Wildfire Monitoring

Firefighters need citizen watchdogs.

FireWatch: A Citizen’s Guide to Wildfire Suppression Monitoring

The mounting risks, costs, and impacts of wildfire suppression operations are shrouded by a lack of transparency and accountability from agencies. FUSEE’s FireWatch series of instructional guides and investigative reports will help environmental reporters, forest conservationists, taxpayer watchdogs, and other concerned citizens learn how to monitor wildfire events and suppression operations on public lands. Greater citizen input and public oversight of firefighting operations will help wildland firefighters do their jobs more safely, ethically, and ecologically.

Check out parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the FireWatch Guides below:

During a Fire

After a Fire

…Before the Next Fire

FUSEE Blogs
FireWatch PART 1: A Guide to Online Wildfire Information Gathering
FireWatch PART 1: A Guide to Online Wildfire Information Gathering

Learn how to access information from government websites during wildfires in order to see where they are located, where they might be heading, and what kinds of suppression resources have been dispatched to manage the fires.

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FireWatch PART 2: A Guide to Acquiring Suppression Operations Documents and Data
FireWatch PART 2: A Guide to Acquiring Suppression Operations Documents and Data

Learn how to acquire and analyze suppression operations documents and data. Titles of specific items in the “docs box” are presented along with tips on navigating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process.

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FireWatch PART 3: A Guide to Agency-Community Communication and Collaboration in Wildfire Management
FireWatch PART 3: A Guide to Agency-Community Communication and Collaboration in Wildfire Management

Learn tips for sharing your research findings with fellow community members, and how to communicate your concerns with agency officials during, after, and especially before a fire

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CalFire Incidents

FUSEE Blogs
FireWatch Part 4: A Guide to Online Wildfire Information Gathering of CalFire Incidents
FUSEE
FireWatch Part 4: A Guide to Online Wildfire Information Gathering of CalFire Incidents
FUSEE

Learn how to monitor CALFIRE suppression operations to document its costly and destructive firefighting actions on private and state lands.

Read More →
FUSEE

FUSEE Wildfire Monitoring Reports

Featured
BIGHORN FIRE: A Big Fire Management Success
BIGHORN FIRE: A Big Fire Management Success

Managing wildfires with ecological fire use in the age of Covid-19

We Had to Do Something: Futility and Fatality in Fighting the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire
We Had to Do Something: Futility and Fatality in Fighting the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire

Fire managers felt pressure to “do something” to stop the spread of the Ranch Fire, attempting a hastily planned burnout along a bulldozer fireline. But this action contradicted the advice from Forest Service risk management experts who warned that aggressive firefighting tactics had low probabilities of success given record-level fuel dryness at the time.

Carr Fire CATlines: The Environmental Impacts of Bulldozers in Wildfire Suppression
Carr Fire CATlines: The Environmental Impacts of Bulldozers in Wildfire Suppression

Bulldozer firelines or "CATlines" cause extensive, lasting environmental damage and destroy Native American heritage sites. In the era of climate change, they are rapidly becoming ineffective in stopping wildfire spread during severe weather conditions. The 2018 Carr Fire offers a case study for the kinds of damage caused by catlines whose scars still remain on the landscape.

Check out FUSEE’s video.

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT: THE SOBERANES FIRE SUPPRESSION SIEGE OF 2016
THE SKY’S THE LIMIT: THE SOBERANES FIRE SUPPRESSION SIEGE OF 2016

The Soberanes Fire Suppression Siege offers an extreme example of excessive, unaccountable, budget-busting suppression spending that is causing a fiscal crisis in the U.S. Forest Service. It demonstrates the absolute necessity for Congress to perform critical oversight of wildfire suppression spending by federal agencies.

Additional Resources

Featured
Labor Day Fire Analysis
Harris et al. 2021
Labor Day Fire Analysis
Harris et al. 2021

In September 2020, Oregon experienced the most extreme wildfire event in the state’s history. In a matter of days, the "Labor Day Fires" ripped across vast swaths of public and private forestland on the westside of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains—a region that rarely sees widespread fire activity. Thousands of homes were lost, numerous people died, and over 10% of Oregon’s population was placed on some level of evacuation notice. Now that the smoke has cleared, researchers from around the region have begun to study the event to draw lessons about wildfire behavior under extreme weather events. Our team initiated this research project in November 2020 to drill into the following question: How do fuel conditions (and associated forest practices) influence wildfire behavior during extreme weather events?

Harris et al. 2021
In Oregon’s 2020 fires, highly managed forests burned the most
Daniel Gavin
In Oregon’s 2020 fires, highly managed forests burned the most
Daniel Gavin

This record-breaking fire season has re-ignited discussions about causes of severe fires. One long-standing narrative is that fire suppression has resulted in ‘overgrown’ forests that fuel larger and more intense fires than occur under more intense management (the “fuels narrative”). This narrative, promoted by timber interests and the president, among others, is irrelevant within the context of Oregon's major western Cascades fires.

Daniel Gavin
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Suppression Impacts and Costs