November 30, 2008
Sierra Nevada climate changes feed monster, forest-devouring fires
Sacramento Bee

Driving home from Lake Tahoe, Leah Wills watched the column of ash-gray smoke from the Moonlight fire grow and grow – until finally she was under it.

November 26, 2008
All he's saying is give brush a chance
Naturalist Rick Halsey says it's absurd to prescribe burns of backcountry California chaparral.

Los Angeles Times

Rick Halsey is in search of senile shrubs.

He rolls up California 79 in his Chevy pickup across the high tablelands of eastern San Diego County. Past a little adobe chapel from the Mexican era, he turns onto an unpaved road. He bumps along in low gear as the road rises into the granite mountains as a brilliant sliver of scarified earth, passing through gnarled stands of manzanita, red shank and chamise.

November 24, 2008
Wildland Fire Report Open for Comment
Fire Chief

The International Association of Fire Chiefs seeks comments on the draft 2009 Quadrennial Fire Review Report, which summarizes a national, strategic evaluative process to develop an internal assessment of current wildland fire programs and capabilities for comparison to future needs for fire management. Like the first review conducted in 2004, the 2009 QFR is charted by the U.S. Forest Service, the four U.S. Department of Interior agencies and their state, local and tribal partners that constitute the wildland fire community.

November 23, 2008
Summer wildfire battles costs astronomical
Redding Searchlight-Review

Costly in terms of lives lost and resources damaged, the wildfires that raged this summer in Northern California also rang up an astronomical financial total.

Burning question: How to best manage our forests?
Redding Searchlight-Review

Lightning strikes from a monster thunderstorm on the cusp of summer sparked blazes that charred hundreds of thousands of acres in Northern California, cost 13 people their lives and raised questions about how another season like 2008 can be avoided.

Two big fire agencies have vastly different philosophies
Redding Searchlight-Review

Though they are sworn to protect some of California's most precious resources, there's a philosophical separation between the state's most prominent firefighting forces.

Round table participants offer views on fire management in north state forests
Redding Searchlight-Review

“It sounds like the ocean,” Scott Sealender of Burney said as he watched a wildfire grow toward Pit River. This past summer’s fires were unprecedented in recent memory, but some experts say it was not an unusual event in the region’s history. Others suggest there may be ways to reduce the chances of such massive fires from breaking out in the future through forest management practices.

Private fire crews gaining ground in the field
Los Angeles Times 

The palm trees towering over Peter Jacobson's Montecito estate are charred black, but the retired developer's luxurious Italian villa-style home survived the devastating Tea fire mostly intact.

November 19, 2008
Study Looks at Wildland Firefighter Risks
Fire Chief

The Institut de recherché Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) released its findings concerning the exposures, health effects and recommended protection actions for wildland firefighters.

November 16, 2008
In Fighting Wildfires, Concerns About Chemicals
New York Times

The red clouds of fire retardant dropped onto the flames near Santa Barbara, Calif., on Friday were a welcome sight for owners of the hillside homes there.

November 5, 2008
Despite wildfires, San Diego voters nix fire tax
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Despite devastating wildfires that ravaged San Diego County twice in the last five years, voters there rejected a landowner's tax ballot measure that would have helped establish a county firefighting authority.