Congresswoman Kim Schrier, MD, an original sponsor of the bipartisan National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021, visited Cascadia TREX this week to see good fire in action.
Participants in this yearβs Cascadia TREX, short for Prescribed Fire Training Exchange, conducted a 6-acre controlled burn in the Roslyn Urban Forest yesterday. TREX brings together fire professionals from multiple agencies to increase their collective capacity for safely managing controlled burns like this one, helping to bolster the resilience of the forest and mitigate wildfire risks for the surrounding communities.
Photos Β© John Marshall
βIt was an incredible experience to join firefighters and The Nature Conservancy yesterday for their prescribed burn,β said Rep. Schrier in a press release about her visit. βItβs one thing to see photos. But another thing entirely to be in a forest, holding a drip torch, gaining a better understanding of what our firefighters experience and the barriers that too often prevent this important work from being done.β
The National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021 would:
Establish a pair of $300 million accounts for the US Forest Service and Department of the Interior (DOI) to conduct controlled burns on federal, state and private lands.
Require the Forest Service and DOI to increase the number of acres treated with controlled burns.
Establish a $10 million collaborative program, based on the successful Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, to implement controlled burns on county, state and private land with high wildfire risk.
Create an incentive program for funding state, county and federal agencies for large-scale controlled burns.
Establish a workforce development program to develop, train and hire prescribed fire practitioners, with employment programs for Tribes, veterans, women and formerly incarcerated people.
Require state air quality agencies to allow larger controlled burns using current laws and regulations, and give states more flexibility to conduct wintertime controlled burns to reduce catastrophic smoke events in the summer.
Due to the legacy of fire suppression and exacerbated by climate change, we are facing a forest-health crisis spanning millions of acres in Washington state. Prescribed fire is one of our best tools to restore the health of our forests and other iconic landscapes.
The state Department of Natural Resources has a blueprint to get us to the scale needed. The 20-year Forest Health Strategic Plan is a roadmap for us to restore and manage our forests at a pace and scale that meets the moment. Central to the plan is a goal to conduct 1.25 million acres of landscape-scale forest health treatments by 2037.
In Olympia earlier this year, state lawmakers unanimously passed House Bill 1168, creating a first-of-its-kind $125 million Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration and Community Resilience funding account, to scale up forest health and resilience treatments and put more prescribed fire to work. Congresswoman Schrierβs National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021 dovetails with the new state program and would expand the use of prescribed fire across federal, state, tribal and private lands. The bill would ramp up federal funding for these efforts and create a skilled workforce of prescribed fire practitioners.
Yesterdayβs Cascadia TREX burn and training is an example of the forest restoration projects that we can accelerate and scale with added support from the state and federal governments. By working together, we can create the future fire workforce and put more driptorches into the hands of trained fire professionals.
Banner photo: Nikolaj Lasbo / TNC
Washingtonβs prescribed fire season was busy this year with two prescribed fire training exchanges carried our across the state, making for healthier lands and safer communities.
After decades of implementing suppression policies that approached fire with fear, wildland firefighters in the United States, like Schinnell, find themselves seeking a more balanced relationship between Earth and fire.
Fire and in particular, controlled, prescribed burns play a critical role in the health of Washingtonβs forests, preventing wildfires, and establishing fire-resilience communities.
As part of restoring forestlands on Cle Elum Ridge, TNC Washington used the snowy winter conditions as an opportunity to burn and remove leftover debris from tree thinning last fall.
The window for prescribed fire in Washington was brief this year due to an unseasonably warm and dry October. Still, The Nature Conservancy and local partners in Roslyn were able to conduct one burn in the Central Cascades Forest.
As devastating wildfires and lingering smoke impact communities across Washington, it serves as an important call for forest restoration that benefits people and the planet.
A new 10-year Wildfire Strategy outlines the need to significantly increase fuels and forest health treatments to address the growing risk of wildfire that threatens lands and communities across the West.
Congresswoman Kim Schrier, MD, an original sponsor of the bipartisan National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021, visited Cascadia TREX this week to see prescribed fire in action.
the 2021 Cascadia Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX), which is designed to increase shared stewardship and learning across agencies and local landowners, kicks off soon in Kittitas County.
The Northeast Washington TREX brings participants into a collaborative environment designed to increase shared stewardship and learning across agencies.
You can support current efforts in the Washington Legislature to create a designated fire funding source to directly support forest-health treatments, help communities become fire-prepared and increase funding for firefighting equipment and personnel to help fight the large, destructive fires weβve seen in recent years.
we support current efforts in the Washington Legislature to create a designated fire funding source to directly support forest-health treatments and help communities become fire-prepared.
The TREX program does what no one else is doing in fire management: It provides a cooperative burning model that meets the needs of diverse entities, private landowners and the communityβincorporating local values and issues to build the right kinds of capacity in the right places.
Fuel from multiple handheld drip torches ignited invasive grasses and fire spread quickly across a former farm field Wednesday, as fire professionals from many agencies worked together to conduct a controlled burn at the McNary National Wildlife Refuge in Burbank, near the Tri-Cities in south-central Washington. The exercise was part of the 2019 Cascadia Fall TREX, or Prescribed Fire Training Exchange, held Sept. 29-Oct. 11.
Through Cascadia TREX (Prescribed Fire Training Exchange) weβre building capacity for more prescribed fire, and learning to work together across agency and property lines. TREX offers firefighters and land managers the opportunity to get hands-on experience in all aspects of prescribed fire, including preparation, scouting, ignition, holding, mop-up and patrol. Participants train with appropriate equipment and practice fireline leadership.
Fighting fire with fire: Prescribed fire training returns to the Central Cascades this month. Firefighters and managers from nine organizations will learn how to apply prescribed burns safely to better manage our forests for health and resilience.
A bill in the state Senate would fund much-needed wildfire prevention, suppression and preparedness activities, investing in the health of Washingtonβs iconic forests and the resilience of our communities.
Our priorities for the 2019 Legislature touch upon all our work, and all our lives, whether we live in the Palouse, along the coast, or in between. They include tackling climate change, protecting the natural and cultural wealth that makes Washington special, and improving equity in environmental policymaking so that all of us can benefit from cleaner, healthier air and water.
Unlike the large wildfires burning across the West this summer, these are intentionally set fires designed to protect communities and restore forests.
The Wildfire Disaster Funding Act would allow the Forest Service to access disaster funding rather than having to "borrow" from its regular forest health accounts to fight wildfire. Learn how you can support the effort.