Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Ex-Forest Firefighter Says Red Tape for Prevention Work is 'Daunting'
TLBBHMAP3-U010ALB5ANM-348f959abae2-512-300x300-1
By Jim Jakobs, Digital Producer
Published 5 years ago on
September 18, 2020

Share

Adam Hernandez oversaw prescribed fire and fuels management for the Sierra National forest before leaving the U.S. Forest Service last year. He now teaches wildland fire technology at Reedley College and offers a unique perspective into how the USFS was trying to manage the forest before the Creek Fire ravaged the landscape.

Hernandez started working on the Sierra National forest in 2008. His experiences ranged from fire prevention, to fire suppression on hotshot crews, to fuels management.

He understands why people are frustrated at the devastation of the Creek Fire, but he believes his former colleagues were making great strides in trying to prevent what occurred. “Just like any forest in the central Sierra there’s a lot of effort to try to restore fire back into the landscape,” Hernandez said to GV Wireâ„  by Zoom.

Hernandez believes the Creek Fire just happened to be very bad timing before the project work could be finished.

Red Tape Can Add Years to a Project

“You can imagine a 50,000 acre project, just doing the surveys alone from each specialty group from archaeology, to wildlife, to aquatics, to watershed, that’s a daunting process.”–Adam Hernandez, Wildland Fire Technology Instructor at Reedley College and former USFS Firefighter

Depending on the scale of a project, Hernandez said, the paperwork involved can be laborious and time consuming. For bigger projects, he says 2 to 3 years of pre-work is not out of the ordinary. Smaller projects can be done in about 6 months time.

Hernandez says attention must be paid to native species, water quality issues, how the manipulation of timber will impact the environment and animals, not to mention the amount of time allotted for public comment.

“You can imagine a 50,000 acre project, just doing the surveys alone from each specialty group from archaeology, to wildlife, to aquatics, to watershed, that’s a daunting process,” Hernandez explained. “What we need on the landscape are very large projects. Increasing the pace and scale of some of this work that we’re doing is necessary.”

As for the length of time it takes to get preparations done before a prescribed burn can be done? “Yeah, there’s a healthy process for anything to do with managing public lands,” says Hernandez. “Planning a project is a lengthy and expensive process.”

He says the difficulty with big bureaucracies is there are a lot of built in institutional barriers that make it challenging. “But the will is absolutely there,” he says reassuringly.

Private Industry Involvement

Hernandez says there is definitely a role for private industry to play in helping create a healthier and better forest.

“The forest service doesn’t have every single tool in the arsenal to get all the work done.” Hernandez said the USFS specializes in managing the land, doing prescribed burning, and implementing policies correctly.

“Everybody plays a part. It’s not just the federal agencies. It’s the private companies and biomass that can help alleviate some of these fuel loadings that are out there.”

Status of the Sierra National Forest

In 2008, when Hernandez began working in the forest, he said many of the well-known recreation areas already had been managed well. He says a lot of prescribed fire had been utilized to make certain areas very healthy.

“But when you talk about 1.2 million acres of national forest, there’s going to be places that don’t get the attention because maybe they’re not in an urban interface area,” said Hernandez. The places where people and homes run up against wildland must be the priority, he added.

He says when he was working in the forest there was a lot of work already being done via the Dinkey Landscape Restoration Project. The DLRP covered 154,000 acres in the southern Sierra Nevada within Fresno County. The project used prescribed fire, mechanical thinning, watershed improvements and other restoration treatments. The goals? Create a landscape resilient to uncharacteristic wildfire, insect and disease, climate change, drought, invasive species, and air pollution.

Hernandez also says a lot of planning had been going into doing more prescribed burns throughout the Sierra National Forest right up to the start of the Creek fire.

Better Path Forward

GV Wireâ„  asked if he could lean on his experience and wave a magic wand to make things better for future generations, what would he do?

“We have our suppression program that we’ve always had,” says Hernandez. “We need it. We fund it pretty heavily.”

He then considered an alternative.

“What if we had prescribed fire teams, and the funding that currently goes into the fire suppression teams is also directed at the same levels into fuels prescribed fire teams?”  Hernandez . “If they could just go into an area with all the resources and funding they’d need. That would be my magic wand.”

He thinks this could ultimately lead to a healthier forest with less fire and less need to spend large amounts of money on fire suppression.

DON'T MISS

A Look at Fresno City College’s New $87 Million Science Building

DON'T MISS

California Gov. Newsom Says the Democratic Brand Is ‘Toxic’

DON'T MISS

‘Trump Slump’ Looms as Foreign Visitors Rethink Travel to US

DON'T MISS

White House Weighs Helping Farmers as Trump Escalates Trade War

DON'T MISS

Torpedo-Shaped Bats Draw Attention After Yankees Hit Team-Record 9 Homers

DON'T MISS

Silver Fire Grows to 1,250 Acres, Threatens Homes in Inyo County

DON'T MISS

3 Kids Killed in Michigan When Tree Hits Vehicle During Weekend Storm

DON'T MISS

March Madness Guide: All No. 1 Seeds in Final Four After Houston and Auburn Win

DON'T MISS

Trump Family Pushes Further Into Crypto, Starting Another Venture

DON'T MISS

Justice Department Instructed to Dismiss Legal Challenge to Georgia Election Law

UP NEXT

Silver Fire Grows to 1,250 Acres, Threatens Homes in Inyo County

UP NEXT

Sue or Hold Back? The University of California Does Both as It Faces Trump’s Wrath

UP NEXT

Top Vaccine Official Resigns From FDA, Criticizes RFK Jr. for Promoting Misinformation, Lies

UP NEXT

Is Fresno Political Consultant Alex Tavlian Behind Election Attack Mailer?

UP NEXT

California Food Banks Brace for Funding Cuts, and Not Only From the Trump Administration

UP NEXT

RIP, Bill Lyles: One of Fresno’s Most Iconic Builders and Philanthropists

UP NEXT

Cal State Automatically Admitting High School Students With Good Grades

UP NEXT

California Democratic Lawmaker Exaggerated His Record as a Police Officer

UP NEXT

Utah Becomes the First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Drinking Water

UP NEXT

Wilmer Flores’ 3-Run Homer in the 9th Inning Propels Giants to Victory Over Reds

White House Weighs Helping Farmers as Trump Escalates Trade War

55 minutes ago

Torpedo-Shaped Bats Draw Attention After Yankees Hit Team-Record 9 Homers

1 hour ago

Silver Fire Grows to 1,250 Acres, Threatens Homes in Inyo County

2 hours ago

3 Kids Killed in Michigan When Tree Hits Vehicle During Weekend Storm

2 hours ago

March Madness Guide: All No. 1 Seeds in Final Four After Houston and Auburn Win

2 hours ago

Trump Family Pushes Further Into Crypto, Starting Another Venture

2 hours ago

Justice Department Instructed to Dismiss Legal Challenge to Georgia Election Law

2 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest 12 for DUI, Plan More Enforcement Operations

2 hours ago

A Stroke Survivor Speaks Again With the Help of an Experimental Brain-Computer Implant

2 hours ago

Collision Leaves Two Dead, Several Injured After Clovis Police Chase

2 hours ago

A Look at Fresno City College’s New $87 Million Science Building

Anyone passing by Blackstone and Weldon avenues the past year couldn’t help but notice the modern gleaming new building rising from th...

30 minutes ago

Fresno City College students at the new Science Building
30 minutes ago

A Look at Fresno City College’s New $87 Million Science Building

34 minutes ago

California Gov. Newsom Says the Democratic Brand Is ‘Toxic’

A view of downtown San Diego, July 13, 2024. California is among the U.S. destinations that are ramping up marketing efforts to reassure international tourists that they are welcome. (John Francis Peters/The New York Times)
48 minutes ago

‘Trump Slump’ Looms as Foreign Visitors Rethink Travel to US

Soybeans are harvested near Stuttgart, Ark., Oct. 25, 2023. The Trump administration has discussed providing financial aid for farmers who may be subject to retaliation by America’s trading partners. (Rory Doyle/The New York Times)
55 minutes ago

White House Weighs Helping Farmers as Trump Escalates Trade War

New York Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr. prepares to bat during the first inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Sunday, March 30, 2025, in New York. (AP/Pamela Smith)
1 hour ago

Torpedo-Shaped Bats Draw Attention After Yankees Hit Team-Record 9 Homers

The Silver Fire has burned 1,250 acres near Bishop with 0% containment, prompting evacuations as strong winds hamper firefighting efforts. (CalFire)
2 hours ago

Silver Fire Grows to 1,250 Acres, Threatens Homes in Inyo County

A large tree rests on top of a mobile home at Millwood Estates on East Cork Street after a storm Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Kalamazoo, Mich. (Brad Devereaux/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)
2 hours ago

3 Kids Killed in Michigan When Tree Hits Vehicle During Weekend Storm

Houston's Kelvin Sampson
2 hours ago

March Madness Guide: All No. 1 Seeds in Final Four After Houston and Auburn Win

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend