Wildfire Wednesdays #109: Preparing for Spring Ignitions

April 6, 2023 marked the one year anniversary of the wildfire declaration for what would become New Mexico’s largest in recorded history: the Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon Complex. Many communities were, and are still, devastated by the immediate and post-fire effects, flooding, and massive impact to their way of life. Learn more about the fire, what is being done to recover, and reflections from a state representative one year later..

Happy Wednesday, Fireshed readers!

The strong spring winds and warming temperatures that have blown into New Mexico over the past few weeks let us know that wildfire season is just around the corner. In preparation, we will be presenting new information, as well as revisiting some Wildfire Wednesdays of the past, to discuss how to get ready and stay informed for ignitions, smoke, and flames in 2023.

Today’s Wildfire Wednesday features:

• Preparing your home for wildfire

• Safeguarding important records

• Upcoming webinars and learning opportunities

Be well and enjoy the blooms,

Rachel

Preparing Your Home for Wildfire

The Home Ignition Zone includes the immediate (0-5’), intermediate (5-30’), and extended (30-100’) hazard zones extending out from your home. Creating defensible space and reducing structural ignitability may mean working with your neighbors to clear debris and thin around your home.

Reducing Structural Ignitability
The Home Ignition Zone encompasses the concepts of home hardening and defensible space. Home hardening involves consideration for the materials used to build a structure, while defensible space involves clearing an area between a structure and the vegetation around it. By working on these two components, risk of home and structure loss to wildfire can be meaningful reduced.

Defensible space

Checklist from NMSU and Firewise® on defensible space actions that can be taken annually

Defensible space is the buffer you create between a building (such as your home) and the flammable grass, trees, shrubs, or any wildland area that surrounds it. This space is needed to slow or stop the spread of wildfire and it helps protect your home from catching fire - either from embers, direct flame contact, or radiant heat. Proper defensible space also provides firefighters a safe area to work in and potentially to defend your home.

Simple defensible space tasks to get you started on protecting your home include:

• clearing the 0-5’ home ignition zone immediately around the structure of all flammable materials including plants, mulch, grass, leaves, and debris,

• removing flammable materials from under your deck, and

• trimming trees.

Read more about home hardening and creation and maintenance of defensible space for homeowners, renters, and other residents on the FACNM Wildfire Resident Resources page, through NM Forestry Division, and in Wednesday blogs #101 and #91.

Home hardening

Home hardening addresses the most vulnerable components of your house with building materials and installation techniques that increase resistance to heat, flames, and embers that accompany most wildfires. Laboratory research and evidence from post-fire assessments have demonstrated that local ignitability of the home itself and the nearby landscaping are major factors determining home survivability in a wildfire. In fact, most homes ignite due to the ember storms that accompany a large wildfire, rather than the wildfire itself, and this home hazard assessment can help you evaluate whether your place of residence would benefit from home hardening.

Home hardening brochure courtesy of Santa Clara County FireSafe Council’s home hardening webpage

Simple home hardening measures to get started include:

• installation of fine mesh screens over existing home vents,

• moving outbuilding further away from your home, and

• ensuring that the bottom 6 inches of your home’s siding is covered with a fire resistant material.

Review the guidelines for home hardening and learn more about why homes burn, and what you can do to retrofit yours to be more resilient against wildfire, in this 2017 FAC Net article.

Meaningful projects you can complete in as little as 10 minutes

Even small actions can have a big impact on fire outcomes for your home, family and community. Whether you have 10 minutes or 10 hours to dedicate to wildfire preparedness, use that time increase your safety, strengthen community resilience and improve fire outcomes. Not sure where to start? Review the list of quick fire preparedness project ideas from the national Fire Adapted Communities learning network.

Safeguarding Important Records

Record keeping for fire safety

Keeping important documents with you when evacuating, or storing them digitally in cloud based storage can help support you in the wildfire recovery process.

Evacuating your home during a wildfire is chaotic, stressful, and harried - and in the rush to get to safety it can be easy to forget to pack your important documents and records that serve as proof of your own identity as well as the legality of your belongings. Below are 10 items that you should be sure to keep safe, if applicable, and how to store them ahead of time.

1. Insurance Info
   If you are a homeowner and your home goes through a fire, one of the very first things you’ll have to deal with is insurance. CBS recommends safe storage of “current insurance policies and agent contact information,” adding: “you’ll need this information right away if your house suffers damage in a fire.”

2. Property Deed and Car Title
   These prove you own what you own! The deed to your property and title to your care are necessary if you’re selling or refinancing your house or property or transferring the title for estate-planning purposes.

3. Medical Documents
   Documentation of your medical insurance - forms and copies of your insurance card - as well as “a list of your (and your family’s) doctors, prescription medications, and contact information for all pharmacies you use,” are important documents to keep safe for continuity of medical care, according to Legalzoom. “You may need these to get new supplies of medications you use on a regular basis.”

4. Birth Certificates
   A birth certificate is needed to obtain a passport, get a driver’s license or a marriage license, apply for government and private benefits (such as insurance and retirement benefits), enroll in schools or the military, and more. If you’re a parent, you also need your child’s birth certificate as proof of age to sign them up for elementary school or Little League. It’s not too difficult or expensive to get a copy of your birth certificate, so you can keep multiples in secure storage spaces such as safe deposit boxes and with family.

5. Passport
   A passport serves as proof of citizenship, will stand in for all ID purposes if your primary identification is stolen or lost, allow you to travel to other countries and back home, and come in handy whenever something requires two or more forms of photo ID.

6. Social Security Card
   Your social security card is needed to apply for a job or a driver’s license, register for college classes, possibly to apply for insurance or Medicaid, but your SSN (social security number) is needed in far more everyday situations.

7. Wills
   Most lawyers weighing in from the American Bar Association recommend keeping original wills in a law office’s safe or personal safety deposit box. Copies of the will may be kept in fireproof safes of the client as well as the executor, meaning that you should ensure that your will is kept safe in three different locations.

8. Financial Documents
   According to Legalzoom, you’ll want such things as “important papers related to investment accounts, retirement plans, bank accounts, and associated contact information” protected, whether or not your home is ever destroyed.

9. Other Legal Documents
   CBS lists other types of documents that you’ll want to keep well-protected: “powers of attorney, living wills, and health care proxies - both for yourself and for anyone else for whom you are designated attorney-in-fact or health care surrogate.”

10. Photos
    In addition to having your most treasured photos in your home evacuation kit, Legalzoom recommends keeping “CDs or an external hard drive containing digital copies of all family photos” - or other treasured photos - in your safe. Cloud storage, or off-site (online) storage that's maintained by a third party and an alternative to storing data on-premises, is a good alternative to keeping photos in a safe and is usually free to users (with some amount limits).

Document storage

From FAC Net’s Ideas for Wildfire Preparedness Day, one major preparatory action should be protecting your assets. These include:

Google Drive is one example of a cloud storage platform that you can use to backup your important documents digitally. Be sure to look around to find a platform that meets your specific needs.

• Backing up your important documents and photos to cloud storage to reduce the amount of physical material you would want to take if you need to evacuate. 

• Conducting an insurance check up to ensure your coverage is up to date and sufficient.

• Creating a video walk through of your home or an inventory list of belongings and upload it to cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive) instead just on your computer’s hard drive. 

• Securing renter’s insurance if you do not already have coverage and need it. 

Several of the points on this list point to the need to backup important files to cloud storage. Anything that you can’t afford to lose should be digitized and stored in a disaster-resistant location. We already talked about what cloud storage is in the section above, so now we’ll dive into how to find the right fit.

Price and security: many cloud storage options are free to users, with some amount limits. This article reviews some of the most secure cloud storage options and their costs. The amount of security needed will also vary depending on what type of digitized materials you are uploading to the cloud - family photos are important but not sensitive, while copies of social security cards, property deeds, and financial documents should have encryption and security at front of mind. Consider talking to your financial institution, legal executor, and other professionals in your life about storage options that they recommend.

Upcoming Webinars

Southwest Fire science

13 April at 12pm MDT: How wildfire policies governing management of natural ignitions have evolved over the past century - Zoom webinar with NAU’s Scott Franz.
Review of the history, policies, and challenges behind “managed wildfire”, the fire management strategy of leveraging natural ignitions for resource objectives and community benefit.

REGISTER NOW

11 May at 12pm MDT: Public Experiences with Wildfire and Flooding: A Case Study of the 2019 Museum Fire - Zoom webinar with a panel of researchers with NAU.

2 June at 12pm MDT: The Year Past and the Year to Come: 2022 Southwest Fire Season Overview and 2023 Fire Season Outlook - Zoom webinar with staff from the National Weather Service and Forest Stewards Guild.

Keep an eye on the Southwest Fire Science Consortium event page for more information and registration.

Local news

21 April at 12pm MDT: Use of prescribed fire on the Santa Fe National Forest - Facebook Live with Santa Fe National Forest staff and the Forest Stewards Guild.
A USFS panel will lead a discussion on 1) practices and procedural changes resulting from the 2022 national 90-day pause on prescribed burning, and 2) implementation of the seven tactical changes from an operational basis. The conversation will be moderated by FACNM.

GSFFC Member Organization receives $1.3 million in Community Wildfire Defense Grant funding to reduce wildfire risk to area

A wildfire risk mitigation fiscal award and Fire Adapted Communities Program Manager job opportunity are coming to the greater Santa Fe area!

A 1.3 million dollar grant awarded to Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coaltion member the Forest Stewards Guild (the Guild) will reduce the wildfire hazard for Santa Fe, Pueblo of Tesuque, Pueblo of Nambe, and surrounding communities. Under the eligibility terms of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG), this funding will support projects described in the 2020 Santa Fe County Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Over the next five years, the Guild and partners in the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition will conduct over 500 home hazard assessments and complete more then 125 acres of high priority fuel mitigation treatments. The Coalition will work to elevate public outreach and education while simultaneously increasing the number of Fireshed Ambassadors. Expansion of the Fireshed Ambassador program, which is based on the knowledge that neighbors are influenced by neighbors and that volunteer community leaders can multiply the efforts of subject matter experts, will foster Fire Adapted Communities. This work will be facilitated by a new Fire Adapted Communities Manager

The project will restore and maintain watersheds by expanding wildfire mitigation work in the federally-identified high-risk/state-designated priority landscape around Santa Fe. Implementation of fuels mitigation treatments will utilize a sliding-scale cost-share approach to distribute CWDG funding equitably to underserved neighborhoods and individuals. Fuels mitigation activities will include forest thinning, community chipping days, and removal of green waste through collection and disposal at county facilities.

Through the newly-minted CWDG program, the USDA Forest Service is investing $197 million in 100 projects across the U.S. Funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CWDG helps communities, tribes, non-profit organizations, state forestry agencies, and Alaska Native corporations plan for and mitigate wildfire risks as the nation faces an ongoing wildfire crisis. For more information on all funded proposals, visit www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire/grants/funded-proposals.

Wildfire Wednesdays #108: Legislative Updates

Happy Wednesday, Fireshed community,

This week is Southwest Wildfire Awareness Week and the theme for this year is “Preparing Together.” After a year that produced the most destructive wildland fires in New Mexico’s history, it’s important to look forward to the upcoming fire season. As families, neighborhoods, communities, and shared partners across the southwest, we resolve to remind ourselves to be conscious of fire, and to help spread that message of awareness. This year, New Mexico is preparing together.

This week’s Wildfire Wednesdays will focus on sharing some legislative updates. Collective action initiatives, like FACNM, have the ability to amplify issues and interests into the policy sphere and effect change from the top-down. While FACNM has not typically delved into the policy sphere, an important starting point for influencing this type of change is to be aware of existing legislation and initiatives that relate to fire and forestry work. With that in mind, this week’s Wildfire Wednesday will focus on sharing updates from our partners at New Mexico State Forestry Division about recently legislation.

Please stay tuned for a webinar this May for a FACNM webinar with New Mexico State Forestry Division where we will share updates on recent legislation.

This week’s Wildfire Wednesday includes a bit of information on the following:

• Senate Bill 206 to create a Forestry Division Procurement Exemption

• Senate Bill 9 to Create Legacy Permanent Funds 

• House Bill 195, Forest Conservation Act Amendments 

Best,

Gabe

SB 206 - Forest Restoration Procurement Code Exemption

What does SB 206 do?

Click here to download the full fact sheet from New Mexico State Forestry.

SB 206 will provide the Forestry Division of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) with a narrow exemption from the state procurement code.

The exemption will be only for contracts that distribute federal grants to non-governmental entities when selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or Department of the Interior through the federal agencies’ own competitive application and selection processes.

The Forestry Division serves as the fiscal agency for grant programs established by federal legislation but eligible applicants are not receiving funds because of a conflict with the state procurement code.

SB 206 fixes this problem and makes sure wildfire prevention and forest restoration grants can be distributed to eligible NGOs.

• In 2022 alone, more than $250 million of federal funding was available for forest restoration and community wildfire protection projects with NGOs as eligible applicants. More than $1 billion of federal funding for these programs will be available over the next 10 years.

• The narrow procurement code exemption in SB 206 will allow the Forestry Division to rely upon the federal agencies’ application and competitive selection processes and enter and administer contracts with NGO subgrantees selected by the federal agencies through those processes.

• Without this narrow procurement code exemption, the Forestry Division is unable to contract and administer subgrants for NGO entities the federal agencies have selected through the federal agencies’ own application and selection processes.

• The proposed exemption would not reduce transparency or oversight because it is narrow and limited to circumstances where there is a robust federal selection process.

To download the full fact sheet about SB 206 from New Mexico State Forestry Division, click here.

Senate Bill 9 - Creating Legacy Permanent Funds 

Click here for the full fact sheet from Michell Lujan Grisham’s office.

What is the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund?

The Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund will be the first state fund solely dedicated to conserving our state’s land and water. Because New Mexico does not have a dedicated state funding stream for land and water conservation, we often have trouble raising federal matching dollars for programs that could better protect communities from wildfire, flood and drought, safeguard our water supplies for urban and rural areas, support our agricultural communities, and grow our outdoor recreation economy.

The Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund will change that, dedicating state funding for existing land and water stewardship programs through a historic investment that will leverage millions of federal dollars and reach all 33 counties and Tribal communities. This will help preserve our cultural heritage and outdoor traditions, leaving a legacy for our children to hunt, fish, farm, ranch, and enjoy the lands and waters the way our ancestors have for generations.

How will it work?

The Fund will not create new programs – instead, it will provide a stable source of funds for programs already administered by six state agencies: the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Economic Development Department, the New Mexico Environment Department, the Department of Game & Fish, and the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. These programs have a proven track record of success and are popular in local communities. However, they have never been funded to their full potential. Approving the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund will boost funding for important programs in the following manner:

• EMNRD will receive a 141% overall increase, including a 71% increase for Forest and Watershed Restoration Act programs and consistent funding for Natural Heritage Conservation Act programs for the first time.

• NMDA will receive a 331% overall increase, including a 158% increase in Soil & Water Conservation District funding, a 51% increase in funding for the Healthy Soils Program, and consistent stateappropriated funding for the Noxious Weed Management Program.

• NMED River Stewardship program will receive an 83% increase.

• EDD Outdoor Recreation Division will receive a 450% overall increase, with a 44% increase for the Outdoor Equity Fund and a 470% increase for Special Projects and the Outdoor Infrastructure Fund.

• DCA will receive the first consistent state funding for Cultural Properties Protection Act programs.

• DGF will receive consistent state appropriations for the Game Protection Fund that will be in addition to receipts from license fees and federal grants.

HB 195 - Forest Conservation Act Amendments

Click here to download the full fact sheet from New Mexico State Forestry Division

Why do we need the forest conservation act?

The Forest Conservation Act (FCA), which dates to 1939, is the “organic act” for the Forestry Division within EMNRD. Minor updates to the FCA were made in 1959, 1961, 1967, 1979 and 1987. More than 35 years have passed since the last updates to the FCA, which as currently written is overly focused on commercial forestry and fire suppression.

The 2022 wildfires and post-fire floods provided clear evidence that the needs of New Mexico’s forests are broader than timber production and putting out fires. For example, the FCA does not clearly authorize the Division’s current work on forest health, forest and watershed restoration, or post-fire recovery.

Furthermore, the proposed amendment is also needed to memorialize that the State of New Mexico is authorized to accept federal funding assistance to states under the federal Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978. The FCA currently cites two federal laws – the Cooperative Forest Management Act and the Forest Pest Control Act – that have been repealed.

What does the HB 195 accomplish?

HB 195 will update the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) to:

• cite the correct federal laws that provide federal forestry funding assistance to states;

• strike outdated language that conflicts with current state and federal policies;

• and strike definitions that are not used. forest fire suppression rehabilitation and repair; post-fire slope stabilization, erosion control, riparian restoration, seeding and reforestation of burned areas; and forest conservation and forest health.

The amendments in HB 195 will also recognize that the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD), Forestry Division is the contracting agent for the state for:

• The amendments will also recognize that the Forestry Division has authority for forest fire suppression and rehabilitation and repair as part of its existing authority to suppress forest fires.

• Finally, HB 195 will clarify the grant of authority to the Forestry Division to include conserving forest and forest resources and providing technical assistance to mitigate and adapt to changing climatic conditions.

The amendments will also recognize that the Forestry Division has authority for forest fire suppression and rehabilitation and repair as part of its existing authority to suppress forest fires.

Finally, HB 195 will clarify the grant of authority to the Forestry Division to include conserving forest and forest resources and providing technical assistance to mitigate and adapt to changing climatic conditions.

Wildfire Wednesdays #107: Legacies of Land Management - Fire Exclusion vs. Fire Suppression

Happy Wednesday, Fireshed community!

Last month we covered the difference between two parts of the fire management triangle - ignitions prevention and fuels reduction. Today we will be discussing the last piece of that triangle - fire suppression - and how it differs from fire exclusion. The West has a long and complicated history with both suppression and exclusion, and this history influences how hot, fast, and frequently wildfires burn in the current day.

Today’s Wildfire Wednesday features:

• A brief history of wildfire in the West

• Differences between fire exclusion and fire suppression

• Upcoming webinars and workshops

Take care as spring rolls in,

Rachel

---

Wildfire in the West

European colonization

Homo sapiens, and before them Homo erectus, have been using fire for more than 400,000 years​. Indigenous peoples across the continent have been using fire since at least 12,550 BCE for a range of objectives such as hunting, crop management, increased plant yield, pest management, fire hazard reduction, and warfare, ​as well as managing fuels around communities. Early Americans selectively controlled fires burning close to or threatening their communities but left others to burn uninhibited. As explained by the Karuk Tribe Climate Change Projects, “unlike widespread conceptions of fire as ‘bad,’ fire is an essential component of [our] cultural practice and ecosystem health. Fire is medicine. Fire is referenced in our creation stories and is part of our world renewal ceremonies.”

“Prairie Fires of the Great West” by Currier & Ives, 1871. Image sourced from Library of Congress.

Western expansion brought an uptick in fire activity due to land clearance, logging, agriculture, and railroads during Euro-American settlement, reaching a peak in the mid-1800s. Close to the end of that century, widespread domestic livestock grazing reduced grassy fuel loads, compacted soils, and greatly reduced fire frequencies. Landscape fragmentation from trail and road building and a sometimes-violent prohibition of indigenous burning practices further limited the spread of fire. By the 1890s, Euro-American settlement-colonization resulted in an emphasis on suppression of wildfires. (Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western USA)

The Big Burn

1905 marked the creation of the U.S. Forest Service, whose primary purpose was to "to sustain healthy, diverse, and productive forests and grasslands for present and future generations". Wildfire was seen as a threat to those productive forests. This mode of thinking was solidified five years later with "The Big Burn" in 1910, the largest wildfire in U.S. history which burned 3 million acres in two days and killed 87 people in eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana. The Big Burn prompted the conservation of America's forests and the creation of public lands but also ensured that over the next 90 years, suppression became the default land management approach to wildfire. This strategy was cemented into federal policy in multiple instances, the most notable of which was the US Forest Service’s 1935 implementation of the so-called “10:00 AM Policy”, dictating that all wildfire ignitions should be contained and extinguished by 10 o’clock the morning after they began.

As years passed and fires were both excluded from the landscape and actively suppressed, organic fuels accumulated on the forest floors, trees encroached into areas which were previously maintained as meadows by naturally occurring fire, and the West became increasingly more flammable.

Recognition of fire as a natural process

In 1968, the Park Service began to allow lightning-started "prescribed natural fire" to burn within predefined management units in the wilderness, a model which is still in play today. By the late 1980s, the departments of agriculture and the interior were reconsidering the fundamental importance of fire's natural ecological role, but it wasn't until 1995 that the Forest Service introduced legislation allowing lightning-caused fires to burn in wilderness. In 2000, the National Fire Plan was introduced to strike a balance between actively responding to severe wildland fires and their impacts to communities and ensuring landscape restoration through sufficient hazardous fuels reduction and firefighting capacity for the future. Fourteen years later, the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior worked with a collaborative interdisciplinary team to establish the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy "to safely and effectively extinguish fire when needed; use fire where allowable; manage natural resources; and as a nation, to live with wildland fire.”​ This 2014 document informs current central fire preparedness and response through three tenants:

1. Restore and maintain resilient landscapes

2. Create Fire Adapted Communities (FAC)

3. Safe and effective wildfire response

“In recent decades the U.S. government has officially accepted the idea of restoring fire to public lands wherever doing so will not endanger firefighters or nearby residents. That means using planned burns to clear overgrown lands and letting some wildfires in remote areas burn under supervision instead of putting them out.” Land managers face an increasingly complex set of circumstances as they try to reintroduce fire in a controlled manner to the fire-starved West: “residential development has spread into fire-prone areas, creating pressure to protect exurban homes, and climate change has made some areas, especially the West, hotter, drier and more fire-prone.” (Jennifer Weeks, The Fire Historian)

---

Fire Exclusion vs Fire Suppression

Fire suppression

Image courtesy of Alex Poli.
Shrubland fire near Carnuel, NM, 2022.

Fire suppression refers to a range of operations used to extinguish a wildfire or prevent or modify the movement of unwanted fire. Firefighters control a fire's spread (or put it out) by removing one of the three ingredients fire needs to burn: heat, oxygen, or fuel. They remove heat by applying water or fire retardant on the ground or by air. They remove fuel by cutting and digging to remove burnable vegetation with hand tools, by using heavy equipment like bulldozers to clear large areas of brush and trees, and by deliberately setting fires to rob an approaching wildfire of fuel (fighting fire with fire). (US DOI)

Fire suppression is needed to protect homes, businesses, recreation and cultural sites, and other values that could be at risk of loss when a wildfire burns through. Suppression puts an emphasis, first and foremost, on firefighter safety, while taking into consideration a plethora of other factors - location, timing, fuel type, resources available, and more. While the technology to assist with wildfire suppression decisions (such as PODS) is advancing, so is the cost; the total cost of wildfire suppression in 2021 was over $2.8 billion.

A coordinated effort to minimize the threat of wildfires made fire suppression the default response by federal, state, and local entities for decades, resulting in the near eradication of wildfires from the landscape. However, successful wildfire suppression has resulted in accumulated fuels that lead to larger and more severe wildfires in the long-term—what is known today as the “wildfire paradox.”

Fire exclusion

According to the US Forest Service, Fire exclusion is “the effort of deliberately excluding or preventing fire in an area regardless of [whether] the fire is natural or human caused.” Fire can be excluded through a number of intentional actions such as wildland fire control lines and environmental planning which designates some areas as protected activity centers. It can also be excluded unintentionally through activities such as landscape fragmentation and heavy grazing which removes all of the fine fuels, such as grasses and shrubs, necessary to carry low-intensity fire across the landscape.

“There have been marked human influences on western wildfires since Euro-American settlement, including increased ignitions (e.g., from forest clearance, agriculture, logging, and railroads), and fire exclusion. Other significant impacts on vegetation and fire occurred indirectly, such as changes in plant succession pathways and the introduction of nonnative species.” (Long-term perspectives on wildfires) As ecosystems have evolved with fire, so too have the plants and animals. Human activities have altered many of the relationships between fire and plants and animals.

“The impact of fire exclusion on vegetation structure and composition [combined with drought, pests, and disease] leads to fuels that, when ignited, burn hotter, spread faster, last longer, and cover more area than they did under more natural conditions.” (NIFC, Communicator's Guide for Wildland Fire Management) The exclusion of fire from the landscape also creates a situation of denied access for indigenous and traditional communities to spiritual practices and traditional foods, puts cultural identity at risk, and infringes upon political sovereignty.

The takeaway

“There is growing recognition that past land use practices, combined with the effects of fire exclusion, has resulted in heavy accumulations of dead vegetation, altered fuel arrangement, and changes in vegetative structure and composition. When dead fallen material (including tree boles, tree and shrub branches, leaves, and decaying organic matter) accumulates on the ground, it increases fuel quantity and creates a continuous arrangement of fuel. When this occurs, surface fires may ignite more quickly, burn with greater intensity, and spread more rapidly and extensively than in the past.” (NIFC)

While wildfires must be suppressed sometimes in some locations, land managers are recognizing that we cannot continue to suppress our way out of increasingly severe and lengthy fire seasons. Mindful reintroduction of ecologically appropriate fire to fire-adapted landscapes, creation of resilient and fire-ready communities, and other climate resiliency work are all part of the solution.

---

Upcoming Opportunities

Webinars

The Skinny on Smoke - Outlooks, Education and Awareness
Join us as Air Quality Specialist Kerry Jones discusses various facets of smoke projections, including what goes into generating seasonal outlooks and fire weather forecasts, the weather conditions that are most conducive to fire and to smoke, and how determinations of air quality are made along with the decision to send air quality advisory alerts out to the public.

When: Thursday, March 16, 2023, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Where: Virtual Zoom event - register now

Strategies to reduce wildfire smoke in frequently impacted communities
The SW and NW Fire Science Consortiums and Forest Stewards Guild present a one-hour webinar with USFS speaker Rick Graw on proactive and adaptive land management strategies to reduce wildfire smoke in frequently impacted communities. This webinar focuses on research from the Pacific Northwest but is applicable to land managers and fire adapted communities practitioners everywhere.

When: Tuesday, March 21, 2023, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Where: Virtual Zoom event - register now

Workshops

Ready, Set, Go! Wildfire Preparedness Workshop
Join us to take positive steps toward building a Fire Adapted Community! This workshop will feature information about wildfire risk in the Santa Fe Fireshed, a presentation by representatives from the Wildfire Research Center, a mini-training on how to conduct a home hazard assessment, what to include in a Ready, Set, Go kit, and much more. Get information and help from experts from the Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition, Forest Stewards Guild, City of Santa Fe Fire Department, and Villages of Santa Fe. This workshop is free and open to the public.

When: Saturday, March 18, 2023, 10:00am - 12:30pm
Where: Christ Church Santa Fe PCA, 1213 Don Gaspar Ave, Santa Fe, NM 87505

Wildfire Wednesdays #106: Smoke Exposure Mitigation

Hi Fireshed Community,

As seasons begin to change, and Spring brings warmer and windier weather, it is a good time to think ahead and prepare for the realities of the upcoming fire season. Smoke from wildfires and prescribed fires is a serious concern as it can cause or exacerbate health conditions for some people living in fire-adapted communities. Living in northern New Mexico we must accept that wildfire and smoke is inevitable but there are measures we can take to reduce our risk and health effects.

To support you in smoke exposure mitigation, this Wildfire Wednesdays includes the following:

• General info about AQI and PM 2.5

• Air quality information - Airnow.gov and Purpleair.com

• Smoke exposure mitigation

  • General air filtration

  • FACNM’s HEPA filter loan program

• Smoke forecasting webinar with air quality specialist Kerry Jones - March 16th

Stay Safe,

Gabe

Wildfire Smoke Basics

Wildfire smoke is a mixture of gases and fine particles from burning trees and other plant material. The gases and fine particles can be dangerous if inhaled. In wildfires, carbon monoxide is mainly a risk to people (like firefighters) who work near smoldering areas. Smoke can irritate your eyes and your respiratory system, and worsen chronic heart and lung diseases. The amount and length of smoke exposure, as well as a person’s age and degree of susceptibility, play a role in determining if someone will experience smoke-related health problems. If you are experiencing serious medical problems for any reason, seek medical attention immediately.

Air Quality Index (AQI)

Think of the AQI as a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.

For each pollutant an AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to an ambient air concentration that equals the level of the short-term national ambient air quality standard for protection of public health. AQI values at or below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory. When AQI values are above 100, air quality is unhealthy: at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as AQI values get higher.

The AQI is divided into six categories. Each category corresponds to a different level of health concern. Each category also has a specific color. The color makes it easy for people to quickly determine whether air quality is reaching unhealthy levels in their communities.

Particulate Matter and PM 2.5

The particulate matter (also called “PM”) in wildfire smoke poses the biggest risk to the public’s health. The potential health effects vary based on the type of plants burning, atmospheric conditions and, most importantly, the size of the particles. Particles larger than 10 micrometers usually irritate only the eyes, nose and throat. Fine particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller (PM2.5) can be inhaled into the deepest part of the lungs, and may cause greater health concern.

Air Quality Information Sources

The first step to mitigating your smoke exposure is getting up-to-date, accurate information about air quality in your area. To support you in finding the best available data, we would like to introduce Airnow.gov for local AQI information and purpleair.com for information

What is Airnow.gov?

AirNow is your one-stop source for air quality data. Our recently redesigned site highlights air quality in your local area first, while still providing air quality information at state, national, and world views. A new interactive map even lets you zoom out to get the big picture or drill down to see data for a single air quality monitor.

AirNow reports air quality using the official U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI), a color-coded index designed to communicate whether air quality is healthy or unhealthy for you. When you know the AQI in your area, you can take steps to protect your health.

Click here to visit, airnow.gov.

What is Purpleair.com?

PurpleAir makes sensors that empower Community Scientists who collect hyper-local air quality data and share it with the public. PurpleAir's sensors measure particle pollution (PM2.5) both indoors and outdoors.

PurpleAir is built on the ideal of sharing data and by doing this, empowering individuals to effect change. All public PurpleAir data is available to download under various licenses from private, not for profit use to educational and commercial use.

Click here to visit purpleair.com.

Smoke Exposure Mitigation

One of the best ways to reduce the impact of smoke is by reducing the amount of smoke that enters your building and filtering harmful particles from the air. If you have a central air conditioning system in your home, set it to re-circulate or close outdoor air intakes to avoid drawing in smoky outdoor air.  Upgrading the filter efficiency of the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system and changing filters frequently during smoke events greatly improves indoor air quality.  

Smaller portable air cleaners are a great way to provide clean air in the areas where you spend most of your time. Essentially these are filters with an attached fan that draws air through the filter and cleans it.  These cleaners can help reduce indoor particle levels, provided the specific air cleaner is properly matched to the size of the indoor environment in which it is placed, and doors and windows are kept shut. They should be placed in the bedrooms or living rooms to provide the most effectiveness. 

When air quality improves, such as during a wind shift or after a rain, make sure to use natural ventilating to flush out the air in your building. 

The Winix 5300-2 and 5500 is what FACNM uses for our HEPA loan program

Selecting a Filter - For either portable filters or HVAC filters make sure to select a filter that is true HEPA or has a MERV rating of 13 or higher. These ratings refer to the size of particles that the filter will remove from the air and in this case they are certified to remove particles down to .3 microns in size. This is the minimum needed to remove the small harmful particles in smoke.

When selecting a portable filter, the other rating to pay attention to is CADR or Clean Air Delivery Rate. This refers to the volume of air that passes trough the unit. A CADR of 200 means the unit provides 200 cubic feet of clean air per minute, and often this number is equated to the room size that it will effectively purify the air in. In a 300 sq foot room a filter with a rating of 200 CADR will cycle the air through the filter 4-5 times per hour. While any filter will provide clean air those with lower CADRs will simply work more slowly. Lastly, make sure to avoid filters that claim to produce ozone to destroy pathogens, as ozone is a respiratory irritant. 

More information about filters and guides to selecting one can be found in the Resources section below.  

Face Masks - Face masks can be an effective way to reduce your exposure to smoke when they are fit correctly and are the proper rating. Make sure the mask you use is rated at least N95 or N100 and that you take care to fit it properly. These masks will filter out the small particles that are the most hazardous to your health. Paper masks only filter out large particles and will not provide the filtration needed to protect you from smoke. 

HEPA Filter Loan Program

With support from the New Mexico State University, the national Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network, and the Forest Stewards Guild, FACNM is pleased to offer this pilot HEPA Filter Loan program. These filters are available to smoke sensitive individuals during periods of smoke impacts in some areas of Northern New Mexico, but we hope to expand to more areas soon. We have a small amount of portable air cleaners that will filter the air in a large room such as a living room or bed room. These will be distributed on a first come- first served basis for predetermined time periods. You will need to provide contact info and come to office listed for your area to sign for the filter and pick it up.  Please look over the HEPA Air Filter Check-Out Contract.

To view contact information for the HEPA loan program in your area, visit the FACNM smoke page.

For general information about the program contact Gabe Kohler at the Forest Stewards Guild at gabe@forestguild.org.

Upcoming Events

Webinar: The Skinny on Smoke - Outlooks, Education and Awareness

Thursday, March 16, 2023 2:00 PM 3:00 PM

Click here for full event information and to register.

Where there is fire there is smoke, and where there is smoke there are potential impacts on air quality!

How do we know when, where, and for how long our communities are likely to be exposed?

In this one-hour presentation, Air Quality Specialist Kerry Jones will discuss various facets of smoke projections, including what goes into generating seasonal outlooks and fire weather forecasts, the weather conditions that are most conducive to fire and to smoke, and how determinations of air quality are made along with the decision to send air quality advisory alerts out to the public.

Please join us to learn about the operational side of smoke forecasting, followed by a facilitated Q&A session where attendees may pose their questions to the presenter.

When: Thursday, March 16th from 2-3pm MT
Where: Zoom and FACNM Facebook Live
Who: Kerry Jones, USFS Air Quality Specialist