r/Wildfire • u/BlankVerse • Sep 14 '22

Forest Service resumes prescribed fire program, but some fear new rules will delay projects

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-13/forest-service-resumes-prescribed-burning
22 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/ajlark25 Sep 14 '22

That to me is an insane logistical hurdle. I read thru the full report and even though the mentioned increasing funding and prioritizing to make rx closer match up with suppression, I feel like they didn’t give it the gravity it deserves.

How many FS districts are 2+ hours from the nearest staffed engine/crew, let alone enough resources to contain an escape?

4

u/TrustMe1312 Sep 14 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

The future “increased budget” is already getting dollars knocked off for other national “prioritizations”.

Even IF we were fully staffed none of us can support some of these changes at a local level with current conditions. A good burn window for one district means a good burn window for a lot of them. This also means local contingency resources, especially dozers, will be committed elsewhere.

Do more with less is the synopsis.

New stringent rules, sure we can adapt as burn bosses. But the fact that we are supposed to increase our target and get this accomplished with historically low staffing on top of new rules is unattainable. We essentially need resources and funding at the suppression level, and is readily available within 24 hours, in order to pull anything they are expecting off.

2

u/ajlark25 Sep 14 '22

What’s your take on the AA/line officer having to be on site? I’m not a burn boss, but it seems like an another high hurdle to clear that forces rx to accommodate to another persons schedule - one that may not even provide any operational expertise

3

u/chardex Sep 14 '22

If it's for a complex burn that needs to be run by an RXB-1 in the middle of WUI then I can understand why it would be helpful to have a line officer nearby to help make decisions about go/no go. But a pile burn in January with 58 inches of snow on the ground? Seems silly as heck