Description and Benefits of Fire Management

This practice will describe how prescribed burning is used as a land management tool in California. This practice is intended to introduce you to some basic information about prescribed burning, and should not be thought of as a guide to conducting your own prescribed burn. However, it will give you an idea of what is required to implement a prescribed burn – the steps you will need to take and the agencies you will need to contact. Implementing a prescribed burn is a complicated activity that involves careful planning, coordination, and experience, yet can provide multiple benefits to land owners and
land managers. Some of the benefits are summarized in the list below:
• Reduces ground fuel loading in forests
• Reduces thatch buildup in grasslands
• Prepares an area for replanting
• Improves wildlife habitat
• Controls or eradicates unwanted weeds
• Improves the quality of rangeland forage
• Protects people and property from catastrophic wildland fires
• Improves conditions for reintroduction of native grasses and forbs

Conditions Where Fire  Management Applies

Most ecosystem types in Yolo County, including grasslands, oak woodlands, chaparral, and mixed conifer forests, evolved with occasional low (and sometimes high) intensity wildfires as part of the natural life cycle. Most land owners and land managers are interested in reintroducing fire on their land for the following reasons: to control or eradicate unwanted weeds or grasses (such as Medusahead, Yellow Starthistle, and Barbed Goatgrass) on rangelands and grasslands; prepare rangelands and grasslands for seeding of native perennial grasses and other grasses and forbs to improve forage quality; to reduce the density of chaparral to improve rangeland forage quantity and quality and to protect against unwanted wildland fires; to induce reseeding of native plant species that require fire for proper germination and establishment; to reduce the fuel load in oak woodland, chaparral, and mixed conifer forests as a means to reduce the potential for catastrophic crown fires; to create a defensible space around homes and other structures to protect them from wildland fires; to improve habitat quantity and quality for wildlife.

Materials / Equipment Needed

Note: The actual equipment needed depends on the size and complexity of the burn.

• Personal: Fire Resistant Pants and Shirt or Coveralls, Hard Hat, Fire Resistant Shroud, Gloves, Goggles, Fire Shelter, Leather Boots, First Aid Kit.
• Hand Tools: McCleod, Polaski, Shovel, Backpack Sprayer, Flapper, Wire Cutter, Belt Weather Kit, Two-way Radio, Drip Torch, Fuel Mix, Fusees, Pen Flares.
• Heavy Equipment: Bulldozer, Fire Engines.
• Permits: Submit Burn Plan,  Recieve Burn Permit from CDF (only during fire season on CDF-responsibility lands),  and Air Quality Management District Permit.

Implementation

The following describes the steps you will need to take to implement a prescribed burn on your land.

Note: The information contained on this page is not sufficient to adequately guide you through the process of planning, conducting and monitoring a prescribed burn. It is intended to give you a sense of what it takes and who you will need to contact in order to incorporate prescribed burning into your land management activities.

It is recommended that if you are interested in conducting prescribed burns on your land that you work with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), your local fire department, and/or any local program that approaches fire management on a larger scale. In some cases, CDF or your local fire department use prescribed burns for training personnel, so you may want to contact them first to see if such an opportunity exists.

The first step is to look at your land management needs and determine whether burning will help you meet those needs. You should research the effect fire will have on the area you are looking to burn as well as the effect it will have on the ecosystem as a whole. For example, if weed management is your goal, then you need to ask yourself questions such as:

Will fire control the weeds on my land?

When do I need to burn in order to impact the target weed species?

What will replace the weeds after the burn?

How often will I have to burn to achieve the control I am looking for?

Am I willing to put the time and resources into implementing a long-term fire management system on my land?

Once you have determined fire is an appropriate land management tool for your property and that it will help you in meeting your land management goals, you will want to consider creating a long-term fire management strategy that incorporates prescribed burning into your overall long-term management activities. This is particularly important for larger management areas, where burning can be an annual activity as different sites (i.e. burn units) are burned on different cycles. Most likely you will want to collaborate with CDF and/or the agency or group that is coordinating fire management in your region. This will help you gain a perspective on fire management in the region and become aware of opportunities and resources available to aid you with your fire management objectives. The components of a long-term fire management strategy include:

• 1. Site background information, such as the environmental attributes of the managed area, including wildfire history and the natural role of fire of the ecosystem.
• 2. Description of the human and ecologically based management goals of the site.
• 3. Justification for fire management at the site: describes the natural fire regime of the site and demonstrates how fire management will meet the human and ecologically based management goals for the site.
• 4. Description of the fire management goals, burn units, and a burn schedule: this is a very important and
  complicated step that includes taking into consideration topography, land use, natural and human made fire breaks, ideal weather conditions (e.g. wind direction, relative humidity, temperature), when to burn (i.e. season), air quality, type of burn most appropriate for the site, among other things.
• 5. Creation of a map that incorporates the above information, such as fire breaks, ignition points, type of burn, wind direction, structures, etc.
• 6. Develop a monitoring plan that outlines observations to be made before, during, and after the burn in order to evaluate whether the fire management goals were met.

You will need to create and submit a burn plan to CDF (if burning on “state responsibility areas”) or possibly your local fire department (if burning in the valley) in order to receive a burn permit. You will need a permit from the Air Quality Management District (530.757.3660) and clearance on the day of the burn. The AQMD Permit fee is $30 plus $1/acre. Youalso need to contact Yolo Dispatch (530.666.8920) on the day of the burn to let them know that you are implementing a prescribed burn.

For small-scale prescribed burns (10 acres or less), such as along roadsides, it is not necessary to go through such an extensive long-term planning process. However, you should still consider the questions prompted by 1 through 4 above as you develop a prescribed burn plan for your site. You will still need to submit a 1-page prescribed burn plan to CDF and/or the local fire department and the AQMD in order to receive your permits to burn.

Use the contact and web resources information below to learn more about fire management and what programs are currently underway in your area.
• CDF Vegetation Management Program. Dana Cole, Program Coordinator. (707) 963-3601.
• CDF Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit. Bill Klebe, Battalion Chief. (530) 796-3506.
• Air Quality Management District. Dave Smith. (530)757-3660