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Putting fire on the ground

Image shows a firefighter squatting down applying prescribed fire while several other firefighters look on in a forest setting.
Fire personnel monitor the Crystal Reservoir prescribed fire near Colorado Springs, Colorado, on May 16, 2025. (Forest Service photo by Josh Cowden) In places like the Pike-San Isabel National Forests across the country, fire has shaped the land for thousands of years. Many forests depend on…
#PrescribedFire, #Fire, #ControlledBurn, #FirePrevention, #WildfirePrevention, #WildfireRiskReduction, #PikeNationalForest

Flathead National Forest fire prevention specialist receives National Wildfire Mitigation Award

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On March 25, Mike West was recognized with the Wildfire Mitigation Award, the highest national honor one can receive for outstanding work and significant program impact in wildfire preparedness and mitigation. (Forest Service photo by Melissa Jenkins) Montana’s own fire prevention specialist…
#WildfireRiskReduction

The fire that never starts

A photo close to the ground of green grass growing along the side of a paved road, with a Forest Service wildland fire truck on the road in the background.
When 95% of wildfires are started by humans — especially in a part of the country like Southern California with 25 million people — stopping wildfires before they start is a lofty goal.But for Nicole Molinari, an ecologist for the Forest Service, a recent mapping effort contains a compelling insight — nearly two thirds of human-caused fires occur along roadsides in the area…
#Fire, #FirePrevention, #WildfirePrevention, #Grasslands, #NativePlants, #Wildfire, #WildfireRiskReduction

Post-wildfire restoration in the 2018 Camp Fire area on the Plumas National Forest

A pile of ashes is left after a prescribed burn.
Editor’s note: Across the West, land managers are working together to accomplish what they cannot do alone — to restore massive areas affected by past wildfire while also strategically planning how to best suppress the next.Forest Service firefighter James Lico, and Julia Sidman, a forestry program manager for the Butte County Resource Conservation District talk about the work that's needed to…
#Campfire, #PrescribedFire, #ControlledBurn, #PileBurning, #Wildfire, #WildfireRiskReduction, #WildfireCrisis, #Fire, #PlumasNationalForest

National Incident Management Organization - Programs

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NIMO team members work on incident response approximately 10% of the time, and when mobilized, it is usually under special circumstances such as:Early or late season fires when many resources are not available.Long-term fires, (often at the end of the season). NIMO personnel are available for mobilization full time, year-round, making them an ideal resource for long duration events.Merging with a…
#Fire, #NationalIncidentManagementOrganization, #NationalIncidentManagementSystem, #FireAndAviationManagement, #WildfireRiskReduction

Keeping the lights on and the fires out in rural Montana

Image shows a man and a woman in hard hats and safety gear looking on as electrical utility work is done in a forest.
Wildfires are everyone’s concern—they threaten not just the forests in which they burn, but the lives, property and livelihoods of nearby communities. Many communities that live in the shadow of wildfire risk understand this danger and have banded together to address it. One such organization is FireSafe Flathead, which consists of local, county and state representatives, along with officials…
#CommunityWildfireDefenseGrants, #WildfireRiskReduction, #Wildfire, #Fire, #FuelReduction