Update: Soda IC Cal Fire, Contained at 200 acres of brush.
Last Updated: February 25, 2012 8:30 am
Date/Time Started: February 23, 2012 12:32 pm
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit
County: Napa County
Location: 3200 block of Soda Canyon Road, north of Silverado Trail, northeast of Napa City
Acres Burned: 200 acres
Containment 200 acres - 100% Contained
Evacuations: No evacuations in place
Injuries: 2 minor injuries
Cause: Escaped agricultural debris burn pile
Cooperating Agencies: CAL FIRE, Napa County Fire Dept. (FD), Calistoga FD, Napa City FD, St. Helena FD, American Canyon FP District, Napa County Sheriff Dept. and California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Total Fire Personnel: 95 firefighters
Monday, February 27, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wildfire, Lake Napa, Cal Fire
Initial attack wildfire, 35 acres, CAL Fire Silverado and Soda Canyon Rd.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Wildfire Dangers
Sobering Future of Wildfire Dangers in U.S. West, Researchers Predict
ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2012) — The American West has seen a recent increase in large wildfires due to droughts, the build-up of combustible fuel, or biomass, in forests, a spread of fire-prone species and increased tree mortality from insects and heat.
In a paper appearing online Feb. 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a 12-member research team warns that these conditions may be "a perfect storm" for more fires.
While grazing and fire suppression have kept incidents of wildfires unusually low for most of the last century, the amounts of combustible biomass, temperatures and drought are all rising. "Consequently, a fire deficit now exists and has been growing throughout the 20th century, pushing fire regimes into disequilibrium with climate," the team concludes.
"The last two centuries have seen dramatic changes in wildfire across the American West, with a peak in wildfires in the 1800s giving way to much less burning over the past 100 years," said lead author Jennifer R. Marlon, now a National Science Foundation Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "The decline was mostly caused by the influx of explorers and settlers and by their subsequent suppression of wildfires, both intentionally and accidentally."
Marlon earned her doctorate at the University of Oregon, where she studied with co-authors Patrick J. Bartlein and Daniel G. Gavin, professors of geography, as well as with former UO professor Cathy Whitlock, professor of earth sciences at Montana State University. Five other co-authors also hold doctoral degrees from the UO but are now affiliated with other institutions.
Wildfires have been debated for years as either a destructive force of nature that should be eradicated or natural disturbance that keep ecosystems healthy. For nearly 100 years, national policy, as administered by the U.S. Forest Service, had been to respond rapidly to suppress all wildfires, but in recent years, local forest managers have been given more latitude to evaluate which fires to suppress, while ensuring public safety.
In their analysis, Marlon and colleagues used existing records on charcoal deposits in lakebed sediments to establish a baseline of fire activity for the past 3,000 years. They compared that with independent fire-history data drawn from historical records and fire scars on the landscape.
Their key findings:
• Comparing charcoal records and climate data, as expected, showed warm, dry intervals, such as the "Medieval Climate Anomaly" between 1,000 and 700 years ago, which had more burning, and cool, moist intervals, such as the "Little Ice Age" between 500 and 300 years ago, had fewer fires. Short-term peaks in fires were associated with abrupt climate changes -- warming or cooling.
• Wildfires during most of the 20th century were almost as infrequent as they were during the Little Ice Age, about 400 years ago. However, only a century ago, fires were as frequent as they were about 800 years ago, during the warm and dry Medieval Climate Anomaly. "In other words, humans caused fires to shift from their 1,000-year maximum to their 1,000-year minimum in less than 100 years," Gavin said.
• Climate and humans acted synergistically -- by the end of the 18th century and early 19th century -- to increase fire events that were often sparked by agricultural practices, clearing of forests, logging activity and railroading.
"We can use the relationship between climate and fire," Marlon said, "to answer the question: What would the natural level of fire be like today if we didn't work so hard to suppress or eliminate fires? The answer is that because of climate change and the buildup of fuels across the western U.S., levels of burning would be higher than at any time over the past 3,000 years, including the peak in burning during the Medieval Climate Anomaly."
The long-term perspectives gained through these studies demonstrate how strongly climate and people affect the present-day landscapes and forests of the American West, and how they may change in the future, Bartlein said.
"Policymakers and others need to re-evaluate how we think of the past century to allow us to adjust and prepare for the future," he said. "Recent catastrophic wildfires in the West are indicators of a fire deficit between actual levels of burning and that which we should expect given current and coming climate conditions. Policies of fire suppression that do not account for this unusual environmental situation are unsustainable."
The five other co-authors previously at the UO are: Colin J. Long, now at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh; Christy E. Briles, now at Monash University in Australia; Daniele Colombaroli, now at the University of Bern in Switzerland; Mitchell J. Power, now at the University of Utah; and Megan K. Walsh, now at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash. The remaining four co-authors are R. Scott Anderson of Northern Arizona University, Kendrick J. Brown of the Canadian Forest Service, Douglas J. Hallett of the University of Calgary and Elizabeth A. Scharf of the University of North Dakota.
"This collaboration of researchers with UO roots provides potentially important information that may be useful in guiding policies to protect the environment," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation. "It is gratifying to see that the impact of graduate study at the UO extends well beyond students' time on our campus. Working together is a hallmark of UO graduate study and reflects well on our nationally ranked geography department."
Charcoal records used in the research were obtained from the Global Charcoal Database of the Global Palaeofire Working Group. Marlon, Bartlein and Power serve on the organization's scientific steering group.
________________________________________
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oregon.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
________________________________________
Journal Reference:
1. Jennifer R. Marlon, Patrick J. Bartlein, Daniel G. Gavin, Colin J. Long, R. Scott Anderson, Christy E. Briles, Kendrick J. Brown, Daniele Colombaroli, Douglas J. Hallett, Mitchell J. Power, Elizabeth A. Scharf, and Megan K. Walsh. Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western USA. PNAS, February 14, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1112839109
University of Oregon (2012, February 14). Sobering future of wildfire dangers in U.S. west, researchers predict. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 16, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2012/02/120214134936.htm
--
ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2012) — The American West has seen a recent increase in large wildfires due to droughts, the build-up of combustible fuel, or biomass, in forests, a spread of fire-prone species and increased tree mortality from insects and heat.
In a paper appearing online Feb. 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a 12-member research team warns that these conditions may be "a perfect storm" for more fires.
While grazing and fire suppression have kept incidents of wildfires unusually low for most of the last century, the amounts of combustible biomass, temperatures and drought are all rising. "Consequently, a fire deficit now exists and has been growing throughout the 20th century, pushing fire regimes into disequilibrium with climate," the team concludes.
"The last two centuries have seen dramatic changes in wildfire across the American West, with a peak in wildfires in the 1800s giving way to much less burning over the past 100 years," said lead author Jennifer R. Marlon, now a National Science Foundation Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "The decline was mostly caused by the influx of explorers and settlers and by their subsequent suppression of wildfires, both intentionally and accidentally."
Marlon earned her doctorate at the University of Oregon, where she studied with co-authors Patrick J. Bartlein and Daniel G. Gavin, professors of geography, as well as with former UO professor Cathy Whitlock, professor of earth sciences at Montana State University. Five other co-authors also hold doctoral degrees from the UO but are now affiliated with other institutions.
Wildfires have been debated for years as either a destructive force of nature that should be eradicated or natural disturbance that keep ecosystems healthy. For nearly 100 years, national policy, as administered by the U.S. Forest Service, had been to respond rapidly to suppress all wildfires, but in recent years, local forest managers have been given more latitude to evaluate which fires to suppress, while ensuring public safety.
In their analysis, Marlon and colleagues used existing records on charcoal deposits in lakebed sediments to establish a baseline of fire activity for the past 3,000 years. They compared that with independent fire-history data drawn from historical records and fire scars on the landscape.
Their key findings:
• Comparing charcoal records and climate data, as expected, showed warm, dry intervals, such as the "Medieval Climate Anomaly" between 1,000 and 700 years ago, which had more burning, and cool, moist intervals, such as the "Little Ice Age" between 500 and 300 years ago, had fewer fires. Short-term peaks in fires were associated with abrupt climate changes -- warming or cooling.
• Wildfires during most of the 20th century were almost as infrequent as they were during the Little Ice Age, about 400 years ago. However, only a century ago, fires were as frequent as they were about 800 years ago, during the warm and dry Medieval Climate Anomaly. "In other words, humans caused fires to shift from their 1,000-year maximum to their 1,000-year minimum in less than 100 years," Gavin said.
• Climate and humans acted synergistically -- by the end of the 18th century and early 19th century -- to increase fire events that were often sparked by agricultural practices, clearing of forests, logging activity and railroading.
"We can use the relationship between climate and fire," Marlon said, "to answer the question: What would the natural level of fire be like today if we didn't work so hard to suppress or eliminate fires? The answer is that because of climate change and the buildup of fuels across the western U.S., levels of burning would be higher than at any time over the past 3,000 years, including the peak in burning during the Medieval Climate Anomaly."
The long-term perspectives gained through these studies demonstrate how strongly climate and people affect the present-day landscapes and forests of the American West, and how they may change in the future, Bartlein said.
"Policymakers and others need to re-evaluate how we think of the past century to allow us to adjust and prepare for the future," he said. "Recent catastrophic wildfires in the West are indicators of a fire deficit between actual levels of burning and that which we should expect given current and coming climate conditions. Policies of fire suppression that do not account for this unusual environmental situation are unsustainable."
The five other co-authors previously at the UO are: Colin J. Long, now at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh; Christy E. Briles, now at Monash University in Australia; Daniele Colombaroli, now at the University of Bern in Switzerland; Mitchell J. Power, now at the University of Utah; and Megan K. Walsh, now at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash. The remaining four co-authors are R. Scott Anderson of Northern Arizona University, Kendrick J. Brown of the Canadian Forest Service, Douglas J. Hallett of the University of Calgary and Elizabeth A. Scharf of the University of North Dakota.
"This collaboration of researchers with UO roots provides potentially important information that may be useful in guiding policies to protect the environment," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation. "It is gratifying to see that the impact of graduate study at the UO extends well beyond students' time on our campus. Working together is a hallmark of UO graduate study and reflects well on our nationally ranked geography department."
Charcoal records used in the research were obtained from the Global Charcoal Database of the Global Palaeofire Working Group. Marlon, Bartlein and Power serve on the organization's scientific steering group.
________________________________________
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oregon.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
________________________________________
Journal Reference:
1. Jennifer R. Marlon, Patrick J. Bartlein, Daniel G. Gavin, Colin J. Long, R. Scott Anderson, Christy E. Briles, Kendrick J. Brown, Daniele Colombaroli, Douglas J. Hallett, Mitchell J. Power, Elizabeth A. Scharf, and Megan K. Walsh. Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western USA. PNAS, February 14, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1112839109
University of Oregon (2012, February 14). Sobering future of wildfire dangers in U.S. west, researchers predict. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 16, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2012/02/120214134936.htm
--
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
NOAA Wind Event
GUSTY WINDS TO AFFECT COASTAL AREAS ON WEDNESDAY... ...STRONG SANTA AND WINDS POSSIBLE IN THE MOUNTAINS THURSDAY AND FRIDAY... .A STRONG SURFACE PRESSURE GRADIENT WILL CREATE GUSTY SUNDOWNER WINDS ACROSS SOUTHERN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY THIS EVENING. THEN... A COLD LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE THROUGH CALIFORNIA ON WEDNESDAY AND GENERATE GUSTY WEST TO NORTHWEST WINDS OVER THE REGION... FOCUSED OVER THE COASTAL AREAS. AS THE SYSTEM MOVES INTO BAJA CALIFORNIA WEDNESDAY NIGHT...THE WINDS WILL SHIFT TO THE NORTHEAST AND STRENGTHEN INTO A SANTA ANA WIND EVENT OVER MUCH OF LOS ANGELES AND VENTURA COUNTIES. THE STRONGEST WINDS ARE EXPECTED IN THE MOUNTAINS... WHERE POTENTIALLY DAMAGING WIND GUSTS AROUND 60 MPH ARE POSSIBLE. COASTAL AND VALLEY AREAS WILL LIKELY NEED WIND ADVISORIES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY AS WELL. ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM PST THIS EVENING... ...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM TO 6 PM PST WEDNESDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES/OXNARD HAS ISSUED A WIND ADVISORY FOR THE SANTA BARBARA SOUTH COAST. THIS ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM PST THIS EVENING. A WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM TO 6 PM PST WEDNESDAY. * WINDS... AREAS OF WEST TO NORTHWEST WINDS 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 40 MPH WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THIS EVENING...THEN DIMINISH. NORTHWEST WINDS 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 40 MPH WILL DEVELOP ON WEDNESDAY BEHIND A COLD FRONT. * TIMING...STRONG WINDS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THIS EVENING THEN DIMINISH. THE WINDS WILL REDEVELOP WEDNESDAY MORNING...PEAK IN THE AFTERNOON...THEN QUICKLY WEAKEN BY EVENING. * IMPACTS...WINDS THIS STRONG CAN BREAK SMALL BRANCHES OFF OF TREES AND MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT...ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. HIGHWAYS 101 AND 154 WILL LIKELY BE IMPACTED. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... &&
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Cal Fire Budget Cuts
Word that budget cuts will soon hit valley residents in fire prone areas right where they live.
CAL FIRE is closing the Air Attack base at the Fresno Airport. That's where a tanker is based that drops fire retardant on wildfires, especially in areas that are hard to reach.
The cuts are part of CAL FIRE's plan to cut $80-million from their budget.
They take effect July 1, 2012.
For 57 years, fire fighting planes have flown into the foothills and mountains out of Fresno.
But this summer that will change.
CAL FIRE is closing the base that's home to a tanker and an attack plane that directs the tanker where to drop fire retardant.
"We did a very deliberative and thoughtful study to figure out which one would have the minimal impact statewide to our initial attack firefighting capability," said Daniel Berlant with CAL FIRE.
Mountain communities like Yosemite Lakes near Coarsegold rely on those tankers to keep fire from their homes.
"Fires up here take off very, very fast and if no one's there to take care of them, this place is just gonna go," said Sherry Guest Baumbach who lives near Coarsegold.
The tanker from Fresno is moving to Porterville. In the future, if there's a fire in Fresno County, CAL FIRE says it could take an extra ten minutes for the tanker to arrive.
In Madera County, a tanker may be sent from Tuolumne County to cover.
"It absolutely makes you nervous that we won't get the quick response that we would have gotten out of Fresno," said Beth Villanueva who lives near Coarsegold.
The cuts come at a time when we haven't had much rain. The area is dry. And that could mean a very busy fire season.
"Even though we've had a few storm systems, conditions across the state have been very dry. That's lead to an increase of fire activity throughout the state," said Berlant.
The Air Attack base has seven employees. Two will be reassigned. The five others are seasonal employees and those positions will not be filled.
The state is imposing an additional $150 per year for each home that's protected by CAL FIRE or state resources. Those are homes in rural areas. Those bills should start to arrive in mailboxes this summer, just as the fire fighting resources are reduced.
CAL FIRE is closing the Air Attack base at the Fresno Airport. That's where a tanker is based that drops fire retardant on wildfires, especially in areas that are hard to reach.
The cuts are part of CAL FIRE's plan to cut $80-million from their budget.
They take effect July 1, 2012.
For 57 years, fire fighting planes have flown into the foothills and mountains out of Fresno.
But this summer that will change.
CAL FIRE is closing the base that's home to a tanker and an attack plane that directs the tanker where to drop fire retardant.
"We did a very deliberative and thoughtful study to figure out which one would have the minimal impact statewide to our initial attack firefighting capability," said Daniel Berlant with CAL FIRE.
Mountain communities like Yosemite Lakes near Coarsegold rely on those tankers to keep fire from their homes.
"Fires up here take off very, very fast and if no one's there to take care of them, this place is just gonna go," said Sherry Guest Baumbach who lives near Coarsegold.
The tanker from Fresno is moving to Porterville. In the future, if there's a fire in Fresno County, CAL FIRE says it could take an extra ten minutes for the tanker to arrive.
In Madera County, a tanker may be sent from Tuolumne County to cover.
"It absolutely makes you nervous that we won't get the quick response that we would have gotten out of Fresno," said Beth Villanueva who lives near Coarsegold.
The cuts come at a time when we haven't had much rain. The area is dry. And that could mean a very busy fire season.
"Even though we've had a few storm systems, conditions across the state have been very dry. That's lead to an increase of fire activity throughout the state," said Berlant.
The Air Attack base has seven employees. Two will be reassigned. The five others are seasonal employees and those positions will not be filled.
The state is imposing an additional $150 per year for each home that's protected by CAL FIRE or state resources. Those are homes in rural areas. Those bills should start to arrive in mailboxes this summer, just as the fire fighting resources are reduced.
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