By Nikolaj Lasbo, Marketing Manager, Washington state and North America Fire Program
After a record-breaking bad year for fires in the West, we need to be looking for every opportunity to do proactive work and accelerate our pace to limit the impacts of future fires in Washington state.
Last week, on Oct. 8, the City of Roslyn Fire Department and other fire departments in Kittitas County came together to implement controlled burns that will help make nearby communities safer and provide training opportunities for local firefighters.
Last week, the City of Roslyn Fire Department and other fire departments in Kittitas County came together to implement controlled burns. © Scott Butner Photography
Cascadia TREX in the News:
Yakima Herald: Prescribed fire training in Roslyn puts emphasis on local efforts
The burns were conducted as part of a collaborative training program, the Cascadia Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX), in partnership with the Washington Prescribed Fire Council, The Nature Conservancy and Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington Resource Conservation and Development Council, among others.
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, including federal and state agencies, private landowners and the community—incorporating local values and issues to build the right kinds of capacity in the right places.
Since 2017, multiple burns have been conducted around Roslyn as part of TREX with the assistance of local agencies. © Scott Butner Photography
List of participants of Cascadia TREX
Cle Elum Fire Department
Kittitas County Fire District #7
Kittitas County Fire District #1
Kittitas County Fire Protection District #6
Kittitas County Fire Protection District #6
Kittitas Valley Fire & Rescue #2
Lincoln County Fire District #1
Mt. Adams Resource Stewards
Roslyn Fire Department
Smoke Goose Consulting LLC
The Nature Conservancy
Washington RC&D
Washington State Department of Natural Resources
Since 2017, multiple burns have been conducted around Roslyn as part of TREX with the assistance of local agencies. To date, Cascadia TREX has provided prescribed fire training to over 100 firefighters and managers. In years past, TREX has brought in fire practitioners from across the United States and Canada to learn about prescribed fire and how to put fire to work in forests and grasslands for the benefit of people and nature.
This fall’s burn was unique, however, in that it relied mainly on local fire departments in Kittitas County. Largely staffed by volunteers, rural fire departments provided personnel, resources and equipment to safely conduct the burn, all while getting necessary training and experience. This year, the TREX participants burned a 20-acre unit in the Roslyn Urban Forest and neighboring private land.
Aerial views of a TREX controlled burn in 2018.
While the acreage may seem small in the scale of what needs to be done across Washington state (an estimated 2.7 million acres of forest need thinning and or prescribed fire treatment across Eastern Washington), controlled burns like last week’s TREX event are crucial to normalizing the use of prescribed fire in our communities, cultivating future cross-boundary projects across public and private land ownerships, and facilitating training to do this work safely. Cross-boundary burns like these are important to increase the pace and scale of this type of work, particularly around communities with complicated property boundaries and ownerships.
The opportunities for local training and leadership development cannot be understated. A core philosophy of TREX is that each participant—from the experienced burn boss to the entry-level firefighter—has something to learn and something to teach. By burning together and learning together, they’re not only working on the qualifications necessary to conduct controlled burns in the future, they’re also building valuable connections and networks that help fire practitioners access greater funding, best practices and support during emergencies.
A core philosophy of TREX is that each participant—from the experienced burn boss to the entry-level firefighter—has something to learn and something to teach. © Scott Butner Photography
The Roslyn Urban Forest has undergone significant work over the past few years to maintain a healthy forest and watershed, provide recreation opportunities, and manage fuel loads to reduce the risk of wildfires. This summer, a crew from the Roslyn Fire Department accomplished fuel reduction work throughout the forest to prepare parts of the forest for prescribed burning this fall.
This forest health and fuel reduction work is part of a larger project being initiated on thousands of acres along Cle Elum Ridge—from the City of Roslyn, across private lands, to the Central Cascade Forest managed by The Nature Conservancy. This work around the larger Cle Elum area is part of larger Washington State collaborative planning efforts for both forest health and wildland fire protection (it’s a priority landscape as identified in the Eastern Washington 20 Year Forest Health Strategic Plan and Wildland Fire Protection Plan). Partners see this year’s TREX event as a model in building local ownership and capacity to accelerate pace and scale of forest health and community protection work.
A view of Cle Elum Ridge and the Stuart mountain range. © Benjamin Drummond
After a summer of devastating fire outcomes for so many communities, many are feeling time is short in putting fire back to work for people and nature. Now’s the time to step up.
Learn More About our Work in the Central Cascades Forest
