Due to the steep incline on much of the burn area, a common ignition pattern that the USFS plans to use will be to start from the top and take the fire down and across the slope.  

How will the burn be patrolled and monitored? 

• Residents should expect to see patrols around the perimeter of the unit during and after the burn.  
• Patrols identify and mitigate areas that could create potential control issues.  
• The Forest Service also has remote cameras that they might use to assist with monitoring.  
• The Prescribed burn plan has procedures and conditions identified that will be used to determine how monitoring and patrolling occurs based on conditions on the ground.  

What are the components of a burn plan? 

• The project decision determines the unit design and layout of the burn plan.  
• The burn plan also includes a complexity analysis, which is when the line officer goes through the burn plan to identify risks and the overall complexity rating of the project.   
• After the completion of fire prescription modeling and assessments, another burn boss will perform a technical review of the burn plan to ensure that it follows the National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG) guidelines.

What are the possible constraints to burning? 

• Burn parameters include wind speeds and fine dead fuel moisture content, which incorporate the effects of aspect, temperature, and relative humidity on the amount of moisture within dead fuels.  
• The Prescribed Burn Approval Act of 2016 limits burning on federal land if, for the county or contiguous county in which such land is located, the national fire danger rating system is indicating an extreme fire danger level.

What happens when things do not go as planned? 

• The burn plan has identified contingency resources through cooperating agencies in the area including, federal, state, county, and FPD resources that will be able to respond to the burn area within 30 minutes.  
• On occasion, embers fall outside of the control perimeter and start small fires.  This is anticipated during every broadcast burn and a response plan is in place to quickly extinguish these “slop-overs”. 
• In very rare cases, If a slop-over is not extinguished and it becomes an escape, a wildfire may be declared. The public will then be notified by the county sheriff who would be responsible for activating any sort of evacuation notification for residents.  

How do I get updated information about the burn?

• There will be a press release notifying the public of the planned ignition several days before the burn window approaches. This will be posted on www.fs.usda.gov/arp, InciWeb, Twitter, and Facebook.
• For the latest updates on when and where burning will occur, residents should follow the USFS on Twitter and Facebook @usfsarp.  
• For those who would like to receive email updates from the USFS, sign up via Constant Contact or email ARPFireInfo@usda.gov.  

How many days will the prescribed burn take?  

• It depends on the unit size, weather, and resource availability. If there are lighter fuels (e.g., grass) in the unit, it is possible that the USFS could complete an individual unit in one day. Ultimately, the Forest Service intends to burn when the conditions are right. Ending the burn as early as possible during the day can mitigate the amount of smoke that reaches residents, too.   

Will access routes created by the burn be closed and obliterated to avoid fragmentation after the burn for recreation? 

• As soon as the burn is implemented, the Forest Service works to restore the area. The burn plan was designed so that it would use as many of the natural features as possible.  

 Will you be creating control lines by hand or via bulldozers? 

• Control lines will be created by hand. 

What if the conditions change (i.e., increased wind) during the burn? 

• If conditions change during ignitions and are no longer within the prescribed parameters of the burn plan, the burn boss will take appropriate action as identified in the burn plan to secure the burn until it is within prescribed parameters. Typically, prescribed burn parameters include wind speed, relative humidity, temperature, and probability of ignition. 

How are you protecting [leave] trees within the burn perimeter? 

• If a particular tree(s) is pre-identified to be protected within the perimeter, firefighters may use a variety of tactics that may include one or several of the following: reducing adjacent fuels, establishing control lines, specific firing patterns, or monitoring with holding resources. 

Who will be helping with the burn, which cooperators?

• Depending on the burn window Boulder County Sheriffs’ Office Fire Management personnel and other Fire Departments and cooperating agencies may also assist. All nearby fire departments will be aware and notified as well as the Boulder County Sheriff.   

Will the area be closed to use during burning?

• Yes, there will be an area closure in place.

March 9, 2023 - Evening Update – Today’s burn operations have concluded, there may still be smoke may be visible through the night, all piles are lined and surrounded by snow and holding in place. This will be in patrol status and monitored. There was a total of 9 acres accomplished.

#PrescribedBurn #PrescribedFire #ForestHealth #BanningPrescribedBurn

March 9, 2023 - Evening Update – Today’s burn operations have concluded, there may still be smoke and flames may be visible through the night, all piles are lined and surrounded by snow and holding in place. This will be in patrol status and monitored.

#PrescribedBurn #PrescribedFire #ForestHealth #CranstonReforestationPrescribedBurn