Living with Fire at Home and in the Landscape
Introduction
WELCOME to Living-with-Fire.org
A portal to information and resource links to help you adapt to life with wildfire
I am a retired federal employee who spent 35 years managing fires and natural and cultural resources in national parks and on public lands. I know that we can’t stop the tidal wave of wildfires that are upon us, so I am dedicating my time to trying to help others adapt to life with wildfire.
The subject matter is diverse and there is a wealth of resources available on the Internet which can be time consuming to locate. I created this website to facilitate exploration and learning that ideally leads to collaborative action. I make no claims to completeness, authorship, ownership, or proprietary interest in the materials provided unless specifically indicated. Most of the information is already available through an Internet search.
The original website was created to support a course I instructed in 2020 with Mary Kwart, a retired federal fire management specialist. I want to thank Mary for her contributions to the original site and for allowing me to retain some of her materials.
I want to thank Walter Sydoriak for designing, developing, and maintaining the website. I could not have created this tool without him.
Charisse Sydoriak, January 9, 2022
Related Websites
Introductory Videos
- “Wildfires and Us”, 3:01 min
- Why wildfires have gotten worse — and what we can do about it TED Talk, 14:11 min
- Fire Shapes Everything TED Talk, 14:13 min
Recommended Reading and Web Links (all subjects)
- How to Reduce Risk to Wildfire Communities
- Fire Safe Marin Adapting to Wildfire
- City of Boulder Fire-Rescue Wildland Fire Preparedness Guide
Fire-Reluctant Landscaping Best Practices –March 2023
Class 1: Principles
- Fire-Reluctant Landscaping Best Practices Powerpoint Video, 1:25:35 hr
- Powerpoint Slides (pdf)
- Fire Resistant Landscaping Best Practices Handout
- Comprehensive Guide to Fire-resistive Landscaping Handout
- The Combustibility of Landscape Mulches
- Fire Adapted Landscaping and Defensible Space Video, ~90 min
- In the line of fire: a behind the scenes look at the efforts to stop Almeda (KTVL 10)
Class 2: Solutions
- Powerpoint Slides (pdf)
- Fire and Deer Resistant Native Plants of California
- Choosing the Right Plants for Northern Nevada High Fire Hazard Areas
Class 3: Resources
- Powerpoint Slides (pdf) – to be added
- Instructions for using the Plant List Generator – to be added
- Fire Resistant Landscaping Best Practices
- Ashland’s Prohibited Flammable Plants
- The Combustibility of Landscape Mulches
- Instructions for Using Plant.Net – to be added
Fire Dynamics — Why do fires burn the way they do?
The physics of combustion
Factors that influence fire weather and behavior
- Introduction to Wildland Fire S-190 course materials
- Intermediate Wildland Fire S-290 course materials
- High Country News – Inside the firestorm
- Today’s wildfire modeling ‘just sucks’ for flames fueled by climate change
- Keeley Syphard 19 CA fuel-dominated vs. wind-dominated fires.pdf
The effects of climate change
- Fire danger in the high mountains is intensifying: That’s bad news for humans, treacherous for the environment
- We know climate change set the conditions for Oregon fires. Did it stoke the flames, too?
- Fire Chiefs on the Impacts of Climate Change on Wildfires.mp4
- New York Times – Worst Fire Year on Record
- Reuter’s Age of the “Megafires”
- Hessburg, and others; Front. Ecol. Evol., 10 July 2019 | Climate, Environment, and Disturbance History Govern Resilience of Western North American Forests
- Yale Climate Connections: Reviewing the horrid global 2020 wildfire season
- Western U.S. may be entering its most severe drought in modern history, CBS News
- One Foot in the Black Podcast nn min
- The Wests Infernos Are Melting Our Sense of How Fire Works
- Story-map of 10 common questions about adapting western US forests to climate and wildfire
Wildfire Statistics
Western states wildfire statistics
- Fire Statistics Handout
- Homeland Security Digital Link to Western United States Wildfires
- Wildfires on the West Coast Satellite Photo
- Fire Statistics, US Congress, 2021
California and Oregon wildfire statistics
- 2020 Fire Season Story Map for Oregon–“After the Fire”
- ODF Fire History 1911 – 2020
- ODF Siege Map
- Minute By Minute: What Happened In The Camp Fire, 22:26 min broadcast
- New Timeline of Deadliest California Wildfire
- This is a worst-possible wildfire scenario for Southern California
Rogue Basin wildfire statistics
Protecting Your Home and Yard
Home Combustion Process
Real Property Vulnerabilities & Risk Reduction
- NFPA Your Home and Wildfire, 3:56 min
- IBHS Wildfire Home Assessment and Checklist
- WFAP Home Assessment Checklist
- FEMA – Avoiding Wildfire Damage: A Checklist for Homeowners
- Understanding the Wildfire Risk of the Surrounding Landscape, 0:56 min
- Reduce Fire Risk on your Forest Property
Home Ignition Zones (aka Defensible Space)
- Home Ignition Zone: Assessment Details
- 5 steps to Creating Defensible Space; Sept 2020 54-min seminar
- Rogue Valley ODF Defensible Space Handout
Fire-Resistant Homes (aka Home Hardening)
- Retrofitting your Home to Increase Wildfire Survival, 56:32 min
- Reducing Home Vulnerabilities – S Quarles
- Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Construction Guide for Wildfire Hazard Zones
- Preparing Homes for Wildfire
- Tri-Lakes WFAP How to Home Harden
- Home Design and Retrofitting Techniques for Wildfire Defense
- James Hardie Siding in Oregon Wildfire Prone Regions
- Your Home Can Survive a Wildfire, 13:19 min
- Preparing Fences and Decks for Wildfire, 0:57 min
- Preparing the Home Exterior for Wildfire, 1:11 min
- Fire Resistant Decks, Patios, and Porches
Fire-Reluctant Landscaping
- Characteristics of Fire-Resistant Plants
- Plant Lists
- Plant List Generator (or select from the menu above)
- Prepare Your Yard for Wildfire Season (Oregonian article)
- Guides, Webinars, and Videos
- Local Information
Fire Adapted Community
Neighborhood Vulnerabilities & Risk Reduction
- Fire Management Today – Communities Adapting to Wildland Fire
- Fire Adapted Community Video, 5:04 min
- What Is a Fire Adapted Community? with Animated Videos
- Community destruction during extreme wildfires
- Building Community for Wildfire Resistance; OSU Extension Webinar; 4/14/2021, 52:40 min
- Asset Based Community Development Mapping Toolkit
- Developing Community Connections with Asset Mapping
- Living with Fire Organization Managed by the University of Nevada in Reno
- Planning the Wildland-Urban Interface, APA
- Forest and Fire Toolkit – Rural Living in the Siskiyou Mountains
- How to build wildfire-resistant communities in a warming world
Vulnerable Populations
- Wildfire Today, Vulnerable Populations
- Oregon Lawmakers Approve Bill To Turn Hotels And Motels Into Housing, Shelters
- Additional Links
Disaster Preparedness
- Best practices in risk and crisis communication
- Steve Weyer’s Disaster Preparedness Website
- Before Wildfire Strikes! A Handbook for Homeowners and Communities in Southwest Oregon, OSU, December 2015
- Rogue Valley Integrated Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), June 2017
- Disaster Preparedness: Emergency vs. Disaster
- Ashland
- Jackson County
- Oregon
- National
Evacuation Preparedness
- Summary of Local Evacuation Preparedness Info
- Case studies of large outdoor fires involving evacuations, February 2021
- Evaluating Rural Pacific Northwest towns for wildfire evacuation vulnerability Webinar, May 12, 10am
- Evacuation Process: Ready, Set, Go:
- Jackson County
- Ashland Neighborhood Maps
- Once you’re out of your neighborhood: Evacuation Routes by Ashland Jim
- Make a Plan – ready.gov
- CERT wildfire evacuation with animals, 1:05 min
- JPR – New Statewide Emergency Alert System On Tap In Oregon
Insurance coverage
- Preparedness Tips from the Trenches, 52:01 min
- Overcoming Insurance and Recovery Obstacles, 1:20:04 hr
- How to Survive the Home Insurance Crisis, 1:28:57 hr
- Smoke, Ash, and Soot, 1:41:44 hr
- Nevada’s Insurance Industry’s Perspective on Insurance and Wildfire 45:45 min seminar
- People Deserve to Know Their Houses Are Going to Burn (The Atlantic)
- California wants to force insurers to reward homeowners for fireproofing homes
Smoke
Smoke impacts on air quality
Humanity’s changing relationship with wildfire and its consequences
Native American relationships with fire
- Forgotten Fires.pdf
- Indigenous Peoples Burning Network
- Cultural Fire Management Council
- Cultural Burning (4 min audio & article)
Fire as a resources management tool by modern Americans
- Fire: an important management tool
- Understanding Forest Ecology: Fire, Water, and Bark Beetles, 6:14 min
- Cross boundary fire risk mitigation webinar series
Using Prescribed Fire on Private Property
- Options for Prescribed Fire on Private Lands in Oregon; OSU Ext Chris Adlam presenting; 1:05:39
- Biochar for Small Woodland Owners, 1:21:08 hr
- Bill introduced to promote prescribed fire intends to reduce fire risk – Wildfire Today.pdf
- OPFC Liability Private Land Sep 2020Lomakatsi secures $2.6 million for wildfire work – Ashland Tidings
The War on Wildfire and its Consequences
- Fire Wars video from PBS Nova – online Jackson County Library Services stream-able, 1:55 hr
- PBS’s Frontline “Fire in Paradise, 54:17 min
- “Fire on the Mountain” 2001 History Channel special
- 1994 South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain – 14 Fatalities, 1:21:37 hr
- Burning Questions; America’s Fight with Nature’s Fires, 2002; by David Carle. Praeger Publishers, Westport Connecticut. Greenwood Publishing Group. 298 pages
- Why wildfires have gotten worse — and what we can do about it TED Talk, 14:11 mins
Local Stories and Issues
Ashland Specific
2020 Almeda Fire
- KTVL News broadcast, November 19, 2020
- Sky News; Sept 11, 2020–Police suspect ‘human element’
- BBC News; Sept 10; US West Coast wildfires
- New York Times – The Almeda Fire – 4:12 min
- The Oregonian: Almeda fire 100% contained
- Mapping the Almeda Fire’s growth
- Jackson County Damage Assessment Dashboard
- Things that do not burn – Almeda fire story telling, 1:31:56 hr
Federal Lands Policy and the Wildfire Paradox
The Wildfire Paradox
- Vicki Christiansen Wildfire Paradox
- What Is Limiting More Flexible Fire Management
- The Wests Infernos Are Melting Our Sense of How Fire Works
The War on Wildfire and its Consequences
- Fire Wars video from PBS Nova – online Jackson County Library Services stream-able, 1:55 hr
- PBS’s Frontline “Fire in Paradise, 54:17 min
- “Fire on the Mountain” 2001 History Channel special
- 1994 South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain – 14 Fatalities, 1:21:37 hr
- Burning Questions; America’s Fight with Nature’s Fires, 2002; by David Carle. Praeger Publishers, Westport Connecticut. Greenwood Publishing Group. 298 pages
- The Wests Infernos Are Melting Our Sense of How Fire Works
Wilderness fires
- A Fire Imagined Essay about parenting a wildfire
- Burning Questions; America’s Fight with Nature’s Fires, 2002; by David Carle. Praeger Publishers, Westport Connecticut. Greenwood Publishing Group. 298 pages
Reading materials
Firefighting
Incident Management
Firefighter Health and Safety
- Overstretched wildland firefighters risk lung, heart maladies
- Not enough is known about smoke’s impacts on wildland firefighter’s health
- Study shows firefighter’s exposure to smoke increases disease risks
- Wildland firefighter smoke exposure and risk lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality
- Modern wildfires pose new health risks for firefighters
- Hazardous air quality conditions at fire camps
- In the line of fire: a behind the scenes look at the efforts to stop Almeda (KTVL 10)
Fire fighting myths
Environmental impacts of suppression
- Fire Myths: Arborists Say ODOT Post-Fire Tree Cutting Is Excessive, Rushed
- Golden, Other Legislators Seek Scrutiny Of Post-Fire Timber Cutting
Fire Ecology
Introduction to fire ecology principles
- Introduction to Fire Ecology, 7:59 min
- Understanding Forest Ecology: Fire, Water, and Bark Beetles, 6:14 min
- Basics of Fire Ecology; California Fire Science Consortium, 21:38 min
- Ecological Society of America publication on fire ecology
- Fire In California
Fire dependent ecosystem in the western United States
- Oregon Forest Facts Breaks, 1:40 min
- Understanding Forest Ecology: Fire, Water, and Bark Beetles, 6:14 min
- Story-map of 10 common questions about adapting western US forests to climate and wildfire
Rogue Basin fire history / regimes
- Kerry Metlen Bio and publication links
- Natural range of variation for yellow pine and mixed-conifer forests in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon
- SOU People and Forests Lecture by Kerry Metlen on 4 April 2022 PowerPoint slides (pdf)
Fire Research and Science Links
- Fire Science Exchange Network
- California Fire Science Consortium
- Northwest Fire Science Consortium May 2021 Newsletter
- Northern Rockies Fire Science Network May 2021 Newsletter
Living with Fire at Home and in the Landscape 