TUESDAY March 16, 2021: BURNING CALIFORNIA TO SAVE IT by Sacramento Bee award winning staff photographers Renee C. Byer and Paul Kitagaki together with Outdoors reporter Nicole Blanchard and Dale Kasler who covers climate change: On a crisp, breezy February morning near Lake Tahoe, a crew of five firefighters descended on a snow-covered, heavily-forested park straddling the California-Nevada border. They came to start fires, not put them out. California and the West are just months removed from one of the worst wildfire seasons in modern history. Climate change is ramping up the hazards, and a dry winter suggests another tough year is coming. Desperate for a solution, states are finding that lighting a fire can be a good way of preventing one. 'It's the closest thing to a consensus in the fire community,' said Timothy Ingalsbee, director of Firefighters United. 'We need more of it.' A growing army of experts argues that 'prescribed fire' planned, deliberate burns, can reduce the volume of combustible vegetation from parched landscapes and ease a crisis gripping the western third of the country. Welcome to: BURNING CALIFORNIA TO SAVE IT
© zReportage.com Story of the Week #778: TUESDAY March 16, 2021: BURNING CALIFORNIA TO SAVE IT by Sacramento Bee award winning staff photographers Renee C. Byer and Paul Kitagaki together with Outdoors reporter Nicole Blanchard and Dale Kasler who covers climate change: On a crisp, breezy February morning near Lake Tahoe, a crew of five firefighters descended on a snow-covered, heavily-forested park straddling the California-Nevada border. They came to start fires, not put them out. California and the West are just months removed from one of the worst wildfire seasons in modern history. Climate change is ramping up the hazards, and a dry winter suggests another tough year is coming. Desperate for a solution, states are finding that lighting a fire can be a good way of preventing one. 'It's the closest thing to a consensus in the fire community,' said Timothy Ingalsbee, director of Firefighters United. 'We need more of it.' A growing army of experts argues that 'prescribed fire' planned, deliberate burns, can reduce the volume of combustible vegetation from parched landscapes and ease a crisis gripping the western third of the country. Welcome to: BURNING CALIFORNIA TO SAVE IT

A firefighter uses a rake as he gets ready to ignite a pile at a prescribed burn at Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe. 'These projects were designed to minimize the fire risks, we can't eliminate it,' said Milan Yeates, of the California Tahoe Conservancy.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

Firefighters battle a Carr fire flare-up near Buckhorn Summit, on Highway 299. The Carr Fire burned 229,651 acres in Shasta and Trinity Counties in California and destroyed at least 1,604 structures, becoming the seventh-most destructive fire in California history, costing over USD 1.659 billion in damages.
© Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

After setting several pile fires firefighter MIKE WICKS watches over at a prescribed burn before heading up a hill to set more at Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe. On a crisp, breezy February morning near Lake Tahoe, a crew of five firefighters descended on a snow-covered, heavily-forested park straddling the California-Nevada border. They came to start fires, not put them out.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

Huntington Beach fire department members battle the LNU Lightning Complex fires on Serenity Hills Road. The LNU Lightning Complex fires burned during the 2020 California wildfire season across much of the Wine Country area of Northern California. Six people were killed and another five injured.
© Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

Material that was cut and piled two seasons ago burns at a prescribed fire in Van Sickle Bi-State Park near South Lake Tahoe. This is a good day. 'The conditions are right, there is a little bit of wind and it's pushing the smoke away from the casino corridor and population center,' said Milan Yeates, forest management coordinator at the California Tahoe Conservancy.
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Huntington Beach Fire Department DREW DIPOALA battles the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex fire at Serenity Hills Road in Vacaville. Scientists say the dry climate is the very reason why Western states must become more aggressive about prescribed burns. As climate change lengthens the wildfire season and creates hotter, drier summers, the need for prescribed fire is becoming more urgent.
© Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

Firefighter MARK WAITE ignites gathered brush with a drip torch at a prescribed burn at Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe. There's a widespread agreement that the West doesn't make nearly enough use of prescribed fire. Western states conduct just a fraction of the burns performed in the Southeast. and are failing to keep up with a dangerous backlog of dead trees, dry grasses and overgrown shrubs on millions of acres.
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Home burns to the ground on Jenny Lane during the LNU Lightning Complex fires in Vacaville. In all, six people were killed and another five injured during the 2020 LNU Lighting Complex wildfire.
© Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

Firefighters MIKE WICKS and MARK WAITE use rakes to control a fire at a prescribed burn at Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe. 'It's not a small matter; you're putting fire on the landscape,' said Anthony Scardina, deputy forester for the U.S. Forest Service in California. 'There are risks and we have to manage those risks and follow protocols and see whether those risks are worth it.'
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A home goes up in flames on Pippo Lane during the LNU Lightning Complex fires in Vacaville. As California experienced a record heat wave in 2020, fires are popping statewide. The LNU Lightning Complex blaze was composed of numerous lightning-sparked fires, eventually scorching 192,000 acres.
© Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

Firefighter JOSH WESSON ignites a brush pile with a drip torch at a prescribed burn at Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe. When fire scientists talk about prescribed burns, the discussion often turns to the Forest Service. Critics say the agency clings to a century-old 'suppression culture' that resists deliberately starting fires.
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A home does up in flames on Serenity Hills road during the LNU Lightning Complex fire in Vacaville. The 2020 LNU Lighting Complex is currently the fourth-largest wildfire in the recorded history of California.
© Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

A fallen tree separates piles that burn as two firefighters make there way up a hill to ignite more piles during a prescribed burn at Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe. 'This material was cut and piled two seasons ago and now we are coming back when conditions are right to burn it and reduce the fuel loading in this area,' said Milan Yeates, forest management coordinator at the California Tahoe Conservancy.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

The sun rises through a cloud of smoke in the Rincon Ridge area after the Tubbs wildfire in Sonoma County. At the time, the Tubbs Fire was the most destructive wildfire in California history. The fire was one of more than a dozen large fires called the 'Northern California firestorm,' and at least 22 people were believed to have been killed in Sonoma County by the fire.
© Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee via Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

Firefighter JOSH WESSON moves down a hill to check on other prescribed pile fire burns at Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe. The material was cut and piled two seasons ago and they were back to burn and fully remove it from the park. 'We need to get fire back into the ecosystem, to prevent these massive fires,' said Darrel Jury, head of the environmental group Friends of Plumas Wilderness. 'We could do a lot more burning in winter and fall.'
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire

The Kincade wildfire burns during the night east of Hwy 128 in this time exposure of a burnt tree with embers blowing in the wind near Sonoma County. The Kincade Fire burned 77,758 acres and was the largest of the 2019 California wildfire season.
© Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Wire