August 19, 2021 • 48 mins
Host Megan Kay talks with Gwen Sanchez, Fire Management Officer with the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, and Paul Peterson, the Nevada State Fire Management Officer with the Bureau of Land Management about managing fire in Nevada. They explain how agencies work together throughout the state to respond to fire, restore landscapes and mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfire.
For more full episode details including the transcript, visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/9057222
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Megan Kay (00:19):
Welcome to the Living with Fire Podcast, where we
share stories and resources tohelp you live more safely with
wildfire. Hi, I'm Megan Kay,your host and Outreach
Coordinator for the Living withFire Program, and I'm joined
today by Jamie Royce my boss,manager of the Living with Fire
Program. Hi, Jamie.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (00:37):
Hey, Megan.
Megan Kay (00:38):
We're here to talk about our interview with Paul
Peterson, Nevada State FireManagement Officer with the
Bureau of Land Management inNevada, and Gwen Sanchez, Fire
Management Officer of theHumboldt-Toiyabe National
Forest. We got to talk withthese two folks about fire
management in Nevada, becausethey both are fire management
officers, and I recently metthem in my position as Outreach
(01:00):
Coordinator. I've been with theprogram for about a year and a
half, but Jamie, you've had theopportunity to work with Gwen
and Paul for a while, so Ireally just valued your input on
the interview, and I wanted toget your take on what they said
and what, you know, get a littlepreview of what the listeners
can look forward to.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (01:22):
You know, I, actually I Gwen started
relatively recently. I haven'tmet her until the summer of
2021, but Paul, yeah, I'veworked with Paul for a few
years, and these are awesomepartners of ours. It was great
(01:42):
to listen to these federalpartners about fire management
in Nevada. You know, one thingthat really struck a chord with
me, which I thought it wasreally interesting, was when
Gwen had crunched some numbersand talked about the main cause
of wildfire. So in national at anational level, 80% of wildfires
(02:04):
are caused by humans and 20% arecaused by natural causes, like
lightning. And the inverse istrue for Nevada, where 40% of
wildfires are caused by humansand 60% is occurs from natural
occurrences. And I of course,wanted to analyze that and
(02:25):
figure out, well, what? Why? Whyis it so different? And I don't
know. I mean, I It's like, Ijust want to toot my partner's
horns, like everybody does sucha great job on prevention, that
that's why the human causes aredown. I don't know. I'm sure
Megan Kay (02:39):
the moment, why didn't we do it. But I guess we
there'scan speculate that maybe it's
because Nevada has so muchpublic land. It's like 85%
publicly or, you know, federallyowned. So there's just not as
many people on the land asmaybe, like other states. But
yeah, those numbers are pretty,pretty crazy. And I like when
she went a little bit further.
(03:01):
This is a little bit of aspoiler, because it's a really
good quote of hers, but, and shejust talked about resources and
fire response, and just laid itout plain and simple with fire
prevention, which, you know, theidea that if you you know, if
you have this insane amount offires that are human caused,
that's a lot of time and energyand money spent on fire response
(03:25):
instead of proactive like fuelsmitigation projects. So she
basically said, like, Hey, ifyou guys start less fires, we
can restore these forests andthese these range lands a little
bit more, because we'll have theresources, but they don't really
have the resources when they'restretched so thin, responding to
(03:45):
all these kind of fires that arestarted by target shooting or
chain dragging, you know, orjust all the all the ways that
humans cause fires in thelandscape. And it was I thought,
that that really sunk in, and itmade me think twice about I
mean, I don't really do thatmany things on the landscape
(04:07):
that can start a fire, but I dolike to camp, and do have like,
like, enjoy campfire, so I'mdefinitely making sure I'm
bringing enough water to dousethat campfire. Thank you, Gwen
and Paul for that.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (04:23):
It just really resonated with me the
interagency collaboration thatthey have in the state of
Nevada, and that is key andpartners do such a great job at
Megan Kay (04:35):
Something that I thought was interesting too, was
it.
how the different strategiesthey're all integrated. So you
have, like, fire response withyour your crews and your engines
that are going out to respond tofire, but pretty much right
behind them, they're doingmitigation work, as if the if
they have the resources or not,mitigation, yeah, mitigation and
(04:56):
restoration work. So if there'sa fire, they're always. Thinking
about next steps. And I thinkthat's a really interesting way
of thinking about I don't thinkresidents and individuals
realize that that these agenciesare thinking ahead. It just kind
(05:16):
of these actions take a longtime. So that was I really liked
the way they laid that up. Yeah,so up next in the interview Gwen
Sanchez and Paul Peterson.
Enjoy.
Thanks for joining us. I'm MeganKay, the Outreach Coordinator
(05:48):
for the Living with FireProgram, and today I am joined
by Paul Peterson, the NevadaState Fire Management Officer
with the BLM, and Gwen Sanchez,the Fire Management Officer for
US Forest Service,Humboldt-Toiyabe National
Forest. Thank you guys for beinghere. Gwen And Paul, before we
(06:09):
begin with the questions, do youguys mind introducing
yourselves? We'll start withGwen. Can you kind of tell us
about what you do?
Gwen Sanchez (06:16):
Yeah. Hi. My name again is Gwen Sanchez, and being
the Fire Management Officer forthe Humboldt-Toiyabe I oversee
the fire, aviation and Fuelsprogram across the state of
Nevada and parts of California.
And so it's a matter ofcoordinating those efforts, not
only across the forest, but inan interagency fashion, to make
(06:38):
sure that all of those effortsare unified within our partners,
interest groups, different, youknow, interagency partnerships
to make sure that we've got thatcoordinated effort across our
landscapes.
Megan Kay (06:58):
And then Paul, what does your position look like at
BLM?
Paul Peterson (07:01):
So thank you so Paul Peterson, State Fire
Management Officer for BLMNevada, and similar to Gwen,
manage fire preparedness,suppression, hazardous fuels,
emergency stabilization andrehab, rehabilitation, fire
prevention efforts across BLMand BIA managed lands within
(07:23):
Nevada, and that that includesnot only working on an agency
basis, but definitely on aninteragency basis, with all of
our partners, both federal,state and local fire
departments.
Megan Kay (07:35):
Awesome. And then for folks who aren't familiar with
the landscape, could you guysmaybe just briefly describe
where the lands are that youmanage?
Gwen Sanchez (07:45):
Yeah, so I oversee lands that are administered by
the Humboldt-Toiyabe NationalForest. Some of those lands, the
majority of them, are dispersedacross Nevada, and we do have
some lands along the Sierrafront that do fall into
California. And so a lot more ofthe area that we're
(08:09):
administering on theHumboldt-Toiyabe is more over
story. Type of vegetation. We dohave some some trees, higher
elevation, type of scenarios.
And so as you move acrossNevada, it is very, you know,
hit and miss checker boardbetween BLM and, you know, US
(08:30):
Forest Service lands. And sothere is a lot of coordination
that has to happen just becauseof, you know, the variation as
you go across the state.
Megan Kay (08:43):
Paul, can you kind of give us an overview of the BLM
land in Nevada?
Paul Peterson (08:48):
So BLM land is little bit right about 47.3
million acres, and it is roughly67% of all lands that are within
Nevada. And it ranges. There'sBLM land in every single county
across Nevada, and it rangesfrom annual and perennial
grasslands to sagebrush,sagebrush steppe, Pinyon-Juniper
(09:12):
and then timber types on higherelevations.
Megan Kay (09:16):
Thanks, Paul. I'll have more questions about those
fields in a bit. Right now, Iwanted to ask about what your
agencies do to respond towildfires when they happen.
Paul Peterson (09:25):
So, you know, wildfire knows no boundaries,
and it doesn't have theconsideration to either start on
public or private land, and itreally depends on where it is
across the state. But you know,we work in conjunction with all
of our cooperators and partnersto respond to wildland fires
using closest resources that areavailable, and we work in
(09:48):
conjunction with our cooperatorsto suppress the fire in an
effective manner, using fireengines, dozers, aircraft,
helicopters, hand crews andwhatever else is out there.
Gwen Sanchez (10:03):
So our our effort is coordinated across the state
and really across the country,right? So, so what Paul said is
is 100% spot on it doesn'tmatter what color of engine or
where the fire starts, we'regoing to send the closest
resource to that fire to startengaging that fire the quickest,
right? So our our goal acrossour interagency partners
(10:26):
ourselves, is to keep firesmall, do the smallest degree
possible, and to try to minimizethe impacts that that those
unplanned ignitions have acrossour landscapes, right? And so
we, don't care necessarily, whatagency the fire started on.
We're sending the closestresources to try to be as
(10:49):
efficient and effective aspossible in putting those fires
out. In addition to that, I'lltake it one step further. Both
of our agencies work in afashion where we not only
support local jurisdictions andour local agency lands, but we
also, if we have the ability toand we have access resources
(11:10):
locally, if our conditions aresuch that we can support efforts
nationally, we will mobilizeresources nationally to support
larger incidents across thecountry. And so our firefighters
are trained not only to support,and you know, look at fires
locally, but also in aninteragency fashion to support
(11:34):
incidents across the country.
I'll take that one step further.
We also support differentrequests that come down, maybe
through FEMA vaccinationcenters, we do hurricane
support. We've done a lot ofdifferent support outside of
just suppression, and so ourfirefighters are some of the
most well trained, well rounded,you know, personnel that you'll
(11:58):
run across.
Megan Kay (11:59):
So you mentioned how your agencies respond to
unplanned ignitions, but Iwanted to address the role of
natural fire in the Nevadalandscape. Paul, can you
describe when fire is beneficialto the ecosystem?
Paul Peterson (12:10):
You bet. So, you know, obviously fire has been on
the landscape for a long time,longer than than we've been
here. And you know, most of ourfires historically, have been
natural caused frompredominantly lightning, mostly
lightning, and you know, it didfires in the natural ecosystem,
(12:33):
you know, burns off any of thegold grasses, burns off some of
the the old brush, andrejuvenates a lot of the range
lands that are out there.
Unfortunately, since it is anatural part of the ecosystem,
as you have repeated burns indifferent areas, it does affect
the soil. It does affect thevegetation type. That's one of
(12:54):
the reasons why either doingfire rehabilitation, which we'll
talk about in a minute, and oreffective fire suppression.
Megan Kay (13:04):
Yeah. And then in the Humboldt-Toiyabe, what do you
how would you describe the roleof fire in the ecosystem there
Gwen?
Gwen Sanchez (13:12):
I absolutely agree with everything you know. Paul
said it's, it's been here a longtime before we have been here.
There's a lot of positiveobjectives that come from fire
across our landscapes. You know,it's definitely reduces further
or future fire risk. If we caneliminate some of the fuels
(13:34):
upfront. It's, you know, has theability to to help us when we
are engaging in fires, firesuppression, to be able to use
those fire scars to ouradvantage. It helps with, you
know, resiliency within ourvegetation, just with that
nutrient cycling and trying to,you know, get some of those
(13:55):
nutrients back into the soils.
Helps with, you know, waterhealth and increasing the health
of our water systems, which alot of the water that comes
across, especially in the GreatBasin, comes off of our lands.
And so we want to make sure thatwe're maintaining the health of
that water system and justoverall ecological function. And
so I think the important partis, from from my agency's
(14:18):
perspective, is there are firesthat are unplanned, that are not
under the right conditions thatwe do need to suppress. And then
there is good fire. There arefires that we intentionally set
through the use of prescribedfire programs, and we do have
that across the entire state.
(14:38):
And there are fires that arenaturally ignited that as a US
Forest Service Agency, weconsider using those fires
because we we feel that thebenefits of monitoring that fire
across the landscape actually isworth the benefits versus
putting that fire out for a lotof reasons, the reasons that I
(15:00):
just mentioned, and so I thinkthat it's a fine balance
between, you know, playing andunderstanding the risk that
we're taking on associated withevery single incident and
ignition, and really trying towork hard to put the fires out
that present a risk to ourcommunities and to maybe allow
(15:23):
fire to play some natural role,even in in a unplanned scenario,
but especially in a plannedevent like a prescribed fire
event.
Megan Kay (15:36):
Communities located in wildfire prone areas need to
take extra measures to livesafely. There are many ways to
prepare communities andproperties for wildfire,
including creating andmaintaining adequate defensible
space and hardening homes towithstand wildfire. This could
mean altering or replacingcertain components of the home.
Our wildfire home retrofit guidewill help you better prepare
your home and communities forwildfire. You can find the guide
(16:00):
in the resources section of ourwebsite at livingwithfire.com.
I'd like to quickly unpack whatyou meant when you mentioned
resiliency in the landscape.
What is a resilient landscape?
Paul Peterson (16:15):
This could be a whole podcast on itself of
really, you know, what is aresilient landscape and and what
is that difference between therangeland forest? And then if
you throw a wildland urbaninterface in the mix, you you
probably have your own podcastseries that we could talk about.
Megan Kay (16:32):
Inspiration for next season.
Paul Peterson (16:34):
Exactly. And so, you know, really focused on what
is a resilient landscape, andI'll focus on non wildland urban
interface areas. So in in therangeland, it is, you know, it's
an area that can support firewithout adverse impacts to the
land. And so if that is an areawhere we can get rid of some
(16:58):
some grass or brush that reallymakes a resilient landscape. And
then moving into the wildlandurban interface, when we talk
about resiliency, you know,encouraging homeowners to have
that defensive space. And youknow, planting, planting and or
removing plants that you knowwill help their home become more
(17:19):
resilient. So having, you know,30 foot clearance, removing
overhead branches and havinggrasses that are in there that
hold the moisture a little bitlonger to support that
resiliency within the wildlandurban interface.
You bet.
Megan Kay (17:33):
Awesome. Thanks for going on that detour with me.
Does anybody elsewant to add anything? Or if not,
then I just want to kind of diveinto what are the main causes of
wildfires.
Gwen Sanchez (17:52):
So like Paul said, earlier, wildfire has played.
Fire has played a role in ourlandscape lot longer than than
we've been, you know, across ourlandscapes. And so it's
historically always been here. Ijust worked with the news
station out of Las Vegas acouple weeks ago, and so I did
(18:14):
some number crunching to seewhere we're at nationally, not
specific to Nevada. Butnationally, about 80% of our
fires are human caused, and 20%are natural type of ignitions.
Within Nevada, that number islower, which is a great thing,
but still, 40% of our firesacross Nevada, you know, plus or
(18:36):
minus a few percentagesdepending on the year. But you
look at a 10 year average, it'sover 40% of our fires are human
caused 60% natural ignition. Andso I do think that we still have
a long ways to go in order totry to help not only educate but
prevent those unwanted fires.
You know, a lot of times, thoseare the fires that that do cause
(19:01):
us, you know, a lot ofsuppression issues and
resistance to suppression. Andyou know, are not always the
fires that you know come withmoisture, or, you know, have
some sort of naturalsuppression. You know, roll
around them, within theenvironment, and so they they
(19:21):
become problematic a lot oftimes. And so I think it's
really important that, as wehave this fire conversation, we
not only talk about, you know,suppressing fires, but we also
talk about what people can do tohelp this larger cause. For
every one of those, you know,fires that we have to respond to
that are not naturally ignited,it just takes those resources
(19:43):
away from, you know, what reallywe could be doing, either on the
suppression perspective or afuels perspective or a training
perspective, or you name it,right? And so just think about
what we could be doing if we had80% less fires nationally, or
even 40% less fires across thestate, it's pretty impressive
(20:06):
numbers.
Megan Kay (20:09):
Yeah, that's definitely something to think
about. All the fuels mitigationor, you know, fuels projects and
that you could be doing. We'llgo to the Paul for the next one
to start the next one. What doesthe BLM do? Like, what kind of
efforts do you engage in toprevent these human caused
ignitions?
Paul Peterson (20:28):
So we have a couple different fire prevention
efforts that that we havefocused on. One is the the One
Less Spark Campaign, and it is.
It's focused at, you know,whether that is a recreation, or
whether that is grazing, orwhether that is, you know, off
road vehicles on on public land.
(20:50):
And it is, it is focused ondoing your part and try, you
know, being responsible. Pickingup trailer chains. You're not
leaving campfires and no openfires that type of stuff to to
reduce the threat of humancaused fires. We have also done
a campaign where it's called theTake Aim Campaign, and it's
(21:12):
focused on shooting on publiclands and and we greatly value
our public lands and the abilityto recreate on them. We have
seen an increase, probably, inthe last 10 years, shooting
caused fires, whether that isfrom metal, metal tip bullets,
steel coat, steel jacketedbullets or exploding targets.
(21:33):
And you know that that's fine toshoot, you know, in public
lands, but you know where you'reshooting at. You want to make
sure that you have a, you know,an area that's free of
vegetation. And so we have, wepartnered with gun stores and
outdoor stores. We have, we'vehad targets made that you can
shoot at our targets all youwant, and at the bottom, it has
(21:54):
a bunch of tips of what you cando to help prevent wildland
fires. And so between those two,we have really focused on that,
trying to minimize those humancaused fires.
Megan Kay (22:05):
And then, Gwen, did you do want to describe what the
Forest Service does to minimizethose fires?
Gwen Sanchez (22:12):
Yeah. So a lot of the efforts that Paul just
talked about are interagencyefforts, right? And so again,
we, regardless of where thefires start. We share them and
and so we also feel it'simportant that we share trying
to prevent fires. One thing thatis really exciting that's coming
(22:32):
up here the first of May is weare partnering the Forest
Service, BLM, and some are otherinteragency partners on a
statewide fire prevention tourto kick off our fire prevention
awareness for the summer. Andwe're going to be visiting
communities across the state ofNevada to just try to educate
(22:55):
people on, you know, how to befire safe, how to do exactly the
things that Paul had justdiscussed, you know, what they
can do to help prevent fires aswe start to get into the summer
months. Last year was a heavyfire lift for us. And you know,
there was a we had a reallyactive fire season, and so we
partnered on numerous occasions,bringing additional support in
(23:19):
from across the country, to justhave more people in and around
campgrounds, to have more peoplein and around areas where we
know that, you know, we havethose, those people shooting in
and around, you know, areas thatjust are high public, high
visibility areas, just to try toencourage and and teach people
(23:41):
what to do to prevent that. Idon't know that there's, you
know, very many of those peoplethat are out to intentionally do
harm. I think a lot of it isjust they just don't know. The
other part that that we reallykind of struggled with, with
last year is we had a lot of newusers to our federal lands and
to just recreation in general.
And so just, how do we reachthose new users? And how do we,
(24:05):
you know, continue to spread themessage about how to prevent
wildfires? And so we work reallyclosely and and year round on
this effort, trying to justreach people and educate people.
It's a full time job reallyimportant to both our agencies
and and, yeah, it's, it'ssomething that I'm proud of,
(24:27):
specifically for what we've doneacross Nevada.
Megan Kay (24:31):
And is that, because of covid, that you had all those
users, those new users, becausethey are, you know, can't go
anywhere else, so might as wellgo outside.
Gwen Sanchez (24:40):
Yeah, you know, I think that there's probably a
lot to that I have not, youknow, asked that question, and I
don't know that for a fact, butwhen you're not able to go in
and around your communities,people get pretty sick of being
at home. And so what better wayto get outside and out of your
house than to go to the publiclands and recreate and just get
(25:01):
away from, you know, your house.
And so I do think that theincreases that we saw were
definitely tied to the pandemicand and I would think that
we're, we're likely going tosee, you know, a similar use
this summer as we continue tobe, you know, distanced in our
communities and in and aroundour towns.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (25:24):
Hey guys, Jamie Royce-Gomes, with the
Living with Fire Program, I amreally glad Gwen that you
mentioned the prevention team.
Right now I am knee deep inwebinar alligators figuring out
a group series that is going togo on this summer with Living
with Fire. And so we actuallyhave a fire investigator from
BLM, who's going to go over afire that he investigated, and
then he's going to bring onanother person from the
(25:45):
prevention team to talk about,you know, the risks of causing a
fire and and the ramificationsthat happens if you do cause a
wildfire, and what you can do toprevent such from occurring. So
it's just yet another great,great thing that the prevention
team is doing around Nevada.
Paul Peterson (25:46):
And you will be on that prevention team.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (26:04):
I don't know if I can we actually have an
issue of like, being in personright now with the.
Paul Peterson (26:12):
We'll see what we can do.
Megan Kay (26:15):
I like how I didn't even ask, is like, and you will
be on the prevention team justvolunteering people, thanks for
mentioning that, Jamie, I'mreally looking forward to that
webinar. I've know I have nevertalked to anybody about a fire
investigation, and I think itwould be really great to
understand how those work. Soyou guys have this educational
(26:38):
campaign, which is veryimportant, but you also do
impose fire restrictions onpublic lands during the hot
months. Can you guys describewhat those look like and what
people can expect when those arein place?
Paul Peterson (26:53):
So there's a couple different things that
really drive when we would usefire restrictions or not. And
you know, a couple of those islooking at what our fuel load
looks like on the ground, andthen also what our fire danger
looks like on the ground. Andyou know, if we have, you know,
as approaching into high firedanger, you know, Fourth of
(27:16):
July, middle of August, orsomething like that, where we
are seeing high susceptibilityfor ignitions, then we might
enter into fire restrictions.
And last year, we did it on astatewide basis, which is the
first time that we did that. Butusually it is really based upon
the individual BLM district orForest Service Ranger District
(27:36):
zone, where they go into firerestrictions, because as we, as
we move throughout the state,there's a lot of variability in
not only vegetation, but also,you know, fire danger. And so we
have to, we have to tailor thatso, so we don't impact the
entire state at once. You know,quite often Southern Nevada will
(27:58):
go into fire restrictions firstbased upon what their indices
are and what their vegetationis. And that wouldn't make sense
to do the same thing in Elko,where it's still green, like
Ireland up there. So we have toreally tailor it. And what we do
is we look at what are theconditions, what are what are
likelihood of public that areout there, and we tailor those
(28:20):
fire restrictions or fireprevention orders to match that.
And we might, we might bancampfires, depending on what it
is. Could be shooting explosivetargets. Could be, you know,
lighting dynamite on publiclands, you know, open welding,
grinding, you know, that type ofstuff. And so depending on on
(28:40):
what we're seeing, as far as theindices and or activities that
are out there and the risk thatthey might cause a fire, we
might enter into firerestrictions. And we do that,
you know, somewhere in thestate, on an annual basis, is
entering fire restrictions toreduce that risk to to other
general public and orcommunities.
Megan Kay (29:04):
So two questions, first, how, how would, how do
people learn about the firerestrictions, like, where do
they go to know which lands areunder fire restriction?
Paul Peterson (29:15):
So we have, we do press releases. So you pick your
pick your favorite press source,and you can probably find it
there. The best way to find itis through nevadafireinfo.org
and through Nevada fire info, wehave all of our current fire
information and firerestrictions that are on that.
Megan Kay (29:33):
And second question, why would anybody be using
dynamite on public land?
Paul Peterson (29:38):
There is, well, there is all, good question. But
you know, there's, there'sgenerally a reason for a rule
that's put in place, is becausesomebody's broke it, right? And
really what it is we're when weenter into fire restrictions we
are looking at is what type ofignition sources that are out
there, and is there ways that wecan prevent those ignition
(30:00):
sources.
Megan Kay (30:01):
Awesome. And then so it because nevadafireinfo.org is
an interagency effort, right? Soare those fire the
Humboldt–Toiyabe firerestrictions going to be on
there as well, Gwen?
Gwen Sanchez (30:13):
Yeah, it is an interagency and so all the
different agencies have accessto that. And last year, you
know, if you'd have went there,you'd have seen restrictions for
the Humboldt–Toiyabe, you'd haveseen restrictions for the BLM.
And we also work really hard,depending on the why, you know,
and sometimes the need, we maygo into statewide restrictions,
(30:35):
where we are, you know, acrossmultiple agencies, and aligning
that. We did that last year as aresult of covid, I think about
the mid April, first part of Mayor so, where we actually did go
into statewide restrictions onan interagency basis, just to
try to reduce, you know, and andhelp with the human caused fires
(30:57):
in that early season. And so weare all very active. There's a
lot of information on there.
We're working to do, you know,like an FAQ right now for
restrictions, because there'sjust so many questions and and
it's not one size fits all, andit's not always the same. And so
we've got, you know, level onerestrictions all the way to
level three restrictions. Anddepending on which level we are,
(31:17):
it, you know, limits differentactivities. And so I would
encourage all of our publics togo look at that if you haven't
already lots of information onthat website. And we hope to
continue to provide informationto that on an interagency basis,
so that you can go there andalso get links to other agency
information from that one stopshop site.
Megan Kay (31:49):
84% of wildfires nationwide are caused by people.
If you're planning on headingout and enjoying public lands,
visit nevadafireinfo.org andlearn how you can recreate
responsibly and do your part toprevent wildfires.
Let's move into talking aboutsome of the rehab efforts that
(32:12):
you guys do after after fireshappen. So after a fire occurs.
What, what do those rehabefforts look like? And also,
just maybe, for folks who don'tunderstand the term
rehabilitation, maybe dive intothat a little bit. And do we,
Gwen, would you want to gofirst?
Gwen Sanchez (32:33):
Yeah, definitely.
So, so rehabilitation, you know,it's, it's a hard one, because,
again, it's not one size fitsall, and it really depends on on
the type of fire and the trainand and the location and the
vegetation, and there's so manythings that go into that right
for for the Forest Service, alot of it has to do with
stabilization and just makingsure that the area has a way to
(32:56):
not be further impacted,depending on if we get, you
know, rains or whatever mightcome after that. And so as soon
as we and actually during theprocess of, of, you know,
putting a fire out and ignitinga fire, once we have that fire
to a point where we feel safewithin certain areas, we will
(33:17):
bring in specialists to comeexamine the area and see what
sort of, you know,rehabilitation efforts need to
be made in order to, you know,stabilize and prevent that area
from further impacts to, youknow, whatever Mother Nature
might give them at whateverpoint. And so we will bring
hydrologists in, we'll bringsoil scientists in we will bring
(33:39):
you know just differentspecialists that we see,
depending on what might bepresent. Last year, we had a
fire in the Southern Sierraarea, the Slink Fire, and we had
a very specific type of fish inthat area. And so we brought in
a fish biologist specific tothat area, just to make sure
(34:02):
that we weren't missingsomething that we were needing
to do in order to protect thatvery unique species to that
area. And so we will dodifferent things depending on
where we're at, what our areasof concern are. What do we have
any threatened or endangeredspecies in an area that we need
to be very cautious about, andwhat, what, what might we need
(34:24):
to do in order to protect thoseecosystems from any further
damage? And so that's really theway that we look at that. We
bring in those specialists. Itusually takes, you know,
anywhere from a couple weeks toa couple months, depending on
the incident and the size andhow many you know, of those very
unique ecosystems we need tolook at, and at that point, we
(34:44):
will submit a report, and, youknow, see what we can do to get
additional funding. And thatfunding is above and beyond what
we currently get funded for.
It's part of an emergencyresponse funding. Leading in
order to do some of thatrehabilitation across the
(35:05):
landscape.
Megan Kay (35:06):
And then, so Paul, why? Why is rehabilitation
needed like? So what wouldhappen if you didn't
rehabilitate the landscape aftera fire?
Paul Peterson (35:14):
So as Gwen said, it really depends on the area.
And it could be as simple as, ifit's in a watershed, a community
watershed. So there's, you know,quite a few communities that are
across the state. They theymight get their water from a
creek source and or groundwells. And if, if we have a fire
in that area, and it slicks offthe vegetation, we just have a
(35:38):
bunch of ash and silt that isthere that could totally impact
the community. It could alsoimpact debris flows. And so like
south of Carson City andGardnerville area and the pine
nuts, there's been a couplefires, and in the fall, they get
some big storms, and can createhuge debris flows, which can
(36:00):
also clog up either the potabledrinking system and or the
wastewater system, the stormdrain system, so trying to
minimize that the soil movementmore than anything else. And
that could be, that could beaccomplished through some some
interim steps of straw bottles,or, you know, some some
(36:23):
vegetation that is down there tomaintain that soil in place, but
then doing some seeding on topof that. And then hopefully,
hopefully, we have a wet winterwhere we have some grass growth
and it can stabilize that soil.
So not only to prevent that soilmovement and erosion, but also
to start rehabilitatinglandscape and bringing back good
(36:44):
grasses that are in there.
Megan Kay (36:48):
Awesome. And then, Gwen, you mentioned the the
Gwen Sanchez (36:49):
Yeah, so a lot of the large fires that we had from
Slink fire. Do you have anyother highlights or projects
that you working on right nowthat you want to talk about
last year, we have worked on,you know, rehabilitation efforts
rehabilitation projects?
over the last few months andthrough the winter. We just
recently got done doing someaerial receding on the Poleville
fire, you know, in the higherelevations. And again, you know,
(37:12):
as Paul mentioned, that that wasjust to try to get regrowth in
the area, to prevent movementsor or large runoff from
impacting, you know, the thecommunities in and around Reno
and and that may have beenaffected by, you know, the
Poeville fire. And so we willbring in any sort of of, we will
(37:35):
bring in BEAR, and BEAR is aburned area emergency
rehabilitation team. So we willbring in a team anytime there's,
you know, more than than acouple 100 acres on a fire, and
anytime we see, you know, aspecialist sees that there's,
there's any potential for, youknow, those different
(37:57):
environments to be impacted. Wewill bring in a team to do that
assessment and see what that is.
We have ongoing efforts acrossmultiple fires happening right
now. Like I said, Poeville,Slink. We've got efforts down
happening on the Mahogany firein Southern Nevada, in the Las
Vegas area. We've got effortshappening across the state right
(38:22):
now to to work on thatrehabilitation of those large
fires from last year.
Megan Kay (38:29):
And is it the same personnel that are doing the
wildfire response, or is itfirefighters or, I mean, you
mentioned there's the BEAR team,but so our, I guess the question
is, do your firefighters stay onyear round to help with those
rehabilitation efforts?
Gwen Sanchez (38:48):
So we do have firefighters that do stay on
year round. It kind of depends,again, on on what that
rehabilitation effort mayinclude. You know, if we need
people to be in on the groundand and rehabbing dozer lines,
for instance, to make sure thatthat, you know, we've got
material, material pulled backonto those lines, and that we've
(39:09):
got, you know, area for for thatwater to run off and it's not
going to run down dozer lines,and, you know, make big divots
in existing dozer lines that wewill utilize those crews in
order to do that. And a lot oftimes that efforts being done,
you know, before the fire, youknow, is even over, we're doing
(39:29):
a lot of that as we can, as soonas the fire activity allows us
to do that effort. And so it iskind of ongoing, really, from
the beginning of the incident,we start to look at that and
consider those needs clearthrough, sometimes several years
later, our folks, you know, willsometimes work on on those
(39:51):
projects, you know, three, five,ten years down the road,
depending on you know, what thatneed is on that specific
incident. Sometimes it'scontract work. Sometimes it is,
you know, internal our folksthat are doing that work. What,
what I think is important isthat we are bringing in
specialists that understand thesoil, that understand the the
(40:14):
biology, to understand, youknow, fish habitats, that
understand all of thosedifferent specialty areas to be
able to help us in make makingthose decisions and those
recommendations. And then, fromthat point, once we get those
recommendations and decisionsapproved, then we'll we'll
either contract that work out,or we'll do some of that work
(40:34):
ourselves, depending on what wehave the capacity to do.
Megan Kay (40:37):
And then, Paul, do you have any highlights on BLM,
BLM land that you'd like to talkabout, or projects going on.
Paul Peterson (40:45):
Yeah. So virtually every one of our
fires, I guess, not virtually.
We've been doing too muchvirtually over the last year, we
rehabilitate every fire thatthat we have. There's very few
that we don't. And so, you know,every single year we have a
rehabilitation program. And wedo have, we've got dedicated
individuals that are with that.
(41:06):
But as Gwen said, you know, someof our firefighters and fire
crews, they do participate inthe operational aspect
implementation of that. Youknow, probably a couple
different ones. That is Martinfire. And so the Martin fire,
that's the largest fire entirelywithin Nevada a couple years
ago, and so we're still workingon rehabilitation, on that, and
(41:28):
it is everything from aerialseeding to drill seeding,
herbicide treatments. One of ourpartners is Nevada Department of
Wildlife, and they have been ahuge asset for us, helping with
some of the seeding, aerialseeding, and providing some of
the seed for wildlife benefit,and, you know, just to maintain
(41:48):
the soil that's out there. Yeah,and so that's, that's probably
the biggest one that we're stillcontinuing to work on. But, you
know, we do work on, on almostevery fire that we have, there's
some type of rehabilitation withthem.
Megan Kay (42:02):
And imagine, with the frequency of these fires, you're
probably having fires burn inyour rehabilitation projects
too, which can be, I don't know.
Paul Peterson (42:10):
And so that is, that's it. That's definitely one
thing, you know, if, if we'reinvesting, you know, a million
dollars or so in rehabilitationof a fire, you know, we want to
protect that investment as well.
And so sometimes, as we're aswe're as we're building those
rehabilitation treatments, wemight also build in some
hazardous fuels treatments thatare in there, as well as putting
some some crested weed grassesor something alongside the
(42:33):
roadside, to something that'sgoing to hold the moisture a
little bit more and provide alittle bit more resilience. And
so trying to trying to keep theinvestment and trying to make
that landscape more resilient,as we talked about also.
Megan Kay (42:49):
Awesome. Well, thank you guys for letting me pick
your brains for 45 minutes andfor joining us. And I just
wanted to open it up and see ifanybody else had any questions.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (43:00):
Now, you guys keep bringing up stuff from our
webinars, which is reallyawesome.
Megan Kay (43:06):
Synergy.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (43:08):
I know, right. We are actually going to
be having an after the firerehabilitation webinar. It's
going to feature somebody fromNDF and somebody from NDOW,
Nevada Department of Wildlife,and they're going to be talking
about receiving a fire that Ibelieve, that the
Humboldt-Toiyabe has contractedwith, which is kind of cool. So
(43:30):
that's going to be happening inSeptember, I believe. Don't
quote me, but you know, Iactually thought about this. Now
I have. I'm going to switchgears on you guys. I have never
worked in another stateregarding wildfire preparedness,
but I have heard from folks thatthe interagency collaboration in
Nevada is top notch. Now I I'mnot asking either of you to talk
(43:52):
trash about any other agenciesin different states, but I was
wondering if you guys couldattest to that, that that piece
of information that I heard.
Paul Peterson (44:00):
Well, I've worked in Nevada my whole career, so I
couldn't tell you about otherstates, but I've heard stories.
You know, the what I do knowabout Nevada, though, is Nevada
is a huge state, and you know,we can't, you know, one agency
cannot do it by themselves. Notone fire department can do it by
themselves. And so, you know,it's not that we're forced to,
(44:21):
it's the right thing to do is,is to work together to prevent
wildfires and then also tosuppress wildfires. And you
know, if you don't get along,you know, before the fire,
you're not going to get along onthe fire, and that's not a great
spot to be in. And so, you know,we, we have, we have great
partnerships. We do a lot ofwork before and after the fire
(44:43):
season. Just to get ready forthe fire season. And we are, we
are in countless planningsessions, working on agreements,
working on strategies for fireprevention, working on
strategies for hazardous fuels,treatments, you know, year round
to get to when the fire seasonis and the fire season is
getting longer and longer, andso we've got shorter time to
(45:03):
plan, but it is. It's criticalfor us to have good partnerships
to work across those boundaries.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (45:11):
Gwen, do you have anything to add regarding
that?
Gwen Sanchez (45:14):
Yeah, so, so I have worked in five different
states and three different USForest Service regions, and I am
very, very thankful and and justproud to be in Nevada. It when I
came into Nevada, it was openarms. And, you know, the
communication here is just topnotch, and in our fire response
(45:35):
here is top notch. And I justappreciate that interagency
perspective and approach that wehave here in Nevada, you know,
as you travel into other areas.
And it's not always like that.
And sometimes there's a lot ofego in the way. Sometimes
there's a lot of, you know,pride in your single agency
(45:56):
that's in the way and and I justdon't see that here like I have
in other areas of the countrythat that I have worked. It's
pretty rare that I'll go a weekwithout talking to to Paul. I
talked to him probably as much,if not more than some of my own
staff within, you know, myagency. And so it's, it's a
(46:17):
really cool relationship we havehere. In addition, we've got a
lot of really active groups, youknow, the northern Nevada Fire
Chiefs group. We've got theSierra Front Fire Chiefs. We've
got, you know, Fire Chiefs thatare within Tahoe. And so a lot
of people recognize, and I can'tsay it enough, none of us can do
(46:40):
it alone. This is having to bean interagency approach, or none
of us would be successful. Oursuccess comes because we're
willing and able and and all seethe value and working together.
And that really is, you know,kind of the bottom line. And
that's not just the federalagencies. That's our state and
(47:01):
local partners as well. Thoselocal Fire Chiefs are at the
table. The states at the table,the feds are at the table. And
because of all that differentlevel approach really going
towards those same common goals,it's just allowed for a lot of
success on the ground. And soI've seen it work, and I've seen
(47:23):
it work less than what it workshere. And I'm really, really
happy to be here, part of thisteam, because it's a high,
highly functioning team, andwe've got great people that
really just want everyone to besuccessful. And it's a pretty
cool relationship and a coolplace to be.
Megan Kay (47:52):
Thank you for listening to the Living with
Fire Podcast. You can find morestories about wildfire and other
resources at livingwithfire.comthe Living of Fire program is
funded by the University ofNevada, Reno Extension Nevada
Division of Forestry, Bureau ofLand Management and the United
States Forest Service.
Welcome to the Living with Fire Podcast, where we
share stories and resources tohelp you live more safely with
wildfire. Hi, I'm Megan Kay,your host and Outreach
Coordinator for the Living withFire Program, and I'm joined
today by Jamie Royce my boss,manager of the Living with Fire
Program. Hi, Jamie.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (00:37):
Hey, Megan.
Megan Kay (00:38):
We're here to talk about our interview with Paul
Peterson, Nevada State FireManagement Officer with the
Bureau of Land Management inNevada, and Gwen Sanchez, Fire
Management Officer of theHumboldt-Toiyabe National
Forest. We got to talk withthese two folks about fire
management in Nevada, becausethey both are fire management
officers, and I recently metthem in my position as Outreach
(01:00):
Coordinator. I've been with theprogram for about a year and a
half, but Jamie, you've had theopportunity to work with Gwen
and Paul for a while, so Ireally just valued your input on
the interview, and I wanted toget your take on what they said
and what, you know, get a littlepreview of what the listeners
can look forward to.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (01:22):
You know, I, actually I Gwen started
relatively recently. I haven'tmet her until the summer of
2021, but Paul, yeah, I'veworked with Paul for a few
years, and these are awesomepartners of ours. It was great
(01:42):
to listen to these federalpartners about fire management
in Nevada. You know, one thingthat really struck a chord with
me, which I thought it wasreally interesting, was when
Gwen had crunched some numbersand talked about the main cause
of wildfire. So in national at anational level, 80% of wildfires
(02:04):
are caused by humans and 20% arecaused by natural causes, like
lightning. And the inverse istrue for Nevada, where 40% of
wildfires are caused by humansand 60% is occurs from natural
occurrences. And I of course,wanted to analyze that and
(02:25):
figure out, well, what? Why? Whyis it so different? And I don't
know. I mean, I It's like, Ijust want to toot my partner's
horns, like everybody does sucha great job on prevention, that
that's why the human causes aredown. I don't know. I'm sure
Megan Kay (02:39):
the moment, why didn't we do it. But I guess we
there'scan speculate that maybe it's
because Nevada has so muchpublic land. It's like 85%
publicly or, you know, federallyowned. So there's just not as
many people on the land asmaybe, like other states. But
yeah, those numbers are pretty,pretty crazy. And I like when
she went a little bit further.
(03:01):
This is a little bit of aspoiler, because it's a really
good quote of hers, but, and shejust talked about resources and
fire response, and just laid itout plain and simple with fire
prevention, which, you know, theidea that if you you know, if
you have this insane amount offires that are human caused,
that's a lot of time and energyand money spent on fire response
(03:25):
instead of proactive like fuelsmitigation projects. So she
basically said, like, Hey, ifyou guys start less fires, we
can restore these forests andthese these range lands a little
bit more, because we'll have theresources, but they don't really
have the resources when they'restretched so thin, responding to
(03:45):
all these kind of fires that arestarted by target shooting or
chain dragging, you know, orjust all the all the ways that
humans cause fires in thelandscape. And it was I thought,
that that really sunk in, and itmade me think twice about I
mean, I don't really do thatmany things on the landscape
(04:07):
that can start a fire, but I dolike to camp, and do have like,
like, enjoy campfire, so I'mdefinitely making sure I'm
bringing enough water to dousethat campfire. Thank you, Gwen
and Paul for that.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (04:23):
It just really resonated with me the
interagency collaboration thatthey have in the state of
Nevada, and that is key andpartners do such a great job at
Megan Kay (04:35):
Something that I thought was interesting too, was
it.
how the different strategiesthey're all integrated. So you
have, like, fire response withyour your crews and your engines
that are going out to respond tofire, but pretty much right
behind them, they're doingmitigation work, as if the if
they have the resources or not,mitigation, yeah, mitigation and
(04:56):
restoration work. So if there'sa fire, they're always. Thinking
about next steps. And I thinkthat's a really interesting way
of thinking about I don't thinkresidents and individuals
realize that that these agenciesare thinking ahead. It just kind
(05:16):
of these actions take a longtime. So that was I really liked
the way they laid that up. Yeah,so up next in the interview Gwen
Sanchez and Paul Peterson.
Enjoy.
Thanks for joining us. I'm MeganKay, the Outreach Coordinator
(05:48):
for the Living with FireProgram, and today I am joined
by Paul Peterson, the NevadaState Fire Management Officer
with the BLM, and Gwen Sanchez,the Fire Management Officer for
US Forest Service,Humboldt-Toiyabe National
Forest. Thank you guys for beinghere. Gwen And Paul, before we
(06:09):
begin with the questions, do youguys mind introducing
yourselves? We'll start withGwen. Can you kind of tell us
about what you do?
Gwen Sanchez (06:16):
Yeah. Hi. My name again is Gwen Sanchez, and being
the Fire Management Officer forthe Humboldt-Toiyabe I oversee
the fire, aviation and Fuelsprogram across the state of
Nevada and parts of California.
And so it's a matter ofcoordinating those efforts, not
only across the forest, but inan interagency fashion, to make
(06:38):
sure that all of those effortsare unified within our partners,
interest groups, different, youknow, interagency partnerships
to make sure that we've got thatcoordinated effort across our
landscapes.
Megan Kay (06:58):
And then Paul, what does your position look like at
BLM?
Paul Peterson (07:01):
So thank you so Paul Peterson, State Fire
Management Officer for BLMNevada, and similar to Gwen,
manage fire preparedness,suppression, hazardous fuels,
emergency stabilization andrehab, rehabilitation, fire
prevention efforts across BLMand BIA managed lands within
(07:23):
Nevada, and that that includesnot only working on an agency
basis, but definitely on aninteragency basis, with all of
our partners, both federal,state and local fire
departments.
Megan Kay (07:35):
Awesome. And then for folks who aren't familiar with
the landscape, could you guysmaybe just briefly describe
where the lands are that youmanage?
Gwen Sanchez (07:45):
Yeah, so I oversee lands that are administered by
the Humboldt-Toiyabe NationalForest. Some of those lands, the
majority of them, are dispersedacross Nevada, and we do have
some lands along the Sierrafront that do fall into
California. And so a lot more ofthe area that we're
(08:09):
administering on theHumboldt-Toiyabe is more over
story. Type of vegetation. We dohave some some trees, higher
elevation, type of scenarios.
And so as you move acrossNevada, it is very, you know,
hit and miss checker boardbetween BLM and, you know, US
(08:30):
Forest Service lands. And sothere is a lot of coordination
that has to happen just becauseof, you know, the variation as
you go across the state.
Megan Kay (08:43):
Paul, can you kind of give us an overview of the BLM
land in Nevada?
Paul Peterson (08:48):
So BLM land is little bit right about 47.3
million acres, and it is roughly67% of all lands that are within
Nevada. And it ranges. There'sBLM land in every single county
across Nevada, and it rangesfrom annual and perennial
grasslands to sagebrush,sagebrush steppe, Pinyon-Juniper
(09:12):
and then timber types on higherelevations.
Megan Kay (09:16):
Thanks, Paul. I'll have more questions about those
fields in a bit. Right now, Iwanted to ask about what your
agencies do to respond towildfires when they happen.
Paul Peterson (09:25):
So, you know, wildfire knows no boundaries,
and it doesn't have theconsideration to either start on
public or private land, and itreally depends on where it is
across the state. But you know,we work in conjunction with all
of our cooperators and partnersto respond to wildland fires
using closest resources that areavailable, and we work in
(09:48):
conjunction with our cooperatorsto suppress the fire in an
effective manner, using fireengines, dozers, aircraft,
helicopters, hand crews andwhatever else is out there.
Gwen Sanchez (10:03):
So our our effort is coordinated across the state
and really across the country,right? So, so what Paul said is
is 100% spot on it doesn'tmatter what color of engine or
where the fire starts, we'regoing to send the closest
resource to that fire to startengaging that fire the quickest,
right? So our our goal acrossour interagency partners
(10:26):
ourselves, is to keep firesmall, do the smallest degree
possible, and to try to minimizethe impacts that that those
unplanned ignitions have acrossour landscapes, right? And so
we, don't care necessarily, whatagency the fire started on.
We're sending the closestresources to try to be as
(10:49):
efficient and effective aspossible in putting those fires
out. In addition to that, I'lltake it one step further. Both
of our agencies work in afashion where we not only
support local jurisdictions andour local agency lands, but we
also, if we have the ability toand we have access resources
(11:10):
locally, if our conditions aresuch that we can support efforts
nationally, we will mobilizeresources nationally to support
larger incidents across thecountry. And so our firefighters
are trained not only to support,and you know, look at fires
locally, but also in aninteragency fashion to support
(11:34):
incidents across the country.
I'll take that one step further.
We also support differentrequests that come down, maybe
through FEMA vaccinationcenters, we do hurricane
support. We've done a lot ofdifferent support outside of
just suppression, and so ourfirefighters are some of the
most well trained, well rounded,you know, personnel that you'll
(11:58):
run across.
Megan Kay (11:59):
So you mentioned how your agencies respond to
unplanned ignitions, but Iwanted to address the role of
natural fire in the Nevadalandscape. Paul, can you
describe when fire is beneficialto the ecosystem?
Paul Peterson (12:10):
You bet. So, you know, obviously fire has been on
the landscape for a long time,longer than than we've been
here. And you know, most of ourfires historically, have been
natural caused frompredominantly lightning, mostly
lightning, and you know, it didfires in the natural ecosystem,
(12:33):
you know, burns off any of thegold grasses, burns off some of
the the old brush, andrejuvenates a lot of the range
lands that are out there.
Unfortunately, since it is anatural part of the ecosystem,
as you have repeated burns indifferent areas, it does affect
the soil. It does affect thevegetation type. That's one of
(12:54):
the reasons why either doingfire rehabilitation, which we'll
talk about in a minute, and oreffective fire suppression.
Megan Kay (13:04):
Yeah. And then in the Humboldt-Toiyabe, what do you
how would you describe the roleof fire in the ecosystem there
Gwen?
Gwen Sanchez (13:12):
I absolutely agree with everything you know. Paul
said it's, it's been here a longtime before we have been here.
There's a lot of positiveobjectives that come from fire
across our landscapes. You know,it's definitely reduces further
or future fire risk. If we caneliminate some of the fuels
(13:34):
upfront. It's, you know, has theability to to help us when we
are engaging in fires, firesuppression, to be able to use
those fire scars to ouradvantage. It helps with, you
know, resiliency within ourvegetation, just with that
nutrient cycling and trying to,you know, get some of those
(13:55):
nutrients back into the soils.
Helps with, you know, waterhealth and increasing the health
of our water systems, which alot of the water that comes
across, especially in the GreatBasin, comes off of our lands.
And so we want to make sure thatwe're maintaining the health of
that water system and justoverall ecological function. And
so I think the important partis, from from my agency's
(14:18):
perspective, is there are firesthat are unplanned, that are not
under the right conditions thatwe do need to suppress. And then
there is good fire. There arefires that we intentionally set
through the use of prescribedfire programs, and we do have
that across the entire state.
(14:38):
And there are fires that arenaturally ignited that as a US
Forest Service Agency, weconsider using those fires
because we we feel that thebenefits of monitoring that fire
across the landscape actually isworth the benefits versus
putting that fire out for a lotof reasons, the reasons that I
(15:00):
just mentioned, and so I thinkthat it's a fine balance
between, you know, playing andunderstanding the risk that
we're taking on associated withevery single incident and
ignition, and really trying towork hard to put the fires out
that present a risk to ourcommunities and to maybe allow
(15:23):
fire to play some natural role,even in in a unplanned scenario,
but especially in a plannedevent like a prescribed fire
event.
Megan Kay (15:36):
Communities located in wildfire prone areas need to
take extra measures to livesafely. There are many ways to
prepare communities andproperties for wildfire,
including creating andmaintaining adequate defensible
space and hardening homes towithstand wildfire. This could
mean altering or replacingcertain components of the home.
Our wildfire home retrofit guidewill help you better prepare
your home and communities forwildfire. You can find the guide
(16:00):
in the resources section of ourwebsite at livingwithfire.com.
I'd like to quickly unpack whatyou meant when you mentioned
resiliency in the landscape.
What is a resilient landscape?
Paul Peterson (16:15):
This could be a whole podcast on itself of
really, you know, what is aresilient landscape and and what
is that difference between therangeland forest? And then if
you throw a wildland urbaninterface in the mix, you you
probably have your own podcastseries that we could talk about.
Megan Kay (16:32):
Inspiration for next season.
Paul Peterson (16:34):
Exactly. And so, you know, really focused on what
is a resilient landscape, andI'll focus on non wildland urban
interface areas. So in in therangeland, it is, you know, it's
an area that can support firewithout adverse impacts to the
land. And so if that is an areawhere we can get rid of some
(16:58):
some grass or brush that reallymakes a resilient landscape. And
then moving into the wildlandurban interface, when we talk
about resiliency, you know,encouraging homeowners to have
that defensive space. And youknow, planting, planting and or
removing plants that you knowwill help their home become more
(17:19):
resilient. So having, you know,30 foot clearance, removing
overhead branches and havinggrasses that are in there that
hold the moisture a little bitlonger to support that
resiliency within the wildlandurban interface.
You bet.
Megan Kay (17:33):
Awesome. Thanks for going on that detour with me.
Does anybody elsewant to add anything? Or if not,
then I just want to kind of diveinto what are the main causes of
wildfires.
Gwen Sanchez (17:52):
So like Paul said, earlier, wildfire has played.
Fire has played a role in ourlandscape lot longer than than
we've been, you know, across ourlandscapes. And so it's
historically always been here. Ijust worked with the news
station out of Las Vegas acouple weeks ago, and so I did
(18:14):
some number crunching to seewhere we're at nationally, not
specific to Nevada. Butnationally, about 80% of our
fires are human caused, and 20%are natural type of ignitions.
Within Nevada, that number islower, which is a great thing,
but still, 40% of our firesacross Nevada, you know, plus or
(18:36):
minus a few percentagesdepending on the year. But you
look at a 10 year average, it'sover 40% of our fires are human
caused 60% natural ignition. Andso I do think that we still have
a long ways to go in order totry to help not only educate but
prevent those unwanted fires.
You know, a lot of times, thoseare the fires that that do cause
(19:01):
us, you know, a lot ofsuppression issues and
resistance to suppression. Andyou know, are not always the
fires that you know come withmoisture, or, you know, have
some sort of naturalsuppression. You know, roll
around them, within theenvironment, and so they they
(19:21):
become problematic a lot oftimes. And so I think it's
really important that, as wehave this fire conversation, we
not only talk about, you know,suppressing fires, but we also
talk about what people can do tohelp this larger cause. For
every one of those, you know,fires that we have to respond to
that are not naturally ignited,it just takes those resources
(19:43):
away from, you know, what reallywe could be doing, either on the
suppression perspective or afuels perspective or a training
perspective, or you name it,right? And so just think about
what we could be doing if we had80% less fires nationally, or
even 40% less fires across thestate, it's pretty impressive
(20:06):
numbers.
Megan Kay (20:09):
Yeah, that's definitely something to think
about. All the fuels mitigationor, you know, fuels projects and
that you could be doing. We'llgo to the Paul for the next one
to start the next one. What doesthe BLM do? Like, what kind of
efforts do you engage in toprevent these human caused
ignitions?
Paul Peterson (20:28):
So we have a couple different fire prevention
efforts that that we havefocused on. One is the the One
Less Spark Campaign, and it is.
It's focused at, you know,whether that is a recreation, or
whether that is grazing, orwhether that is, you know, off
road vehicles on on public land.
(20:50):
And it is, it is focused ondoing your part and try, you
know, being responsible. Pickingup trailer chains. You're not
leaving campfires and no openfires that type of stuff to to
reduce the threat of humancaused fires. We have also done
a campaign where it's called theTake Aim Campaign, and it's
(21:12):
focused on shooting on publiclands and and we greatly value
our public lands and the abilityto recreate on them. We have
seen an increase, probably, inthe last 10 years, shooting
caused fires, whether that isfrom metal, metal tip bullets,
steel coat, steel jacketedbullets or exploding targets.
(21:33):
And you know that that's fine toshoot, you know, in public
lands, but you know where you'reshooting at. You want to make
sure that you have a, you know,an area that's free of
vegetation. And so we have, wepartnered with gun stores and
outdoor stores. We have, we'vehad targets made that you can
shoot at our targets all youwant, and at the bottom, it has
(21:54):
a bunch of tips of what you cando to help prevent wildland
fires. And so between those two,we have really focused on that,
trying to minimize those humancaused fires.
Megan Kay (22:05):
And then, Gwen, did you do want to describe what the
Forest Service does to minimizethose fires?
Gwen Sanchez (22:12):
Yeah. So a lot of the efforts that Paul just
talked about are interagencyefforts, right? And so again,
we, regardless of where thefires start. We share them and
and so we also feel it'simportant that we share trying
to prevent fires. One thing thatis really exciting that's coming
(22:32):
up here the first of May is weare partnering the Forest
Service, BLM, and some are otherinteragency partners on a
statewide fire prevention tourto kick off our fire prevention
awareness for the summer. Andwe're going to be visiting
communities across the state ofNevada to just try to educate
(22:55):
people on, you know, how to befire safe, how to do exactly the
things that Paul had justdiscussed, you know, what they
can do to help prevent fires aswe start to get into the summer
months. Last year was a heavyfire lift for us. And you know,
there was a we had a reallyactive fire season, and so we
partnered on numerous occasions,bringing additional support in
(23:19):
from across the country, to justhave more people in and around
campgrounds, to have more peoplein and around areas where we
know that, you know, we havethose, those people shooting in
and around, you know, areas thatjust are high public, high
visibility areas, just to try toencourage and and teach people
(23:41):
what to do to prevent that. Idon't know that there's, you
know, very many of those peoplethat are out to intentionally do
harm. I think a lot of it isjust they just don't know. The
other part that that we reallykind of struggled with, with
last year is we had a lot of newusers to our federal lands and
to just recreation in general.
And so just, how do we reachthose new users? And how do we,
(24:05):
you know, continue to spread themessage about how to prevent
wildfires? And so we work reallyclosely and and year round on
this effort, trying to justreach people and educate people.
It's a full time job reallyimportant to both our agencies
and and, yeah, it's, it'ssomething that I'm proud of,
(24:27):
specifically for what we've doneacross Nevada.
Megan Kay (24:31):
And is that, because of covid, that you had all those
users, those new users, becausethey are, you know, can't go
anywhere else, so might as wellgo outside.
Gwen Sanchez (24:40):
Yeah, you know, I think that there's probably a
lot to that I have not, youknow, asked that question, and I
don't know that for a fact, butwhen you're not able to go in
and around your communities,people get pretty sick of being
at home. And so what better wayto get outside and out of your
house than to go to the publiclands and recreate and just get
(25:01):
away from, you know, your house.
And so I do think that theincreases that we saw were
definitely tied to the pandemicand and I would think that
we're, we're likely going tosee, you know, a similar use
this summer as we continue tobe, you know, distanced in our
communities and in and aroundour towns.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (25:24):
Hey guys, Jamie Royce-Gomes, with the
Living with Fire Program, I amreally glad Gwen that you
mentioned the prevention team.
Right now I am knee deep inwebinar alligators figuring out
a group series that is going togo on this summer with Living
with Fire. And so we actuallyhave a fire investigator from
BLM, who's going to go over afire that he investigated, and
then he's going to bring onanother person from the
(25:45):
prevention team to talk about,you know, the risks of causing a
fire and and the ramificationsthat happens if you do cause a
wildfire, and what you can do toprevent such from occurring. So
it's just yet another great,great thing that the prevention
team is doing around Nevada.
Paul Peterson (25:46):
And you will be on that prevention team.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (26:04):
I don't know if I can we actually have an
issue of like, being in personright now with the.
Paul Peterson (26:12):
We'll see what we can do.
Megan Kay (26:15):
I like how I didn't even ask, is like, and you will
be on the prevention team justvolunteering people, thanks for
mentioning that, Jamie, I'mreally looking forward to that
webinar. I've know I have nevertalked to anybody about a fire
investigation, and I think itwould be really great to
understand how those work. Soyou guys have this educational
(26:38):
campaign, which is veryimportant, but you also do
impose fire restrictions onpublic lands during the hot
months. Can you guys describewhat those look like and what
people can expect when those arein place?
Paul Peterson (26:53):
So there's a couple different things that
really drive when we would usefire restrictions or not. And
you know, a couple of those islooking at what our fuel load
looks like on the ground, andthen also what our fire danger
looks like on the ground. Andyou know, if we have, you know,
as approaching into high firedanger, you know, Fourth of
(27:16):
July, middle of August, orsomething like that, where we
are seeing high susceptibilityfor ignitions, then we might
enter into fire restrictions.
And last year, we did it on astatewide basis, which is the
first time that we did that. Butusually it is really based upon
the individual BLM district orForest Service Ranger District
(27:36):
zone, where they go into firerestrictions, because as we, as
we move throughout the state,there's a lot of variability in
not only vegetation, but also,you know, fire danger. And so we
have to, we have to tailor thatso, so we don't impact the
entire state at once. You know,quite often Southern Nevada will
(27:58):
go into fire restrictions firstbased upon what their indices
are and what their vegetationis. And that wouldn't make sense
to do the same thing in Elko,where it's still green, like
Ireland up there. So we have toreally tailor it. And what we do
is we look at what are theconditions, what are what are
likelihood of public that areout there, and we tailor those
(28:20):
fire restrictions or fireprevention orders to match that.
And we might, we might bancampfires, depending on what it
is. Could be shooting explosivetargets. Could be, you know,
lighting dynamite on publiclands, you know, open welding,
grinding, you know, that type ofstuff. And so depending on on
(28:40):
what we're seeing, as far as theindices and or activities that
are out there and the risk thatthey might cause a fire, we
might enter into firerestrictions. And we do that,
you know, somewhere in thestate, on an annual basis, is
entering fire restrictions toreduce that risk to to other
general public and orcommunities.
Megan Kay (29:04):
So two questions, first, how, how would, how do
people learn about the firerestrictions, like, where do
they go to know which lands areunder fire restriction?
Paul Peterson (29:15):
So we have, we do press releases. So you pick your
pick your favorite press source,and you can probably find it
there. The best way to find itis through nevadafireinfo.org
and through Nevada fire info, wehave all of our current fire
information and firerestrictions that are on that.
Megan Kay (29:33):
And second question, why would anybody be using
dynamite on public land?
Paul Peterson (29:38):
There is, well, there is all, good question. But
you know, there's, there'sgenerally a reason for a rule
that's put in place, is becausesomebody's broke it, right? And
really what it is we're when weenter into fire restrictions we
are looking at is what type ofignition sources that are out
there, and is there ways that wecan prevent those ignition
(30:00):
sources.
Megan Kay (30:01):
Awesome. And then so it because nevadafireinfo.org is
an interagency effort, right? Soare those fire the
Humboldt–Toiyabe firerestrictions going to be on
there as well, Gwen?
Gwen Sanchez (30:13):
Yeah, it is an interagency and so all the
different agencies have accessto that. And last year, you
know, if you'd have went there,you'd have seen restrictions for
the Humboldt–Toiyabe, you'd haveseen restrictions for the BLM.
And we also work really hard,depending on the why, you know,
and sometimes the need, we maygo into statewide restrictions,
(30:35):
where we are, you know, acrossmultiple agencies, and aligning
that. We did that last year as aresult of covid, I think about
the mid April, first part of Mayor so, where we actually did go
into statewide restrictions onan interagency basis, just to
try to reduce, you know, and andhelp with the human caused fires
(30:57):
in that early season. And so weare all very active. There's a
lot of information on there.
We're working to do, you know,like an FAQ right now for
restrictions, because there'sjust so many questions and and
it's not one size fits all, andit's not always the same. And so
we've got, you know, level onerestrictions all the way to
level three restrictions. Anddepending on which level we are,
(31:17):
it, you know, limits differentactivities. And so I would
encourage all of our publics togo look at that if you haven't
already lots of information onthat website. And we hope to
continue to provide informationto that on an interagency basis,
so that you can go there andalso get links to other agency
information from that one stopshop site.
Megan Kay (31:49):
84% of wildfires nationwide are caused by people.
If you're planning on headingout and enjoying public lands,
visit nevadafireinfo.org andlearn how you can recreate
responsibly and do your part toprevent wildfires.
Let's move into talking aboutsome of the rehab efforts that
(32:12):
you guys do after after fireshappen. So after a fire occurs.
What, what do those rehabefforts look like? And also,
just maybe, for folks who don'tunderstand the term
rehabilitation, maybe dive intothat a little bit. And do we,
Gwen, would you want to gofirst?
Gwen Sanchez (32:33):
Yeah, definitely.
So, so rehabilitation, you know,it's, it's a hard one, because,
again, it's not one size fitsall, and it really depends on on
the type of fire and the trainand and the location and the
vegetation, and there's so manythings that go into that right
for for the Forest Service, alot of it has to do with
stabilization and just makingsure that the area has a way to
(32:56):
not be further impacted,depending on if we get, you
know, rains or whatever mightcome after that. And so as soon
as we and actually during theprocess of, of, you know,
putting a fire out and ignitinga fire, once we have that fire
to a point where we feel safewithin certain areas, we will
(33:17):
bring in specialists to comeexamine the area and see what
sort of, you know,rehabilitation efforts need to
be made in order to, you know,stabilize and prevent that area
from further impacts to, youknow, whatever Mother Nature
might give them at whateverpoint. And so we will bring
hydrologists in, we'll bringsoil scientists in we will bring
(33:39):
you know just differentspecialists that we see,
depending on what might bepresent. Last year, we had a
fire in the Southern Sierraarea, the Slink Fire, and we had
a very specific type of fish inthat area. And so we brought in
a fish biologist specific tothat area, just to make sure
(34:02):
that we weren't missingsomething that we were needing
to do in order to protect thatvery unique species to that
area. And so we will dodifferent things depending on
where we're at, what our areasof concern are. What do we have
any threatened or endangeredspecies in an area that we need
to be very cautious about, andwhat, what, what might we need
(34:24):
to do in order to protect thoseecosystems from any further
damage? And so that's really theway that we look at that. We
bring in those specialists. Itusually takes, you know,
anywhere from a couple weeks toa couple months, depending on
the incident and the size andhow many you know, of those very
unique ecosystems we need tolook at, and at that point, we
(34:44):
will submit a report, and, youknow, see what we can do to get
additional funding. And thatfunding is above and beyond what
we currently get funded for.
It's part of an emergencyresponse funding. Leading in
order to do some of thatrehabilitation across the
(35:05):
landscape.
Megan Kay (35:06):
And then, so Paul, why? Why is rehabilitation
needed like? So what wouldhappen if you didn't
rehabilitate the landscape aftera fire?
Paul Peterson (35:14):
So as Gwen said, it really depends on the area.
And it could be as simple as, ifit's in a watershed, a community
watershed. So there's, you know,quite a few communities that are
across the state. They theymight get their water from a
creek source and or groundwells. And if, if we have a fire
in that area, and it slicks offthe vegetation, we just have a
(35:38):
bunch of ash and silt that isthere that could totally impact
the community. It could alsoimpact debris flows. And so like
south of Carson City andGardnerville area and the pine
nuts, there's been a couplefires, and in the fall, they get
some big storms, and can createhuge debris flows, which can
(36:00):
also clog up either the potabledrinking system and or the
wastewater system, the stormdrain system, so trying to
minimize that the soil movementmore than anything else. And
that could be, that could beaccomplished through some some
interim steps of straw bottles,or, you know, some some
(36:23):
vegetation that is down there tomaintain that soil in place, but
then doing some seeding on topof that. And then hopefully,
hopefully, we have a wet winterwhere we have some grass growth
and it can stabilize that soil.
So not only to prevent that soilmovement and erosion, but also
to start rehabilitatinglandscape and bringing back good
(36:44):
grasses that are in there.
Megan Kay (36:48):
Awesome. And then, Gwen, you mentioned the the
Gwen Sanchez (36:49):
Yeah, so a lot of the large fires that we had from
Slink fire. Do you have anyother highlights or projects
that you working on right nowthat you want to talk about
last year, we have worked on,you know, rehabilitation efforts
rehabilitation projects?
over the last few months andthrough the winter. We just
recently got done doing someaerial receding on the Poleville
fire, you know, in the higherelevations. And again, you know,
(37:12):
as Paul mentioned, that that wasjust to try to get regrowth in
the area, to prevent movementsor or large runoff from
impacting, you know, the thecommunities in and around Reno
and and that may have beenaffected by, you know, the
Poeville fire. And so we willbring in any sort of of, we will
(37:35):
bring in BEAR, and BEAR is aburned area emergency
rehabilitation team. So we willbring in a team anytime there's,
you know, more than than acouple 100 acres on a fire, and
anytime we see, you know, aspecialist sees that there's,
there's any potential for, youknow, those different
(37:57):
environments to be impacted. Wewill bring in a team to do that
assessment and see what that is.
We have ongoing efforts acrossmultiple fires happening right
now. Like I said, Poeville,Slink. We've got efforts down
happening on the Mahogany firein Southern Nevada, in the Las
Vegas area. We've got effortshappening across the state right
(38:22):
now to to work on thatrehabilitation of those large
fires from last year.
Megan Kay (38:29):
And is it the same personnel that are doing the
wildfire response, or is itfirefighters or, I mean, you
mentioned there's the BEAR team,but so our, I guess the question
is, do your firefighters stay onyear round to help with those
rehabilitation efforts?
Gwen Sanchez (38:48):
So we do have firefighters that do stay on
year round. It kind of depends,again, on on what that
rehabilitation effort mayinclude. You know, if we need
people to be in on the groundand and rehabbing dozer lines,
for instance, to make sure thatthat, you know, we've got
material, material pulled backonto those lines, and that we've
(39:09):
got, you know, area for for thatwater to run off and it's not
going to run down dozer lines,and, you know, make big divots
in existing dozer lines that wewill utilize those crews in
order to do that. And a lot oftimes that efforts being done,
you know, before the fire, youknow, is even over, we're doing
(39:29):
a lot of that as we can, as soonas the fire activity allows us
to do that effort. And so it iskind of ongoing, really, from
the beginning of the incident,we start to look at that and
consider those needs clearthrough, sometimes several years
later, our folks, you know, willsometimes work on on those
(39:51):
projects, you know, three, five,ten years down the road,
depending on you know, what thatneed is on that specific
incident. Sometimes it'scontract work. Sometimes it is,
you know, internal our folksthat are doing that work. What,
what I think is important isthat we are bringing in
specialists that understand thesoil, that understand the the
(40:14):
biology, to understand, youknow, fish habitats, that
understand all of thosedifferent specialty areas to be
able to help us in make makingthose decisions and those
recommendations. And then, fromthat point, once we get those
recommendations and decisionsapproved, then we'll we'll
either contract that work out,or we'll do some of that work
(40:34):
ourselves, depending on what wehave the capacity to do.
Megan Kay (40:37):
And then, Paul, do you have any highlights on BLM,
BLM land that you'd like to talkabout, or projects going on.
Paul Peterson (40:45):
Yeah. So virtually every one of our
fires, I guess, not virtually.
We've been doing too muchvirtually over the last year, we
rehabilitate every fire thatthat we have. There's very few
that we don't. And so, you know,every single year we have a
rehabilitation program. And wedo have, we've got dedicated
individuals that are with that.
(41:06):
But as Gwen said, you know, someof our firefighters and fire
crews, they do participate inthe operational aspect
implementation of that. Youknow, probably a couple
different ones. That is Martinfire. And so the Martin fire,
that's the largest fire entirelywithin Nevada a couple years
ago, and so we're still workingon rehabilitation, on that, and
(41:28):
it is everything from aerialseeding to drill seeding,
herbicide treatments. One of ourpartners is Nevada Department of
Wildlife, and they have been ahuge asset for us, helping with
some of the seeding, aerialseeding, and providing some of
the seed for wildlife benefit,and, you know, just to maintain
(41:48):
the soil that's out there. Yeah,and so that's, that's probably
the biggest one that we're stillcontinuing to work on. But, you
know, we do work on, on almostevery fire that we have, there's
some type of rehabilitation withthem.
Megan Kay (42:02):
And imagine, with the frequency of these fires, you're
probably having fires burn inyour rehabilitation projects
too, which can be, I don't know.
Paul Peterson (42:10):
And so that is, that's it. That's definitely one
thing, you know, if, if we'reinvesting, you know, a million
dollars or so in rehabilitationof a fire, you know, we want to
protect that investment as well.
And so sometimes, as we're aswe're as we're building those
rehabilitation treatments, wemight also build in some
hazardous fuels treatments thatare in there, as well as putting
some some crested weed grassesor something alongside the
(42:33):
roadside, to something that'sgoing to hold the moisture a
little bit more and provide alittle bit more resilience. And
so trying to trying to keep theinvestment and trying to make
that landscape more resilient,as we talked about also.
Megan Kay (42:49):
Awesome. Well, thank you guys for letting me pick
your brains for 45 minutes andfor joining us. And I just
wanted to open it up and see ifanybody else had any questions.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (43:00):
Now, you guys keep bringing up stuff from our
webinars, which is reallyawesome.
Megan Kay (43:06):
Synergy.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (43:08):
I know, right. We are actually going to
be having an after the firerehabilitation webinar. It's
going to feature somebody fromNDF and somebody from NDOW,
Nevada Department of Wildlife,and they're going to be talking
about receiving a fire that Ibelieve, that the
Humboldt-Toiyabe has contractedwith, which is kind of cool. So
(43:30):
that's going to be happening inSeptember, I believe. Don't
quote me, but you know, Iactually thought about this. Now
I have. I'm going to switchgears on you guys. I have never
worked in another stateregarding wildfire preparedness,
but I have heard from folks thatthe interagency collaboration in
Nevada is top notch. Now I I'mnot asking either of you to talk
(43:52):
trash about any other agenciesin different states, but I was
wondering if you guys couldattest to that, that that piece
of information that I heard.
Paul Peterson (44:00):
Well, I've worked in Nevada my whole career, so I
couldn't tell you about otherstates, but I've heard stories.
You know, the what I do knowabout Nevada, though, is Nevada
is a huge state, and you know,we can't, you know, one agency
cannot do it by themselves. Notone fire department can do it by
themselves. And so, you know,it's not that we're forced to,
(44:21):
it's the right thing to do is,is to work together to prevent
wildfires and then also tosuppress wildfires. And you
know, if you don't get along,you know, before the fire,
you're not going to get along onthe fire, and that's not a great
spot to be in. And so, you know,we, we have, we have great
partnerships. We do a lot ofwork before and after the fire
(44:43):
season. Just to get ready forthe fire season. And we are, we
are in countless planningsessions, working on agreements,
working on strategies for fireprevention, working on
strategies for hazardous fuels,treatments, you know, year round
to get to when the fire seasonis and the fire season is
getting longer and longer, andso we've got shorter time to
(45:03):
plan, but it is. It's criticalfor us to have good partnerships
to work across those boundaries.
Jamie Roice-Gomes (45:11):
Gwen, do you have anything to add regarding
that?
Gwen Sanchez (45:14):
Yeah, so, so I have worked in five different
states and three different USForest Service regions, and I am
very, very thankful and and justproud to be in Nevada. It when I
came into Nevada, it was openarms. And, you know, the
communication here is just topnotch, and in our fire response
(45:35):
here is top notch. And I justappreciate that interagency
perspective and approach that wehave here in Nevada, you know,
as you travel into other areas.
And it's not always like that.
And sometimes there's a lot ofego in the way. Sometimes
there's a lot of, you know,pride in your single agency
(45:56):
that's in the way and and I justdon't see that here like I have
in other areas of the countrythat that I have worked. It's
pretty rare that I'll go a weekwithout talking to to Paul. I
talked to him probably as much,if not more than some of my own
staff within, you know, myagency. And so it's, it's a
(46:17):
really cool relationship we havehere. In addition, we've got a
lot of really active groups, youknow, the northern Nevada Fire
Chiefs group. We've got theSierra Front Fire Chiefs. We've
got, you know, Fire Chiefs thatare within Tahoe. And so a lot
of people recognize, and I can'tsay it enough, none of us can do
(46:40):
it alone. This is having to bean interagency approach, or none
of us would be successful. Oursuccess comes because we're
willing and able and and all seethe value and working together.
And that really is, you know,kind of the bottom line. And
that's not just the federalagencies. That's our state and
(47:01):
local partners as well. Thoselocal Fire Chiefs are at the
table. The states at the table,the feds are at the table. And
because of all that differentlevel approach really going
towards those same common goals,it's just allowed for a lot of
success on the ground. And soI've seen it work, and I've seen
(47:23):
it work less than what it workshere. And I'm really, really
happy to be here, part of thisteam, because it's a high,
highly functioning team, andwe've got great people that
really just want everyone to besuccessful. And it's a pretty
cool relationship and a coolplace to be.
Megan Kay (47:52):
Thank you for listening to the Living with
Fire Podcast. You can find morestories about wildfire and other
resources at livingwithfire.comthe Living of Fire program is
funded by the University ofNevada, Reno Extension Nevada
Division of Forestry, Bureau ofLand Management and the United
States Forest Service.
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