News & Events

See what we’ve been up to

Events will be announced and recapped on our Instagram account (below) and in our monthly newsletter/email list.

plumasunderburn

The recent 7.5 acre Linden RX burn near Clio went

The recent 7.5 acre Linden RX burn near Clio went very well!

A lot of people showed up, including staff from local, state, and federal agencies, and community volunteers. It’s a team of folks like this that make prescribed fire possible in our communities. Interagency/interorganization cooperation is the future of restoring our forests. Engaging public agencies to participate or support prescribed fire on private lands can be challenging; in Plumas County we are lucky to have engaged agency leaders that care about the community and see prescribed fire as a powerful tool.

This burn resulted in some great training opportunities including Hannah getting her CARX task book signed off!

On Thursday October 24th, PUC will be supporting a

On Thursday October 24th, PUC will be supporting a landowner in the Valley Ranch subdivision near Clio, CA with a meadow restoration prescribed burn.

Burn participants will include PUC volunteers, Butte Cal-TREX participants, and staff from @butte_rcd and @hayforkwatershedcenter, amongst others. CAL FIRE, Graeagle Fire, and PNF plan to have resources on site. It will be a great day of collaboration!

This will be the first PUC burn of the fall and we are so excited! The goal of the burn will be to reduce a buildup of grass/thatch to promote the growth of native species within the unit. Additionally this will provide us a solid holding feature for burning in the timber litter next spring.

Photo 1: Butte Cal-TREX participants gather around a fire during a training day.
Photo 2: The meadow we are planning to burn.

Our monthly PUC meeting on Thursday was an awesome

Our monthly PUC meeting on Thursday was an awesome example of community-powered fire-resiliency projects.

Sally showed us the 5700 gallon water tank (photo 1) recently procured and installed in Thompson Valley by Old Highway Road Firewise Community. The Firewise Community saw a need for water in case of a structure fire, wildfire, or prescribed fire (there are no hydrants in the community). They obtained funds from @plumasfiresafe, procured the tank, then Quincy Tow helped haul the tank to its current location. Sierra Pacific Industries donated lumber to create a ladder, and Quincy Volunteer Fire Department filled the tank with water from their tender! The community now has a non-potable water supply for use by first responders.

Jeff showed us his new “water buffalo” trailer (photos 2, 3, and 4) that includes a repurposed tank and pump that he and Greg built! This will be super useful in future prescribed fires around Plumas County!

PUC meetings are a great way to meet neighbors that are interested in prescribed fire. Interested in coming out to join us at the next one? DM us or email logan@plumasfiresafe.org for more info. All are welcome, no experience necessary.

Plumas Cal-TREX just completed it’s 5th annual i

Plumas Cal-TREX just completed it’s 5th annual iteration! Swipe to the end for some statistics.

Each year our fire management partners in Plumas County come together to host a Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX)! This year TREX included 5 days straight of team building, skill honing, and live fire training, followed by 6 optional days of burning through an on-call list. People came from all over the state to participate in learning about prescribed fire, sharing knowledge, and networking with new people.

Not only were we able to learn new things and meet new people, we assisted 10 separate land managing partners in either prep work or fire implementation between April and June. This included 1 city, 2 state agencies, 1 federal agency, 6 private citizens, and 1 tribal non-profit. In this line of work, budgets are tight and having trained individuals ready to assist at a moment’s notice is key to success in building partnerships and getting good fire back on the land.

The work upon which this event is based was supported and funded in part through (1) a Regional Forest and Fire Capacity grant awarded by the California Department of Conservation, (2) a Fire Learning Network subaward through The Nature Conservancy funded by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and (3) funding and a participating agreement with Region 5 of the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, amongst other funding sources.

Photos courtesy Jade Elhardt Photography, Julia Sidman, and Amber Lennon. @jadeelhardt @coppercreekcamp

On May 21st and 22nd, partners from Plumas Cal-TRE

On May 21st and 22nd, partners from Plumas Cal-TREX and @firestorm_fire assisted the Plumas National Forest with burning 76 acres near Meadow Valley, CA. This is the first cross-boundary prescribed fire on both Federal and private land in many years in Plumas County. This awesome partnership sets a precedent for more cooperation between public agencies and private organizations to carry out meaningful restoration projects, regardless of fence lines. On May 29th an additional 14 acres were burned on private lands. The private lands portion of the project was coordinated over the past 6 years by the Fire Safe Council with a forest health grant from CAL FIRE.

TREX partners present on the 3 days of burning:
@plumasfiresafe
@hayforkwatershedcenter
@featherrivercollege
@featherriverrcd
@calfirelassenmodoc
@csuc_reserves
Quincy Fire Department
Meadow Valley Fire Department

Partnerships are a driver of our prescribed burn a

Partnerships are a driver of our prescribed burn association.

On Thursday and Friday last week, PUC assisted the Dembosz family with an underburn on their property and an adjoining neighbors’. Nearly 7 acres were burned in order to protect 4 adjacent homes and restore forest health in a ponderosa pine and California black oak dominated stand, with occasional sugar pines, Douglas firs, and incense cedars.

While PUC is mostly volunteer-based, many community burns are supported by staff from other organizations. On the Dembosz Underburn this included personnel from CAL FIRE Lassen-Modoc Unit, Feather River College, and Quincy Volunteer Fire Department. These burns provide really great training opportunities for student-employees from Feather River College and strong community outreach opportunities for firefighters from CAL FIRE and Quincy Fire. Folks from partner organizations fill any of the roles a PUC volunteer might fill.

Like usual, staff from Plumas County Fire Safe Council and Feather River RCD assisted the landowners with burn plans, community outreach, site prep, and securing amongst many other tasks. The Quincy Firewise Community and Greg Kinne were major drivers for doing prep work and promoting prescribed fire and defensible space cutting in Quincy.

Other organizations that have been present on PUC burns in the past year are Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve, Butte RCD/PBA, the Watershed Center, Sierra Institute, various Plumas County Firewise Communities, Plumas National Forest, Terra Fuego, UC Berkeley Forestry Camp, and Healthy Forest Alliance. Often partners are able to come because of their affiliation with our Plumas or Butte Cal-TREX (prescribed fire training exchange) programs, which staff from PUC parent organizations PCFSC and FRRCD help coordinate each year.

@the_healthy_forest_alliance @featherrivercollege @envrstudies @calfirelassenmodoc @csuc_reserves @sierra.institute @terra_fuego @butte_rcd @hayforkwatershedcenter @ucanr

This past weekend PUC was able to assist a family

This past weekend PUC was able to assist a family in Butterfly Valley with pile burning.

Butterfly Valley is consistently an awesome space to host PUC volunteers as many of the landowners regularly use burning as a way to steward their landscapes. At each burn there are always new faces entering an awesome community of fire practitioners in Plumas County. Volunteers came from all over the County to help out and in return Kami, the landowner, made chili for all 44 people. Kids, adults, and dogs all had a great time socializing and knowledge was shared among all parties.

Food and fire are great ways to bring people together on a bluebird winter day.

📸: @lynda.cull and Logan

Plumas Cal-TREX is returning this spring for the 5

Plumas Cal-TREX is returning this spring for the 5th time, offering yet another week of hands-on education and learning for prescribed fire students, professionals, and enthusiasts!

Plumas Cal-TREX (short for “Training Exchange”) is a prescribed fire training opportunity held over the course of one week, from April 28th to May 4th, 2024 in Greenville, CA. This event brings together fire professionals and non-traditional partners in a joint effort to restore the ecological and community protection benefits of “good fire.” The TREX model provides peer-to-peer learning and training for fire professionals, weekend burn pile aficionados, and anyone in between to gain certifications and experiences with a goal of increasing the number of qualified personnel able to work on prescribed fires in Plumas County.

This training exchange model helps support groups like PUC, a Plumas-county-based group of citizens who assist each other in the use of prescribed fire throughout the county. The group helps landowners navigate permitting, logistics, and provides tools and volunteers on burn days. Many PUC members have an interest in furthering their experience with prescribed fire, so the TREX event is a welcome opportunity to participate in something that is often accessible only to agency employees.

The our application form and more info can be found in the link in our bio. Have questions? Email logan@plumasfiresafe.org.

Pile burning in the snow! On January 6th and 7th,

Pile burning in the snow!

On January 6th and 7th, PUC volunteers, staff from @sierra.institute, and participants from Butte Cal-TREX gathered in Taylorsville to help Conni burn some piles that were created during an NRCS EQIP contract to reduce wildland fuel build-up. The first lower-elevation (3,500 ft.) snow of the year led to great burning conditions!

Burning in inclement weather has its pros and cons. The chance of pile escape is significantly lowered, but piles can be very difficult to light and a low atmospheric inversion often means that smoke can’t disperse as well as in clear-sky conditions.

Because of this, we took lots of measures to avoid “smoking out” the nearby neighborhood.

What are some ways you can decrease smoke impacts on your community?
- notify community members of your actions and intentions
- distribute air purifiers to those who may be more adversely impacted by smoke than the general population
- burn on approved burn days, as establish by your local Air Quality Management District
- burn on days when winds are predicted to blow away from your community
- burn on days with favorable mixing height/ventilation rate
- allow cut material to dry/cure
- cover your piles with plastic or wax paper
- construct larger piles that will burn hotter
- light your piles after 9 am so that the piles will burn during the warmest, most favorable time of day
- barring containment concerns, once your first pile is lit, light as many piles as quickly as possible to “punch” smoke above the inversion into the influence of transport winds
- extinguish your piles before evening to reduce overnight smoldering

Our favorite tool to determine favorable conditions is NWS’ Fire Weather Dashboard (www.weather.gov/dlh/fwd).

These are general guidelines we follow to avoid causing smoke impacts to our community. All of this advice is assuming you are working with permission to burn from your local Air Quality Management District and your local fire management authority, including permits if applicable based on location and time of year. @northernsierraairquality and @calfirelassenmodoc are awesome agency partners and we maintain a great relationship with both!

This evening about 16 PUC volunteers helped Gia an

This evening about 16 PUC volunteers helped Gia and Dan burn some piles in Butterfly Valley.

This was our PUC meeting for the month of November. Sometimes we watch a PowerPoint, sometimes we chat about goals and priorities, and sometimes we eat sausages as our piles slowly creep together!

Fire, no matter the circumstance, brings people together. During large wildfires and structure fires people band together to support each other. When a neighbor burns some piles and needs a hand, people show up. PUC is not just an avenue for capacity building, volunteerism, or training; it’s away for our awesome Plumas community to become stronger and tighter knit!

The weekend training component of Butte Cal-TREX 2

The weekend training component of Butte Cal-TREX 2023 was a blast!

Folks from all around Northern California, and beyond, gathered in Forest Ranch and Cohasset for 2 weekends of hands-on learning and networking.

The host sites of @csuc_reserves and Maple Creek Ranch made for an awesome backdrop and classroom full of Sierra foothills mixed conifer goodness. Folks learned how to operate pumps, construct handline, burn unit prep considerations, and so much more while under big California black oaks (Quercus kelloggii) and gray pines (Pinus sabiniana).

Our TREX weekends are fantastic for the beginner and intermediate firelighter to learn basic fire skills and allow folks from NGOs, special districts, PBAs, and others to learn about what their counterparts are doing around the state.

Folks are now available for on-call burning in Butte and Plumas Counties on private and public lands as burn windows arrive. We were able to kick this off with some PUC burning on October 24th and a Butte PBA burn on November 2nd.

We were able to underburn 3 acres for our first bu

We were able to underburn 3 acres for our first burn of fall 2023 with the support 20 volunteers and local fire management staff.

Local public perception of prescribed fire, although not quantified, seems to be improving in the past few years. Since the Dixie Fire and the Camp Fire, folks are becoming more open to fuels reduction treatments, dreading the occurrence of another megafire in the Northern Sierras. One of PUC’s goals is to normalize local prescribed fire by increasing visibility. This burn occurred along a moderately trafficked road in Quincy. With the support of Plumas County Roads Department, we placed our “Prescribed Fire Ahead” signs along some County-owned “Slow Down” signs. We hope that the black along the road will not be seen as a nuisance or the result of something scary, but rather the culminating effort of community organizing.

Quincy Firewise Community, another local grassroots volunteer group, has put in hundreds of hours of thinning, piling, and burning along Quincy Junction Road and other parts of the town. Following up these small fuels treatments with fire will keep reproduction of small conifers down in hopes to decrease ladder fuels in future years, making the standing mature trees more resilient.

PUC’s co-founder, Hannah Hepner, recently took a position with the @hayforkwatershedcenter as their Northern Sierra Prescribed Fire Training Coordinator. This leaves a big hole at @plumasfiresafe, but luckily Hannah is staying local and will still be able to help out on PUC burns, as well as supporting other prescribed burn associations in the region. She is pictured in the first image, leading firing operations for the day.

📷: Matt West

In June PUC was able to pull off a night burn in A

In June PUC was able to pull off a night burn in American Valley.
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As temperatures get warmer and relative humidities become drier, burn windows can become fleeting as spring turns to summer. PUC member Bill led this burn at night to get desired fire effects for the landowner. We were able to help the landowner reduce surface fuels and begin a new fire regime while retaining relatively young sugar pines (Pinus lambertiana). Concerns around mixing heights and smoke dispersal arise when burning at night or under any inversion, but we were able to execute the burn without adversely impacting any homes.
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Photo credit: Brad B.

Plumas Cal-TREX wrapped up our 2023 training excha

Plumas Cal-TREX wrapped up our 2023 training exchange with an offering of S-290 Intermediate Fire Behavior.
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Usually this course is 4 days of PowerPoint presentations, but we wanted to offer a class that took place mostly outside with hands-on lessons and visually stimulating presentations. This idea was inspired by an S-290 hosted by @centralcoastpba and @hayforkwatershedcenter earlier this year.
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In the course, students learned about weather/fuels observations, weather systems, extreme fire behavior, and much more.
We were fortunate to have instructors and students participating while representing the following organizations:
@calfire_butteco
@csuc_reserves
@featherriverrcd
@featherrivercollege
Lassen NF
@mechoopda_oepp
@nws Reno Office
@plumasfiresafe
Plumas NF
@plumasunderburn
@sjsu
@tribalecorestoration
@ucanr
Westwood Fire Department
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This was an awesome way to cap off our training exchange for this year! We were able to engage and network with upwards of 40 organizations, learn some cool stuff, and get meaningful fire on the ground. We are excited to help support Butte Cal-TREX beginning this October!

Over the past 2 weeks 20+ Plumas Cal-TREX particip

Over the past 2 weeks 20+ Plumas Cal-TREX participants have been able to get out and help partners burn, on 4 separate incidents.
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People from @plumasfiresafe, @featherriverrcd, @featherrivercollege, @butte_rcd, @csuc_reserves, and other organizations have assisted the City of Chico Parks Division and Plumas National Forest (Mt. Hough and Beckwourth Ranger Districts) in burning around 300 acres.
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Our TREX program allows fire practitioners to participate in an “on-call crew” format, mobilizing people to help out partner agencies and PBAs in Northern California. These burning opportunities increase capacity of partners and allow participants to get invaluable on-the-job-training opportunities.
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2023 Plumas Cal-TREX is coming to an end - our burn window is closing but we will still be offering some NWCG classes and other trainings over the next month. As Plumas Cal-TREX ends, our incident management team will transition to supporting the Butte Cal-TREX event happening this fall in Butte County, CA.

Native tree Tuesday 👀 Guess this tree! - This t

Native tree Tuesday 👀
Guess this tree!
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This tree is present in Western North America, from Montana to the Pacific Coast. It mostly occurs in drainages, floodplains, and other areas with ample sun and water.
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The tree develops a thick, hard bark over its lifetime, and is very susceptible to heart rot. In Plumas County, this tree generally grows alongside willows, ponderosa pines, Douglas firs, and other trees that can grow near water.
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Because they exist in wetter environments, the fire return interval varies widely, but is not frequent. Young trees can be killed by low intensity fire. Mature trees can be damaged by low-moderate severity fires, but sprout from stumps quickly after disturbance.
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What am I?

This past weekend PUC was happy to support Bob, a

This past weekend PUC was happy to support Bob, a long time prescribed fire practitioner in Plumas County.
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Bob has been stewarding the landscape of Genesee Valley for over 20 years, thinning out conifers and reintroducing fire to promote the growth of California black oaks (Quercus kelloggii). He calls his work the “oak liberation movement” as acorns are “the plankton of the forest,” feeding many fauna. His work of frequent fire implementation (2-5 year burning intervals), mimicking the historic cycle of wildfire and cultural fire in this area, stopped the Dixie Fire in its tracks in 2021. We love burning in Genesee Valley and Bob’s property: the home to many deer that forage off of recently burned shrubs, and wood peckers that call the many oak snags their home.
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Thanks to PUC volunteer Andrea for these beautiful photos, and the @hayforkwatershedcenter for sending their Type 6 fire engine and crew of “Rovers” (Spanish firefighters/fire practitioners).

This past weekend we were able to burn about 7.5 a

This past weekend we were able to burn about 7.5 acres of mixed conifer forest around two homes in Quincy.
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PUC burns take an immense amount of coordination and thrive off of the great partnerships that exist in Plumas County and our region. The burn units were prepped over the past 3 months by volunteers from Quincy Firewise and staff from @featherriverrcd. Planning was done by @plumasfiresafe and PUC volunteers. Burn implementation was done by PUC volunteers, @plumasfiresafe, @csuc_reserves, @envrstudies, CAL FIRE LMU, and Quincy FPD. And none of this would be possible without the cooperation and flexibility of the landowners.
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Team work makes the dream work when restoring forest health and creating defensible space!

Before and after burning the QHS piles.

Before and after burning the QHS piles.

On Easter we wore our Sunday best! - Yesterday PUC

On Easter we wore our Sunday best!
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Yesterday PUC was able to burn 60 piles at Quincy High School, which is located within the Quincy No Burn Area (NBA), established by the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District in the 1980s. This is the first time prescribed fire has been implemented within the NBA since it was established 40 years ago.
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Because of the unprecedented nature of this burn we took many precautions in order to produce minimal smoke impacts to the American Valley. Bill, our burn leader, obtained a special permit from NSAQMD, covered the piles with plastic, let piles sit for 1 year, plumbed a hoselay around the unit, had 2 Type 3 engines on site, and wrangled 21 volunteers to participate in the burn.
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Other layers of complexity included burning on public property (Plumas Unified School District), along Main Street (Hwy. 70/89), and on a holiday.
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Many thanks to Labor of Love (local volunteer group) for thinning and building the piles last year, Terra Fuego for technical support and insurance, and Quincy FPD & CAL FIRE LMU for each sending an engine.

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Plumas Practitioner Archive

See below for an archive of our monthly newsletter, the Plumas Practitioner. Sign up for our newsletter here.

The newsletter is our most up-to-date record of PUC activities and happening related to fire in Plumas County.

Newsletter no. 13, March 2024

Newsletter no. 12, February 2024

Newsletter no. 11, January 2024

Newsletter no. 10, December 2023

Newsletter no. 9, November 2023

Newsletter no. 8, October 2023

Newsletter no. 7, September 2023

Newsletter no. 6, August 2023

Newsletter no. 5, July 2023

Newsletter no. 4, June 2023

Newsletter no. 3, May 2023

Newsletter no. 2, April 2023

Newsletter no. 1, March 2023

Mar 2

Pile Burning Workshop

Employees from the Plumas County Fire Safe Council and University of California Cooperative Extension will be putting on a pile workshop on March 18th, 2023.…

Feb 14

2023 Plumas Cal-TREX

REGISTRATION NOW CLOSED Plumas County and PUC are excited to host and support the fourth Plumas Cal-TREX event! Through this event agencies, NGOs, and others…

Dec 9

Resilience in the face of the Dixie Fire

Dedicated PUC Member Jeff Greef held a prescribed fire in Spring 2021 at his home supported by neighbors and PUC members. Mere months later the…

Jan 26

2020 Plumas Cal-TREX

Local groups plan prescribed burn events this fall It has been a rare opportunity to utilize prescribed fire across land-ownerships in Plumas County, but that…

Mar 24

Dutch Oven Cook-off Fundraiser

Burn piles raise funds for good fire On March 24, 2019, PUC held it’s first fundraiser. The Meadow Valley Fire Department provided the venue for…

Jan 26

Pile Party!

In beautiful Genesee Valley, Bob Beckwith opened his property to a group interested in learning more about efficiently building and burning piles.

Dec 21

Popp Property Pile Burning

PUC’s First Event! In December of 2018, before PUC even had a name yet, several folks rallied to burn piles on La Porte Rd. David…