{"id":482712,"date":"2021-12-13T11:13:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T19:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=482712"},"modified":"2022-03-20T15:56:14","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T22:56:14","slug":"california-changing-forests-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/california-changing-forests-wildfires","title":{"rendered":"The Ways We Fight Wildfires Are Changing, So Will the Forests Themselves"},"author":7552,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[455671,26512,476702,471971],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478412],"esri_blog_department":[478242],"class_list":["post-482712","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-safety","tag-adaptation","tag-climate-change","tag-reforestation","tag-wildfire","esri-blog-category-wildlife","esri_blog_department-public-safety"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"California experts convey the new methods being applied to fight wildfires and improve forest management.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"California foresters face the difficult task of helping the forest adapt to climate change.\r\n\r\n<strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>After years of wildfire suppression, California and the country are shifting attention and funding to prevention.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Organizations are building back forests to be more resilient to future conditions, including climate change.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Technology is helping to understand and predict fire behavior but communicating that to the public is key.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"What we\u2019ve learned\u00a0about wildfires \u2013 their behavior, fuels, chosen paths \u2013 has changed as dramatically\u00a0as the technology used to study them.\u00a0As a result, the way we fight them is changing too.\r\n\r\nAfter\u00a04.4\u00a0million acres were scorched last year in California, and\u00a0another 2.5 million as of November 2021,\u00a0the state and country are poised to fight fires\u00a0far\u00a0differently by spending billions to prevent\u00a0them, rather than suppress\u00a0them.\u00a0California is setting aside $1 billion this year for fire efforts\u00a0focused on clearing forests of potential fuel like dry vegetation\u00a0and\u00a0plans to spend\u00a0at least $200 million annually for the next six years.\u00a0Nationally, lawmakers have proposed billions to do the same across the country.\r\n\r\nCalifornians and much of the country are going to need to learn to live with good fire to prevent\u00a0devastating fires,\u00a0adjust to a future where\u00a0familiar forests may\u00a0never\u00a0grow\u00a0back,\u00a0and where it will take careful human intervention to foster a new kind of wilderness.\r\n\r\nThat was among the messages from experts speaking at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/c\/corporate-programs\/environmental-resilience-and-equity-hub?adumkts=amt&amp;aduc=publication&amp;adum=blog-post&amp;aduSF=esri-blog&amp;utm_Source=publication&amp;aduco=post-event-recap&amp;adut=G2208484-The-Geography-of-Wildfire-and-Forest-Resilience-Webinar&amp;aduca=DGWildfireandForestResilience&amp;aduat=video&amp;sf_id=7015x000001P61mAAC&amp;adupt=awareness#CA-Wildfire-Forest-Resilience-Event\"><em>The Geography of Wildfire and Forest Resilience: Preparing for What's Next<\/em><\/a> presented by Esri and the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> in November.\r\n\r\nModern technology is helping build the healthy forests of the future. Able to do more than ever, it\u2019s\u00a0observing, even predicting, fire behavior and\u00a0helping\u00a0determine which species of tree may\u00a0endure climate change and the threat of wildfire\u00a0better than others.\r\n<h3><strong>A Complex Fire Quilt\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe many factors driving shifting wildfire behaviors include climate changes, weather, local winds, water-stressed vegetation, fuels, topography, soils, and ultimately, us \u2014 humanity.\r\n\r\nThe complexities resemble a \u201cfire quilt,\u201d says Joaquin Ramirez, founder of\u00a0Technosylva\u00a0which developed the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.firesponse.com\/\">fiResponse\u00a0software system<\/a>, built with Esri\u2019s ArcGIS technology, that is used by states and fire agencies in predicting and monitoring active wildfires.\r\n\r\nKey is learning to \u201clive with good fire,\u201d he said, the type of fire that keeps forests in balance, as well as resisting the desire to rebuild homes in the same locations of previous, recent, fires."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":375041,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Of California\u2019s 16 largest and most intense wildfires in its history, half occurred in just the last two years. Despite that, it could have been far worse, Ramirez said. There were likely countless more acres saved because of early detection and simulations through the company\u2019s technology, he said.\r\n\r\nTechnology has been made even more necessary to study fires as their size and severity have grown.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe can\u2019t ground truth a million plus acres of land each year,\u201d said Libby Pansing, a forest and restoration scientist\u00a0with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanforests.org\/\">American Forests<\/a>, referring to the practice of checking assumptions in person. \u201cWe can\u2019t do this work on the ground, by ourselves.\u201d\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s where geographic information system (GIS) technology has been able to fill in the gaps where landscapes can\u2019t be inspected in person. When restoring forests, the group\u00a0must\u00a0target its efforts to the areas with the greatest ecological need and potential, and with the fewest logistical constraints to doing their job. Following the 2020 Creek Fire, the group used GIS to create a heat map to show distances to the nearest green trees needed for natural regrowth where the wildfire had burned. Another map layer showed a one-mile buffer from surrounding roads to determine where forestry workers could most easily access for replanting.\r\n<h3><strong>Seeing Through Smoke\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nCalifornia has become NASA\u2019s laboratory for testing new instruments and developing tools as it observes wildfires that have almost burned to the edges of its own Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus in Southern California.\r\n\r\nDr. David Shimel, the agency\u2019s lead for carbon cycle and ecosystem programs,\u00a0said radar technology has made it easier to observe topographic landscapes and forest structure allowing them to distinguish the types of vegetation below the tree canopy. Lidar has led to 3D reconstructions of forests showing what an area looked like before and after a wildfire raced through.\r\n\r\nThermal sensors can measure evapotranspiration and show if vegetation is water stressed, making for potentially worse fire situations.\u00a0Positioned on the International Space Station, the <a href=\"https:\/\/ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov\/\">ECOsystem Space-borne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station<\/a> (ECOSTRESS),\u00a0gives the\u00a0agency\u00a0an eagle\u2019s eye view, showing the most stressed areas before a major fire and how that stress abates, or not, as a burn scar recovers.\u00a0Scientists\u00a0can see through smoke and observe the energy of active fires."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":482732,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"NASA\u2019s\u00a0tools provide an important input into the models that American Forests creates for a science-based approach to reforestation on burn scars. The nonprofit has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-climate-resilient-camp-fire-recovery-plan\/\">developed a restoration plan for the site of the 2018 Camp Fire<\/a>, California\u2019s deadliest fire that killed 85 people and left a huge swath of forest without trees. In the three years that followed, two more large fires burned nearby.\r\n\r\nAustin Rempel, senior manager of American Forests, showed how each of the three burn scars met like puzzle pieces. Something unusual was happening, he\u00a0said.\r\n\r\nThe fires had also managed to destroy the landscape in a way that trees weren\u2019t going to naturally return.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you lose all of your trees that can produce cones, you\u2019re in trouble,\u201d Rempel said, referring to the importance of the seeds housed inside those cones. \u201cWithout intervention, there will be no trees.\u201d\r\n\r\nAs a result, his group and others are building a forest that will be better equipped for what\u2019s coming, be it more fires and worsening climate conditions.\u00a0Using\u00a0GIS, the group\u00a0determined\u00a0that the seeds of trees grown in and around Redding, California have adapted to higher temperatures and would be better suited for planting in the Camp Fire burn area\u00a0as\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0brought back to life.\r\n<h3><strong>Where Fire is Part of the Forest<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nExperts in fire behavior, forest management, and disaster response hope some of the state and federal\u00a0funding goes to increasing data collection at the local level to help make communities more resilient, doing more to reduce fuels in forests statewide, and additional research.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe still don\u2019t have a good handle on predicting extreme fire behavior,\u201d said Craig Clements, director of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sjsu.edu\/wildfire\/\">Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center<\/a>.\r\n\r\nBig fires, even intense fires, have been happening for a\u00a0really long\u00a0time, said Matt Jolly, a US Forest Service ecologist. What\u2019s different now is that fires are \u201cmore present in people\u2019s lives,\u201d forcing people to think about them in a different way. \u201cOne way that thinking needs to change is understanding that not all fire is bad fire,\u201d said Ryan Lanclos, director of public safety solutions for Esri. Technology can help provide the\u00a0public\u00a0context about why a fire is being allowed to burn in a controlled way in order to maintain environmental balance.\r\n\r\nA healthy forest\u00a0\u201cis going to be a place where fire is part of that forest,\u201d Jolly said.\r\n\r\nHe said it may also be time to rethink the use of Smokey the Bear, the longtime forest mascot that signals in mountain-area\u00a0signposts\u00a0whether the fire danger is low, moderate, high, very high, or extreme that day. The key is clearly informing local communities about the latest fire conditions without overwhelming them with data.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn the end, we have to use these tools to communicate simple things to communities that are actionable,\u201d Jolly said.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLearn more about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/wildland-fire\/overview\">GIS provides firefighters with tools to identify, analyze, and understand the landscape<\/a>."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":482832,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/c\/corporate-programs\/environmental-resilience-and-equity-hub?adumkts=amt&aduc=publication&adum=blog-post&aduSF=esri-blog&utm_Source=publication&aduco=post-event-recap&adut=G2208484-The-Geography-of-Wildfire-and-Forest-Resilience-Webinar&aduca=DGWildfireandForestResilience&aduat=video&sf_id=7015x000001P61mAAC&adupt=awareness#CA-Wildfire-Forest-Resilience-Event"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>California Wildfires Are Changing, So Will the Forests Themselves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"California experts convey the new methods being applied fight wildfires and improve forest management in the face of climate change.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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