Editor’s Note: This blog is another installment in our Project Firehawk series, the series is named in reference to a cohort of Australian birds who carry fire in their beaks to spark change. Its essays explore the core underpinnings of our work, and in some cases, challenge the status quo. We have asked the series’ authors to be bold as they tackle hard questions to reveal needed shifts in our relationship with fire. We have asked them to be unafraid as they point out what is (and isn’t) working in our current system. These thought pieces may challenge you, create controversy, or even cause you to stand up and cheer. Regardless of your reaction, we hope this series causes you to pause and maybe even initiate a larger conversation about what it really means to live better with fire.
Last Monday night, I lay awake in Mexico texting with Liz Weil, who had just published a beautiful California fire story in the New York Times. I was complimenting her on the piece, which was compelling in all the right ways: factual but engaging, overwhelming but hopeful, scientific but also emotional and personal. She and I met last year when she was working on a Propublica article about prescribed fire, which ended up being an edgy expose of some of the darker elements of California’s fire-industrial complex. That piece caused quite a stir, but not for any lack of truth. And that’s the beauty of her writing: as Liz told me last week, she wants writing to be super raw; “just take off the filter and be honest…that’s the whole secret. The truth is always interesting.
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When I was a kid, my family would leave the cold mountains of Trinity County each winter and head south to Mexico, where we’d spend three or four months in a little town in the state of Nayarit on the Pacific coast. The first year we went, when I was four, we piled into our friends’ van; the next year we took a train; and from then on, we would load up in our mustard yellow 1970s International Travelall each year to make the long trek south. At that time, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it was pretty radical to pack up your kids and your chocolate lab and drive thousands of miles south to spend the winter in central Mexico. But my parents were adventurers, and travel was key to their parenting strategy—more so than financial stability or normalcy. They knew that travel teaches flexibility, humility and connection, and shows us that our way is not the only way—that our culture is not the only culture. What a beautiful gift.
Lenya and her family in Chacala, Mexico, in the late 1980s. Photo provided by Lenya Quinn-Davidson.
Fast-forward 30 years, and culture is yet again a dominant theme for me. However, the context now is much less inviting—far less colorful and warm. These days, I spend my time thinking about Western fire culture and trying to understand how to tear down its high walls, which keep it from the flexibility, humility and connection it needs to thrive.
My closest colleagues say I’m too nice, too optimistic and too patient. And you know what? I’m starting to think they’re right. The most recent example is the California state-certified burn boss program, into which I have poured endless energy and passion for the last three years. The program was mandated by legislation in 2018 (SB1260, Jackson), and I volunteered on the curriculum development committee. That group included a diverse set of agency and private fire practitioners, who spent much of 2019 designing the program. In some ways, the program felt revolutionary—it would be the first time the state had ever validated and certified experienced private burners, including retired and disenchanted fire professionals, cultural practitioners, landowners and community leaders. Finally, the fire culture making room for outside experts who want to help—monumental, right?
After more than a year of state review, the program was finalized and approved in early 2021, and I proudly hosted the first course in May 2021. Meanwhile, I and others were working on other cutting-edge legislation, which we tied in various ways to the new certification program. Amazingly, we changed California’s liability standard, and we set aside $20 million for a prescribed fire claims fund to help fill the gaping hole in prescribed fire insurance. Ostensibly, 2021 was an incredible year for prescribed fire in California.
The inaugural group of California state-certified burn bosses, May 2021. Photo provided by Lenya Quinn-Davidson.
But guess what? It’s now mid-January, 2022, and not a single person who took the burn boss course eight months ago has been certified by the state. The program, which we thought had been fully vetted and approved, has instead faced further internal scrutiny from CAL FIRE, whose staff have questioned the credentials and experience of the people who participated in the May class. Additional signatures and requirements have been added, and even the federally qualified Type 2 Burn Bosses (RXB2s) who took the course have had their applications questioned and stalled, despite the fact that their federal qualification is far more rigorous than the state certification. The three people who are qualified to instruct the class have (understandably) refused to offer it again until the state sorts out its issues, and because people have to take the course in order to be qualified to teach it, the entire trajectory of the program has flat-lined.
Over the summer, I sent inquiring emails—to no end. In the fall, I requested (and had) a special meeting with high-ranking officials in CAL FIRE and State Fire Training—to no end. In November, I warded off a PR campaign by my frustrated colleagues who had taken the course and heard nothing since. In December, I deflected emails from several reporters who wanted to understand why the state of California, which has touted so much progress on prescribed fire, still hasn’t certified any private burn bosses. I was guarding my state partners—giving them the time they needed to make things right.
But after texting with Liz Weil, and in brainstorming for this blog, I decided to take off the filter and speak the truth. My colleagues were right—I was being too nice. Too optimistic that the state would come forward and honor the program’s intent. Naïve in my hope that these state officials might all load into a 1970s International Travelall, drive out to a community-led prescribed burn, and have some kind of cultural revelation about non-agency people really being part of the solution.
I wish I had space to tell you about that first group of state-certified burn bosses: people like Jim Wills and Deborah Mayer, who worked full careers in fire and have been bossing burns for longer than most firefighters have been alive; or people like Sarah Gibson and Andres Avila, who work with local fire departments and are eager to lead burns and protect their communities. (Sarah was featured in this short New York Times video about the burn boss program earlier this year.) Then there were tribal burn bosses, community fire leaders and other retired and current fire professionals—it was an impressive group.
And the truth is this: if we don’t start making space for outside perspectives and expertise, we’re not going to make it. If we keep squandering people’s passion and interest, they will find something else to focus on, likely somewhere else. Optimists like me—we might all lose hope, quit our jobs and move to Mexico. And these issues aren’t specific to California; we’re dealing with these kinds of challenges across the West. We’ve built a fire culture that doesn’t recognize—and often undermines—other forms of knowledge, to the great detriment of our landscapes and communities. So if the existing rules and standards don’t facilitate the right things, let’s change the rules. Let’s re-write the standards. Let’s honor the innovative work that people have been doing, and let’s choose leaders who think outside the box (CAL FIRE is currently selecting their next Director…). We can’t afford to waste any more time.
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Just before Christmas, I was in Lo de Marcos, a beach town in Mexico just south of the place my family traveled to when I was a kid. We noticed the guys next to us on the beach were talking about the Red Salmon Complex, a 2020 fire that my husband had worked on in California, then I realized I knew one of them! They were two Forest Service firefighters, and one of them had gone to school at Humboldt State University (HSU), in the town where we live. We’d met at HSU and again later at a TREX event. We caught up about life and work, and he excitedly inquired about the recent legislation I’d help pass. After many seasons in federal fire, he was awaiting potential back surgery and rethinking his career path. At ~30 years old, he was tired of low pay, frequent injuries, and not being able to maintain a relationship because he’s never home. He was curious about the state-certified burn boss program—was this a way for him to put his fire skills to use, but in a way that could help communities, restore fire to the landscape, and let him live a normal life?
I hesitated, and then I said yes—that’s exactly what it is. Call me an optimist, but that’s what I am going to make it.
The beach in Lo de Marcos, Mexico, where Lenya randomly ran into her firefighter friend from home (and where optimism won). Photo provided by Lenya Quinn-Davidson.
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* Soon after the publication of this blog, CAL FIRE issued course certificates and task books to almost everyone who took the course last May, as well as to the cadre that developed the course curriculum. They also made important changes that will help streamline the approval and certification process. Lenya and her colleagues are currently planning the next course, to be hosted later this spring. Optimism and truth-telling won in the end!
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You go, Lenya. There has to be a path forward that includes more people burning all year long. We’ll find it – one way or another.
Each night while I dream
My teeth tell me keep chewing
Optimist beaver
Lenya, excellent article, thank you for writing it, and for your extraordinarily valuable work. What do you think is at the root of the state’s resistance to certifying burn bosses? Questioning credentials and experience that are seemingly unquestionable makes one think there could be an underlying motive that is not being openly discussed. Thoughts?
Rita, thank you for the sweet comment! If I were to identify the underlying issue, it would be ownership. The agency feels a strong sense of ownership over all things fire in California, and there is incredible discomfort with the idea of outside people leading on something fire-related. Likewise, CAL FIRE has its own qualification standards and ways of doing things, so it can be challenging to find crosswalks to federal standards or equivalencies for private/traditional forms of knowledge. These things would not be insurmountable if there were strong leader’s intent around the need for this program, but in the absence of that, it’s incredibly challenging to move the needle in the right direction. I’m very hopeful that the next Director will prioritize this, given how critical it is for the future of prescribed fire in California.
Thank you for sharing your truth so tactfully and still beautifully optimistic! I continue to be inspired by your forward thinking vision for prescribed fire in California and beyond.
Disheartening that the State is dragging its feet on the burn boss certs. Tell us which way you are pushing and we’ll push with you.
Lenya, after being nearly in tears reading about the frustrations and disappointments of all of you who’ve worked so hard, banked personal investment in this essential and worthy training, and looked to it for future opportunity, my spirit and sense of humility were positively sparked by the strength of your own commitment to not giving up … staying the course on behalf of all in California and our other equally needy western states. Thank you!!
Keep it up, Lenya. You’ve earned the right to punch when needed. Courage is essential when the stakes are so high.
Nice job Lenya! It’s always nice to play in the same sandbox and get along, support one another etc.. sometimes that sand needs to be mixed up a bit, and I think you have been tolerate long enough for some sort of decision to be make. Time to stir the pot!
Thanks for writing this Lenya and great wordsmithing as usual. The only addition I could see would be an action item for people who read it. Should the public be calling their State Rep or Cal Fire’s Sacramento office? What is the best leverage point? This as you know, this subject effects everyone in CA and many minds will want to express themselves.
Thanks Jared. I wish there were a simple answer to your question, but alas, these problems are deep cultural challenges that are not easily solved. Clearly I’ve been asking the same questions for the last 8 months 🙂 But yes, public pressure to identify the importance of this work is really helpful. That could be pressure on CAL FIRE, or on Newsom’s staff, or on our legislators – they do listen to the public! People can also email me and I’ll put them on my policy mailing list, then they will receive updates as I know more and can provide better guidance: lquinndavidson@ucanr.edu.
Thank you for your efforts Lenya.
I think of the wildfire problem as death and destruction by bureaucrat. It is caused largely by two general government policies:
1) Fire suppression policy put in place after the Big Burn of 1910 (that has resulted in massive accumulation of wildfire fuels over vast areas of California and the US, and
2) Layer upon layer of local, state, and federal environmental laws that were well intended when enacted (most in the 1970s before the wildfire fuel accumulation problem was well recognized), but are now counterproductive and act to increase the threat of wildfires to the very resources they were intended to protect, by adding delays, costs, restrictions, requirements, and threats of fines and jail time for individuals who seek to perform wildfire fuel reduction work, and opportunity and threat of litigation against public agencies that want to do the same.
Climate change adds to the problem, but climate does not burn, only fuel burns. If fuels were reduced to safe levels the problem would be largely solved. There have been decades of bipartisan state and federal reports on the wildfire fuel accumulation problem, the need to address it, and the need to amend laws to allow it to be addressed.
I believe that, ultimately, the reason laws have not been amended to allow and facilitate wildfire fuel reduction work at the scale needed is because most people live in cities (in California, 95 percent of people live in urban areas, which make up 5.3% of California’s land area).
Most of those people do not understand the reality of rural and wild areas, and are being given inaccurate information by their leaders/politicians (e.g., that the cause of increasingly destructive wildfires is climate change).
As a society we have decided that protecting the environment is a good thing, and most people, most voters, want to support that, and equate that with protecting environmental laws, and don’t have time to look deeper.
As a result, politicians are afraid to amend what are now counterproductive environmental laws for fear of incurring the wrath of voters, or themselves are urbanites who do not understand rural reality.
I would not be surprised if some environmental organizations understand the problem, but are also afraid of alienating their supporters if they advocate for changing environmental laws to enable cutting of trees and brush at the scale needed, without regulatory hindrance.
The problem is larger than regulations affecting prescribed fire.
Solving it will take changing millions of minds, which in turn will take informing people in urban areas so they understand the need to amend laws that get in the way of wildfire fuel reduction work.
Until that happens, we will continue to see increasingly destructive wildfires, as we are not reducing wildfire fuels faster than they are accumulating.
I live in an area that burned, which had not burned in over 100 years due to wildfire suppression. It was ready to burn again three years after the fire. Standing dead trees killed by the fire are now kindling ready to kill trees that survived the fire. Yet even dead trees continue to be protected in the area. Crazy. Life and resource threateningly irrational. But the law.
Some of the state laws that need changing are the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the California Coastal Act, California Environmental Quality Act, California Endangered Species Act, California Wilderness Act, Z’Berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act, California clean air statutes, general plan law, the California Private Attorney General Doctrine (CCP 1021.5).
Some of the federal laws that need changing are the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Quality Act, the Wilderness Act, the Equal Access to Justice Act.
Local laws also need changing.
Any incidental harm that could come to resources from wildfire fuel reduction work by amending these laws to exempt wildfire fuel reduction work from their application, would be nothing compared to the harm being done to resources by high-heat-intensity wildfires fueled by unaddressed accumulations of wildfire fuels.
I feel your pain Lenya. Doing/participating In RX fires for 50 days a year for over three decades made me a better suppression firefighter. Any fuels treatment program is a jobs maker. Continue to burn. Small burns led to larger RX burns. As a federal RXBurn boss I understand the complexity of “certification”. Many agency administrators can only certify to single resource boss. Many agencies feel that trained citizen will result in their job loss. Which is foolish. A trained citizen is a “force multipler” .
Thanks Steve. Agreed on all points! Let’s continue to multiply the force!
What a fantastic post, the serendipity of life is magical! Amazing!
Way to go Lenya. I am among many of your fans who appreciate your unfaltering optimism. I also appreciate and count on your strategic insights regarding next steps. As others have said, let us know where the pressure point is to move this forward. I’ve heard many cheerleaders and public approval for the CARX program. Let’s make it work in ’22.
Thank you no Lenya! Your amazing!
Cold comfort here perhaps, but this post does fuel my fire further as I prepare to step into the Oregon Department of Forestry’s new state prescribed fire coordinator position with responsibility for working with partners to stand up the CBM program here. Not an easy task to overhaul these big systems to be sure (thank you for your tireless work to this end!). Sometimes you have to go inside those walls to bring them down! Wish me luck…;)
Thank you Lenya. This has been such a long time coming and just can’t stall out now. We need to continue to move forward with this. Thanks for your hard work and dedication to this.
The last vestiges of resistance to change are evident. Liability has been the major obstacle, kudos for all the work done to deal with that snafu! However, it still looms in the mind of Cal-Fire who also undoubtedly also feels some potential loss of “control” if outsiders (although not all) are involved in the cause. It is obvious that without all hands on deck, the wildfire situation will worsen exponentially and we need to gain a handle on the legacy of mismanagement (there may be a bit of guilt there too!) for healthy ecosystems and a safer environment for us ALL!
You have bumped up against a powerful CA Agency that figured out how build a super powerful Agency by allowing the CA SRA lands to grow into the one of the most unhealthy and dangerous wild lands in the world. CA Dept of Forestry and Fire Protection not only neglect SRA lands they expanded their duties to All-Risk Coverage high further pulled them away from caring for SRA when they became CALFIRE running all 911 calls. During Calfire’s years of existence they have used their “Hero” status with the Public to make believe they were caring for the forest and wild lands. The fact is – the more acreage and homes burn, the bigger the budget and Power gained. I have been pushing more Rx burning for over 20 years and allowing more private land owner involvement including Prepare Stay Defend. For this “see something, say something, Calfire has Blacklisted me nd my companies since about year 2000. I have also been Rx burning since the early 1970s, trained by a Biswell Rx Instructor, RxB1, Type 1 IC, FBA retired Old School Burn Boss. I will be looking for a Burn Boss Cert, however I doubt that will happen with Calfire involvement in this great new Rx Burn program on private lands. Thanks for your hard work and standing strong with Rx Burning.