Climate & Wildfire Institute

Smoke, especially from catastrophic fires, can travel far beyond the fires themselves, impacting public health in both rural and more densely populated urban areas. “Efforts to prevent and manage wildfires will not be enough to avoid such casualties, but there are steps that officials can take to adapt to this new reality and protect Californians from smoke,” according to Rachel Connolly, project director at UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, and Michael Jerrett, professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA. In a recent opinion piece featured in the Los Angeles Times, these authors assert that wildfire smoke need not be so deadly if appropriate measures are put in place to mitigate its impacts and protect public health. Citing CWI’s and the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law's recent scoping report on the public health impacts of wildland fire, Connolly and Jerrett advocate for a need to invest in coordinated forest management, wildland-urban interface management, climate change mitigation, and protection for Californians from inevitable wildfire smoke. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/g3we9g_P. #climateandwildfire #smoke #smokeimpacts #wildfiresmoke #wildfire #wildlandfire #publichealth #publichealthpolicy #healthimpacts #healthprotections #climatechange

❗ HAPPENING TODAY ❗ Join us on Zoom today from 12-1pm for a discussion about the wildfire and public health policy landscape, based on the findings of a scoping report conducted by CLEE and the Climate & Wildfire Institute. Register and join here for the webinar: https://lnkd.in/g2Jx25vk

Catastrophic wildfires have created a complex public health crisis, with consequential impacts to physical and mental health and social well-being. Conducted in partnership with the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law (CLEE), our recent report – “Scoping the Public Health Impacts of Wildfire” – reviews key issues on the public health impacts of wildfire, provides an overview of the current policy landscape, and identifies recommendations for future resilience. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/g_fFJ-kG “Public health has historically been siloed from land management, posing challenges for the current wildland fire policy landscape,” writes report author and CLEE climate research fellow Kasia Dahlbeck. “As the impacts of wildfire are only expected to worsen under current climate scenarios, building public health protections into state and federal wildland fire policy presents a challenging yet necessary cornerstone of wildfire resilience.” Join report author Kasia Dahlbeck, along with leadership from CLEE, Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment, and CA Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force, for an upcoming lunch & learn session, hosted by CLEE via Zoom on Wednesday, 7/17 at 12PM PT. The session will address core recommendations from the report, along with key barriers and opportunities for state policy implementation. Register here: https://lnkd.in/g2Jx25vk. #climateandwildfire #scopingreport #catastrophicwildfire #publichealth #landmanagement #policy #firepolicy #policyimplementation #wildfireresilience #lunchandlearn

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to returning good fire to the land. The unique characteristics and conditions of each ecosystem require tailored, adaptive approaches to be successful. That’s where active stewardship comes in, providing a path for sustainable management and care of land, ecosystems, and natural resources. The second in a two-part series, a unique StoryMap created by Prescribed Fire Information Coordinator Erika Lutz, Fire Ecologist Brian Peterson, and others on the Fire Forward team offers compelling photography, videography, and interactive maps to demonstrate different adaptive stewardship techniques the team has carried out over the last five years to restore coastal prairies at Martin Griffin Preserve. Fire Forward, a program of Audubon Canyon Ranch, is building science-based prescribed burn capacity and supporting community development, training, and leadership for cooperative burning. The program is currently using prescribed burns to return fire to the land at Martin Griffin Preserve, a 1,000-acre preserve in West Marin. From conducting the preserve’s first prescribed burn in over 100 years to leveraging emerging fire technology like BurnBot, Inc., Audubon Canyon Ranch and its partners are experimenting with different stewardship techniques to restore coastal grasslands by returning good fire to the land.  “The act of untangling will mean taking notes from the past, noticing what's happening in present, and envisioning the future. From there, we can actively adapt our stewardship to tend the future we want,” writes Lutz & Peterson.  Visit the link below to explore part two of this series: https://lnkd.in/gKjCYV3M. #climateandwildfire #goodfire #prescribedfire #firetech #activestewardship #adaptivestewardship #restoration #coastalprairies #martingriffinpreserve #fireforward #auduboncanyonranch #storymap 

❗ Upcoming Lunch & Learn ❗ Wildfire and Public Health: Barriers and Opportunities to State Policy Implementation 🔥 Wildfire smoke presents a population-wide health risk in California with significant environmental justice implications. However, the policy landscape addressing the public health impacts of wildfire remains siloed, posing challenges to integrated policy development and implementation. Join us on Zoom on July 17th for a discussion about the wildfire and public health policy landscape, based on the findings of a scoping report conducted by CLEE and the Climate & Wildfire Institute. Report author and CLEE fellow Kasia Dahlbeck will discuss the results of the report, including key recommendations for coordinated policy action and future research. Following this presentation, Patrick Wright, Director of the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, and Julia Stein, Deputy Director of the UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, will join moderator and CLEE Executive Director Louise Bedsworth in a discussion of state policy implementation on the public health impacts of wildfire, addressing key policy barriers and opportunities for building resilience and protecting the state’s public health. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gV6NG-tP

Active stewardship practices, such as intentional fire, can help ensure that our landscapes are regularly and responsibly cared for. “Without active stewardship, our love for nature meant unintentionally loving it to death,” writes Fire Forward Prescribed Fire Information Coordinator Erika Lutz. The first in a two-part series, a recent essay by Lutz centers on California’s coastal prairies – the most species-rich grassland types in North America. These grasslands are adapted to fire, relying on its presence to resprout and reduce competition from encroaching species such as Douglas firs. “Despite successful land preservation efforts, the prevailing hands-off conservation approach of the era combined with a culture of fire suppression only hastened the loss of the struggling coastal prairies,” writes Lutz. Fire Forward, a program of Audubon Canyon Ranch, is building science-based prescribed burn capacity and supporting community development, training, and leadership for cooperative burning. The program is currently using prescribed burns to return fire to the land at Martin Griffin Preserve, a 1,000-acre preserve in West Marin. “Fire-dependent ecosystems like the coastal prairies of Martin Griffin Preserve need thoughtful, ongoing stewardship that honors thousands of years of coevolution with Indigenous fire tenders,” according to Lutz. Visit the link below to read the first essay in this series: https://lnkd.in/gdimDpWY. #climateandwildfire #intentionalfire #prescribedfire #coastalprairies #grasslandecosystems #landmanagement #landstewardship #activestewardship #indigenousknowledge

Fire suppression will always be a part of managing wildfire risk, even as we move towards achieving more resilience across the landscape while also adapting to the changing climate and wildfire environment. Often, wildfires burn in remote, rugged landscapes can be physically and emotionally challenging, to say the least. Add to that the increasing intensity of fire behavior, along with rapidly changing conditions, and it becomes an environment that a select few are uniquely equipped to manage. Today we honor those few – the wildland fire workforce. National Wildland Firefighter Day recognizes the hard work and devotion of the wildland firefighters and support personnel who are the backbone of the wildland fire community. The wildland fire workforce, made up of federal, state, local, Tribal, military, rural, contract, and support personnel, work diligently to protect lives, property, infrastructure, and natural and cultural resources. This year, CWI is especially grateful to the wildland fire community currently tackling the Basin Fire in the Sierra Nevada, bordering the site of our planned Teakettle Prescribed Burn. The Teakettle Prescribed Burn, spanning 3,300 acres within the Teakettle Experimental Forest on the Sierra National Forest, stands as a pivotal effort in landscape-scale prescribed fire management and implementation and is located in very precious old-growth. It is a step toward substantially reducing the risk that catastrophic fire, such as the Basin Fire and previous Rough and Creek Fires, can pose to our ecosystems and landscapes. We are hopeful the Basin Fire won’t impact the Teakettle Experimental Forest - so that we can reintroduce fire into the area under more controlled conditions - and deeply appreciate the hard work by all of the fireline personnel to try to get a handle on the fire. Funding for the Teakettle Prescribed Burn was provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Forest Health Program as part of the California Climate Investments Program. Please visit our website for more information about this project: https://lnkd.in/gxUvHHUf #climateandwildfire #nationalwildlandfirefighterday #wildlandfirefighter #wildlandfire #basinfire #fireriskmitigation #firesafety #firemanagement #firebehavior #wildfireresponse #sierranevada #teakettle #prescribedburn #CALFIRE_ForestHealth #CAClimateInvestments

Most fires on Earth are considered small and unremarkable. In fact, many studies indicate that the total area burned by wildfires globally may be declining. However, a new study published in Nature Portfolio reveals how fire behavior is actually worsening in several regions around the world. "As most fires are human ignited and have relatively small impacts," the authors assert that "a focus on average intensities obscures the extreme events – those that cause the most damage and release the most emissions.” Researchers analyzed 21 years of NASA satellite data from 2003 to 2023 to quantify how fire activity has changed over time, according to The New York Times. They identified an increase in “energetically extreme” wildfire events, or those events associated with severe ecological, social, and economic consequences, such as loss of biodiversity, smoke impacts, and displacement. Energetically extreme wildfire events have “more than doubled in frequency and magnitude” over the last two decades, according to the study. The last seven years in particular have been the six most extreme fire years, indicating a worsening trend in wildfire behavior. Click below to read the full article or access a link to the study: https://lnkd.in/dpXXVy_v. #climateandwildfire #wildfire #wildfiretrends #fireresearch #firebehavior #firefrequency #fireintensity #fireimpact #climatechange #climatescience #globalwarming #extremeevents #extremeweather

It may not be the final frontier, but outer space is certainly a new horizon that federal agencies, nonprofits, and tech companies alike are looking to explore to fight catastrophic wildfire. A new satellite mission from Earth Fire Alliance aims to enhance early wildfire detection and resource allocation by providing high-resolution data and images from space, according to a recent article by the Los Angeles Times. FireSat, an orbiting surveillance network of over 50 satellites, will scan the globe every 20 minutes to detect wildfire activity and provide near-real time data on fire, fire conditions, and fire’s ecological effects. “You can understand anything if you can see everything,” explains Chris Anthony, CWI’s Tahoe Sierra Wildfire Resilience Collaborative project partner and Earth Fire Alliance board member. The fidelity and resolution captured by FireSat will help guide more efficient firefighting and emergency operations on-the-ground. Check out the full article below: https://lnkd.in/gPYqev3r. #climateandwildfire #earthfirealliance #firesat #techinnovation #satellitetech #wildfiretech #wildfiredetection #wildfiremanagement #emergencyresponse #realtimedata #futureoffirefighting

Desertification and Drought Day, observed annually on June 17, is an opportunity to share knowledge and show support for sustainable land stewardship. Desertification and drought are among the most pressing environmental challenges of our time – creating conditions with more flammable fuels and less soil moisture, which significantly increase the risk of wildfires. This year’s theme – “United for Land. Our Legacy. Our Future.” — spotlights the future of land stewardship, our most precious resource to ensure the stability and prosperity of billions of people around the world. Indigenous peoples manage a quarter of the Earth’s surface but preserve 80% of the remaining biodiversity, according to the United Nations. Despite this stewardship, they often face barriers in the recognition of their land rights or equal participation in decision-making. To bridge this gap, The Stewardship Project (TSP), supported by CWI, is bringing Indigenous voices into current policy conversations. TSP is providing critical feedback on the Farm Bill, which serves as a powerful legislative vehicle to recognize Indigenous authority and expand use of beneficial fire on Forest Service and Tribal landscapes. TSP is advocating to codify a presumption that Tribes can conduct stewardship activities on federal lands and to include Tribal entities in decision-making across all Farm Bill programs. Visit our website for more information about The Stewardship Project, and check out the link below to learn more about Desertification and Drought Day 2024: https://lnkd.in/eHQvkjMm. #climateandwildfire #DesertificationandDroughtDay #UNited4Land #sustainablelandstewardship #indigenousstewardship #tribalstewardship #farmbill #beneficialfire #intentionalfire #wildfire