Jared Dahl Aldern

Same kind of story here in the southern Sierra.

Yeah. 😐

Images showing various treatments, accompanied by the following text: How to Burn a Forest (Intentionally) Prescribed burns are essential to protecting forests from megafires, scientists say. But you usually have to reduce the flammable fuels first. THINNING: Cutting down some trees and not others. Reduces forest density so it can be better managed by prescribed (intentional) fire. Suitable for landscapes with big "saw logs" that can be sold and for dense post-fire forests. Cost: About $4,000/acre or $15,000/day, depending on equipment. MASTICATION: A machine chews up vegetation. Another way of reducing fuel density before broadcast burns, especially with trees that can't be sold. Suitable for brushy landscapes. Costs cannot be recovered. Cost: $2,000-$3,000/acre. BROADCAST BURNS: Intentional fire that burns along the forest floor safely. Removes fuel to tame future wildfires. High-risk, because it can escape, and hard to schedule. Highest impact and provides greatest ecological benefit to forests. But often first requires thinning, mastication, or logging. Cost: $800-$4,000/acre. Also being affected by the current market. PILE BURNS: People with chainsaws cut down vegetation, pile it, and burn it. Low-risk and helps remove fuels, but many say it lacks the ecological benefits of broadcast burning. Cost: $800-$8,000/acre. Demand and a glut of funding have distorted the market.

Excellent graphic from the Grist article

The ambitious plan to protect Northern California's Plumas National Forest from wildfires To shield the forest and its communities from the next megafire, the Forest Service plans to burn it — intentionally.

Detailed reporting here on the Plumas Community Protection Plan, along with complaints about Trump’s Forest Service giving “short shrift to reporters’ questions.” But no mention of area Tribes (Greenville, Berry Creek, Mechoopda, Enterprise, Mooretown, Susanville, Konkow Band, Washoe, and others).

‘All the trees are dead’: An ancient California forest has been wiped out Old growth forests across the West are at risk of disappearing within 50 years. The Teakettle Experimental Forest is a tragic example in California.

“collaborators were awarded over $5M to launch a prescribed fire across 3,300 acres…it would have been a key demonstration to show that planned fires can burn safely at a large scale…The groups were scheduled to start building fire breaks in September…But then the Garnet Fire ignited Aug. 24…”

Map of cultural regions of the United States. Source: map porn on Facebook. The area around eastern San Diego county, imperial county, and Yuma is labeled “Hellexico.”

“Hellexico,” one of my old hangouts 😂

Wildfire management at a crossroads: Mitigation and prevention or response and recovery? As direct and indirect costs of fires continue to grow, so too might motivation to invest more heavily in mitigation

What happens when a critical sector like forestry, the backbone of so many rural communities in western Canada, is no longer viable or sustainable because so much standing and future volume has been lost to wildfires? www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is the logical endgame for landgrab universities.

SF neighborhood torn apart by ritzy restaurant's wood-fired grills A Bay Area chef's decision to cook everything over open fire has ignited a neighborhood row, with residents reporting headaches, asthma attacks and fears for their children's health.

How would you like your smoke? I’m wondering where the wood comes from for these restaurants and whether SF would have less wildfire smoke if everyone cooked with wood. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Three burns: Back in July, the Butler Fire incident management team supported Karuk cultural burners and a community prescribed fire crew as they successfully conducted burns and protected homes in the path of the wildfire.

What the government shutdown means for public lands - High Country News Many parks will stay open, and oil and gas permitting will continue — even as tens of thousands of staff are furloughed at NPS, BLM and USFS.

“Staff deemed essential include employees focused on wildfire management, disaster response and infrastructure protection. But hazardous fuels treatments, including prescribed burns, will be reduced, and state grants for wildfire preparedness could be delayed.”

If you really wanna see funny looks in MN, say “antie.”

Tribal Forestry: Weaving a Web, Not Climbing a Ladder By Don Motanic

Don Motanic: “Tribal forestry recognizes that federal agencies — health, education, transportation — all share a trust responsibility, not just the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Tribal communities live in integrated ways, so governance should too…It’s governance as a web, not a ladder.”

...*cultural* fire *heals* the land, and the health of the land is as closely tied to the health of Native people (and others) in SoCal as it is up along the Klamath River.

This ⬆️ is a pretty thorough article. Its brief discussion of SoCal is fairly even-handed compared to those who simply say intentional fire has no place in the chaparral. The key is to understand that even though wildfire is far too frequent in SoCal and Rx fire won't "prevent" urban destruction...

Margo Robbins: "As I learned more and more about fire, I came to learn that the health of the land is closely, closely, closely tied with the health of our people."
@kategonzales.bsky.social

What makes a community activist optimistic - High Country News After 85 years, Luis Torres still has answers to our many challenges.

“The environment responds, you know?” he said. “You treat a piece of land well, and boy, within a very short period of time, it’s saying, ‘Shit, yeah, well, let’s make this place go,’ you know?

The dismantling of the Forest Service - High Country News The Trump administration’s plans would remake the agency and public lands. The deadline to comment is Sept. 30.

“Though Rollins’ proposal is aimed at decentralizing the department, it would effectively re-centralize the Forest Service by eliminating its nine regional offices, six of which are located in the West.”

“Hatcheries… represent part of society’s bargain for trading salmon streams for Starbucks. And for tribes that have already been subjected to the ongoing trauma of colonization, these salmon nurseries act as a balm for these larger wounds as the slow, difficult work of healing the land unfolds.”

Aboriginal Elders Lead Prescribed Burn–and Rare Orchids Appear by Thousands Burned by the cataclysmic bushfires of 2019, a national park called the Barrington Tops exploded in rare veined doubletail orchids.

"Burned by the cataclysmic bushfires of 2019, a national park called the Barrington Tops exploded in rare veined doubletail orchids, and now the traditional owners of the lands perform prescribed burns to aid these flowers in flourishing under duress from invasive species."

59K views · 1.2K reactions | The #GarnetFire in Fresno County largely spared the historic McKinley Grove sequoia trees. This footage from KVPR’s Kerry Klein captured on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, shows... The #GarnetFire in Fresno County largely spared the historic McKinley Grove sequoia trees. This footage from KVPR’s Kerry Klein captured on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, shows crews actively working to...

“See how they’re looking out to the green? Looking out for spot fires? That’s their job “ www.facebook.com/reel/1082533...

The Role of Good Fire in Nourishing Boreal Berries — Boreal Conservation Summer in the Boreal Forest means an abundance of berries—blueberries, strawberries, cloudberries, raspberries, bunchberries, and more. These berries help sustain bears, moose, and other animals. Peop...

“You don’t go and burn all your berries at the same time,” @amycardinal.bsky.social explained. “Indigenous fire management is based on intervals—knowing when patches have been burned, which patches are getting overgrown. It’s not a one-time, one-off approach. It’s ongoing stewardship.”

Women's cultural burning alongside 6 million city dwellers
doi.org/10.54760/001...

Time for Tribes to Lead on Wildfire and Other Forest Management Priorities By Cody Desautel

“To make shared stewardship meaningful, tribes must be allowed to lead within our own homelands. This means entering into long-term agreements that don’t just invite tribal input but are built around tribal vision, tribal priorities, and tribal knowledge…
It also means investing in our people.”

McKinley Grove

A Eulogy for Teakettle Justice William O. Douglas, in his dissenting opinion of the Supreme Court’s decision in Sierra Club v. Morton, said “Contemporary public concern for protecting nature’s ecological equilibrium...

A Eulogy for Teakettle, by @mhurteau.bsky.social the scientist who first reached out to Tribal crews and encouraged the Sierra-Sequoia Burn Cooperative to engage in the planning for a ~3,800-acre prescribed burn. The place will never be the same, but let’s refocus and re-enter it with cultural fire.

“We see two significant losses on the horizon: the loss of leadership and the loss of an irreplaceable historical archive. …Why should this matter to the public? Because competent resource management depends on expertise built from deep local experience and access to historical information.”

Sacred Native American land being protected from the Garnet Fire As crews work tirelessly to contain the flames, Dirk Charley is focused on protecting sacred Native American land.

Dirk Charley: “This is where we tie back with our family, our friends… These trade routes are very important to us.” #GarnetFire abc30.com/videoClip/17...

*firing operations

At today’s cooperators meeting, the IMT mentioned they are seeing some good fire effects from these fire operations. This incident is not 100% bad for the forest, there is some good coming out of it.