After decades of fire suppression, experts eye prescribed burns
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GREELEY, Colo. — AJ Alvarado marched through the knee-high grass wearing eight-inch leather boots and fire-resistant pants. She sloshed fuel from a drip torch shaped like a tea kettle filled with diesel and gasoline.
Tufts of grass crackled as they burned. A team of firefighters followed Alvarado, igniting additional rows of flames twenty feet apart at the Poudre Learning Center.
“It's really difficult to do prescribed burns in Colorado, so to be able to pull off this training is no small feat,” said Alvarado, a second year firefighter who has worked on prescribed burns in Colorado, New Mexico and Idaho.
Alvarado joined nearly 40 other participants from 14 agencies April 7 for the first prescribed fire training exchange in Northern Colorado, called a TREX event. Firefighters burned 18 acres of grasslands managed by the City of Greeley.
For more than a century, fire policy in the United States has focused almost exclusively on suppressing fire to protect natural resources and property.
But “preventing ‘fuels’ — grass, shrubs, and trees — from burning today only preserves them to burn tomorrow. As the stockpile of fuel grows, fires burn longer and with greater intensity,” M.R. O’Connor wrote in her book, “Ignition: Lighting Fires in a Burning World.”
As climate change threatens to increase the frequency and severity of wildfires, some experts want to reintroduce fire as a management tool to reduce fuel buildup and prevent megafires.
Video: Cormac McCrimmon
“Humans have lost our relationship with fire. We haven't really been using it to its full potential to help manage these ecosystems,” said Kristin Leger, the project manager for the NOCO TREX event.
Following the Marshall Fire that burned in December 2021, research found that fuel loads of rangeland grasses were 60 to 70 percent higher than the historical average. This, combined with hot, dry and windy conditions, contributed to the fire.
But putting fire on the landscape is not without risk. Prescribed fires can escape control, destroy houses and kill.
In 2012, embers from the planned Lower North Fork Fire reignited, burning 25 homes and killing three residents near Denver. In 2022, a pair of prescribed fires in Northern New Mexico escaped and burned 341,735 acres, becoming the state’s largest wildfire.
At 9:30 a.m. on April 7, Liz Kehm, a fire effects monitor trainee, took her first weather reading of the day. The temperature hovered at 50 degrees. Two to four mile per hour winds fluttered out of the southwest.
When planning a prescribed fire, a burn boss will study forecasts, determine suitable conditions and create contingency plans if the fire escapes. Throughout the day, firefighters take local weather readings to track wind direction, speed, temperature and relative humidity.
“We don’t just go out and say, oh, look, there’s dry grass, let’s start a fire. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to get to this point,” said Scopel.
Organizers had hoped to complete the burn last year, but they canceled because of red-flag conditions — a dangerous combination of high wind, low humidity and strong winds.
When burning grass, some wind is helpful to help carry the fire, said Monique “Mo” Hein, a burn boss trainee. The light, southwest breeze helped to carry smoke away from houses and a road
When planning a prescribed fire, a burn boss will study forecasts, determine suitable conditions and create contingency plans if the fire escapes. Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
Firefighters often use a technique called back burning during prescribed burns. They start by spraying water from trucks or ATVs along the perimeter of the burn area to create a “wet line”
Next, they use drip torches to light a strip of fire along the perimeter. As firefighters burn into the wind, this strip of pre-burned “black,” along with the wet line, contains the flames. If wind carries the flames, it will theoretically push the fire towards ground that has already burned and, thus, doesn’t contain sufficient fuel.
Conducting prescribed burns in forests can be more complicated. In many areas, cutting and thinning by hand must take place before a prescribed burn to reduce fuels, said Leger.
Alvarado completed her basic wildland firefighter training in the summer of 2022, while working for the Southwest Conservation Corps in Salida, Colorado. But the idea of working in fire didn’t initially appeal to her.
“Suppression crews have a reputation historically for being pretty machismo, boys clubs. I think that some aspects of that culture that otherwise would be, at worst, annoying, become dangerous,” said Alvarado. “There’s a lot more women involved in prescribed fire.”
According to the Nature Conservancy, “Women comprise a mere 10% of the national wildland fire workforce.”
Alvarado said that the ethos of prescribed fire better aligns with her values. Rather than just focus on saving people or property, prescribed fire opens opportunities for education and to consider the interactions between fire, ecosystems and water resources, she said.
“I get more personal satisfaction out of the idea of preventing disaster rather than just responding to it,” she said.
AJ Alvarado uses a drip torch to light a strip of fire at a prescribed burn in Greeley, Colorado. Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
Cultural acceptance of prescribed burning varies widely by region. The southern United States burns nearly three times as many acres as the West, according to O’Connor. Florida alone burns two million acres every year.
Many Native American tribes historically used fire to manipulate the landscape.
“As early as 1634, European settlers on the continent were noticing that the death of Native Americans from disease was changing the now unattended landscapes,” wrote O’Connor.
Fire helps to clear dead vegetation, allowing new plants to receive more sunlight, and the warmth also helps to stimulate growth, said Karen Scopel, an environmental planner with the City of Greeley.
“Prairies evolved with fire. They need that kind of disturbance every once in a while to keep them healthy,” said Scopel. “Some plants might sit here dormant until the right growing conditions happen. Fire can create that right growing condition for some of those plants,” said Scopel.
After burning 18 acres, firefighters used hoes, rakes and hoses to “mop up,” turning over ashes and spraying embers. Video: Cormac McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain PBS
During the April 7 burn, firefighters aimed for 75% consumption, leaving pockets of unburned material. This strategy helps to create a “mosaic” of plants in different growth stages.
After burning 18 acres, firefighters used hoes, rakes and hoses to “mop up,” turning over ashes and spraying embers.
Despite the prevalence of wildfires across the west, researchers argue that North America remains in a “fire deficit.” Far fewer acres burn today than they used to.
Scopel thinks that fear is the biggest hurdle limiting prescribed burns.
“People are uncomfortable with fire,” she said. “People have lost touch with nature over time and tend to want to kind of control everything in the way they are comfortable. We need to understand we’re not in charge of everything. We need to work with nature to have a healthy, thriving environment.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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