Rx Fire Updates

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Latest Press Releases

Rx Fire Updates

April 30, 2026

The WFR crew burned 12 piles today at Butano, we are finished lighting for the season and will start mopping up tomorrow and should be out of there by early afternoon. 

The Habitat crew burned 23 piles at Wilder, all of those are out cold.

We'll be back soon to tell you more about the Henry Cowell Sandhills burn near the campground. We anticipate that will take place between the end of May and mid-June. 

That’s all for now. 

April 30, 2026

The Wildfire and Forestry Resiliency crew was able to burn 26 piles at Butano yesterday along Canyon Trail. 

They will be trying for another good day there today. 

The Habitat crew is also burning at Año and were able to burn 4 piles in the back country behind Quiroste Valley yesterday. They are burning some maintenance piles at Wilder Ranch today.   

April 29, 2026

The crew was able to burn 22 piles yesterday. Many of them took a fair bit of preparation as the ceanothus regrowth is extensive and many had trees that came down on them that needed to be cleaned up. We’re back at it today.  

April 27, 2026

Last week at Big Basin, we successfully burned 25 piles in the rain, we lit them all on Tuesday and they were out by Thursday mid-day. That wrapped up an impressive Pilot fuel reduction and forestry restoration project in this part of the park. We will continue to build on that work in the Sky Meadow area starting later this summer. 

Meanwhile, this is the last week of Burn Pile season! We are wrapping up some odds and ends. We feel confident about conditions given these last late season storms that have provided some moisture.

Tuesday through Friday – ~90 Trail Crew piles along Jackson Flats and Canyon Trails all the way out to the Trail Camp in Butano State Park, over in San Mateo County.

April 21, 2026

Today we begin burning the remaining 25 machine piles at Big Basin on Lodge Rd. 

We anticipate lighting all of them today and they will burn down over the next four days. They should be out by the end of day on Friday.

April 18, 2026

Reporting in for the last two days. We successfully burned all remaining piles this week. By rough count that’s 20 four weeks ago, 60 one week ago and 183 this week – 263 piles plus countless additional feeder piles.

We are still staffing the piles 24/7, crews are letting the last of the piles burn down and are mopping up remaining piles over the weekend. The hope is that everything is out by Sunday sometime.

Because we have rain coming, thankfully, next week we plan to head to Big Basin to burn the last 25 machine made piles along Lodge Rd. on Tuesday-Friday.

April 16, 2026

Yesterday we had a lot of piles that didn’t burn all the way overnight, so we spent the morning pushing ends in and getting all the fuel to consume. After that the crews were able to light 62 piles. That leaves around 33 piles for today.

Because this is 2 miles of trail we have been covering, it’s a significant area to patrol so we are going to put out the piles we lit on Tuesday to start shrinking the territory we patrol. We will be out there all weekend and slowly work to help the fires burn out. 

April 14, 2026

We finally timed it near perfectly. We had both the Habitat and the Wildfire and Forestry Resiliency Crew working together to make a big push after the rains this weekend. Fifteen folks were able to burn a whopping 106 burn piles including a fair amount of “feeder” piles with wood that is stacked nearby the built pile which we load on once the fire gets going.

We anticipate another good day tomorrow. 

April 9, 2026

The warm, dry weather created drier conditions than we typically like to burn piles under but State Park crews were able to still burn close to 80 piles over the past few days. We currently have a crew out there patrolling and working piles so they fully consume by end of today. With the rain forecasted over the weekend, we’re hopeful we’ll be able to make a big push next week and complete burning of piles at Fall Creek for the season. 

April 7, 2026

We head to Fall Creek today to burn more piles. These are the same piles along Ridge Trail we attempted two weeks ago when the weather got too warm and dry. We will start on the ridge up near Fall Creek Truck Trail and work our way down this time. 

The predicted rain should help put them out on Friday.

April 3, 2026

This week's burning update is that on Wednesday we were able to burn 40 piles. Yay! Then with the predicted winds for Thursday we called off any additional ignitions. The Wildfire and Forestry Resiliency Crew have been letting things cook down and they should have all the piles mopped up and out cold by this afternoon.

There are still 26 piles that need to be burned. Hopefully we'll get some more rain and be able to burn them later this month. 

Next week we return to Fall Creek to burn the piles along Ridge Trail. 

March 31, 2026

Today was a pretty good day. We burned off some of the most challenging piles given the showers we got this morning. We burned 31 piles of the 95. We are hoping to burn 45 tomorrow with help from CalFire. 

March 30, 2026

As promised, we are headed back to Big Basin to continue burning the piles that were created as part of the Lodge Road Fuel Reduction Project. There are 95 piles remaining of ~180. These are big piles created by heavy equipment and we need a little moisture to burn them comfortably and safely. We will be joined by CalFire on Tuesday and the Central Coast Prescribed Burn Association on Thursday. We are looking forward to a good week of burning in the rain. 

March 25, 2026

Well, it got too warm and dry folks. Once we were about 100 feet above the creek the RH dropped below 30 before 1pm. So we called off additional burning as it was going to be more challenging the further we went up Ridge trail. 

Next week we are looking at rain returning. We will shift our focus and head to burning the large machine made piles at Big Basin and plan to go back to Fall Creek the week after the rain when the surrounding forest is wetter. 

March 24, 2026

I wanted to let you all know that we will be burning piles in Fall Creek this week starting this morning. It’s warm this week but still 20° cooler than last week, which means we have to go slow but I anticipate we will remain in prescription.  

March 18, 2026

Our burning didn’t go as well as we would would have liked. We were out of prescription on the ridge and midslope with a relative humidity (RH) of 29% before 10am. We don’t usually hit the forecasted low until the afternoon. But right down by the Little Butano Creek we were at 70% RH so we were able to burn piles along there. We got 17 piles over these two days and we will have the piles out by tomorrow morning.

The forecast is for cooler temperatures next week and if conditions are right we will try and head back to Butano or to Fall Creek…

March 16, 2026

We are headed to Butano tomorrow-Friday to burn piles made as part of the CZU Fire cleanup to clear the trail routes. 

March 10, 2026

Turns out it was a challenge to burn today and our wet chips smothered whatever fire we got going. This was our first time trying to burn chips and you learn something every time you try and burn. So, unfortunately, we’re calling it off and will not be burning the chips but will be spreading them in situ 

March 10, 2026

We are headed to Portola tomorrow to burn a gigantic pile of wood chips. This pile was created last summer as part of the CCC project to create defensible space around park buildings. 

We are using our air curtain burner which uses a rotating sheet of forced air to contain and re-burn smoke and embers. This allows us to burn in sub optimal or less than ideal conditions.  Maintenance will be loading the chips with heavy equipment and we will be present with our fire engines. 

We are planning to finish up on Friday if conditions allow. 

February 6, 2026

State Parks' Wildfire and Forestry Resiliency crew was joined by a handful of trail crew to burn a total of 104 piles from Sequoia, Blooms Connector, Hihn Hammond, and Skyline-to-the Sea Trail at Big Basin. Today we will finish mopping up our piles from yesterday and call it done. 

If a little moisture materializes next week we will try for Fall Creek.

February 4, 2026
Yesterday we burned 49 piles at Big Basin along the Sequoia Trail and Blooms Connector trail. We’ll be back again today for more and will be focused primarily on the Skyline-to-Sea and the Hihn Hammond area. 

February 3, 2026
Fire can be finnicky, today we pivoted and we are headed back to Big Basin to burn in the HQ area. We are burning piles which were created by the trail crew as part of re-building the trails. 

We will be burning this week Tues-Fri, and as always, these piles are monitored 24/7 until they are out.

February 2, 2026
In 2020, the CZU Lightning Complex Fire burned through, up to and near the Ridge Trail in Henry Cowell's Fall Creek Unit. Tomorrow, we plan to head up to Fall Creek to begin burning 263 piles that were prepared along the Ridge Trail. This work was funded through a CalFire Forest Health Grant to return fire to a fire adapted ecosystem and create a shaded fuel break along the eastern edge of Fall Creek.  

January 31, 2026
We had a very good day at Henry Cowell. We were joined by CalFire, Maintenance, Interpreter, Volunteer and Visitor Service staff. 

So many folks were out enjoying the excellent weather and taking photo ops of large “campfires” which dotted the view throughout the grove. A total of 81 piles were burned. We only heard positive feedback from visitors even though smoke did sit in the valley during the middle of the day. 

We have folks on the piles overnight and we will begin putting out any that still have heat in them tomorrow morning.

January 30, 2026
Tomorrow is a burn day, so we will be burning our piles made by volunteers at Henry Cowell in the Old Growth Loop. No trails will be closed and additional docents will be available to talk about the process. Come on out and have a look or follow us on Watch Duty at the link below if you’re interested.  

January 26, 2026
Yesterday (Jan 25), State Park crews began efforts to extinguish (mop-up) any hot spots/smokes within the burn plot. We’re optimistic that by this evening we’ll have this burn plot out cold and will be able to start the de-mobilization process which includes pulling signs, hose, water tank and rehabbing control lines. 

January 23, 2026
Crews continued burning heavier fuels along the burn plot’s edge and will be monitoring the burn through the evening. Parks staff will be patrolling 24/7 through the weekend as there are still several hot spots and smokes that will extend for the next several days. By Monday, we’ll start to increase efforts in mopping up or extinguishing the fire. We’re currently anticipating wrapping this thing up and getting the plot fully extinguished by early/mid next week. 

January 22, 2026
Today was a day spent focused on burning up some of the heavier and higher concentration of fuels along the perimeter of the burn plot in effort to better secure the fire control lines. Though not nearly as glamorous as the days spent with drip torches setting fire to things, days like today are critical in the successful implementation of these burns. Big shout out to the crew for the hard work!

Parks staff will be patrolling the burn through the evening and tomorrow will begin mopping up (extinguishing) hot spots along the perimeter.

January 20, 2026
We managed to light all of our 13 acre plot at the top of Nisene Marks today with the help of CalFire and Mid Pen. This resulted in a low intensity burn in most of the plot and complete consumption of all of our remaining piles in this area. Our crews will be monitoring the burn around the clock until it’s out which we expect may take as much as ten days. 

January 19, 2026
We have put out all the burn piles at Big Basin. 

We are now prepared to light a 13 acre broadcast burn at Nisene Marks tomorrow. We are waiting on final air quality approval which won't come until tomorrow at 7am, but tomorrow is listed as a burn day, and we are hopeful. If you see smoke coming from the ridge above Santa Cruz in the Aptos area, that's us. 

January 17, 2026
We had a great day burning piles in the Old Growth Loop. A total of 52 piles were burned by both Natural Resources Crews and two CalFire crews. We are grateful for all the docents and interpreter staff who were there to interpret to the public. 

If you missed it today and are interested in seeing a whole bunch of burn piles on fire, come join us in a couple weeks at Henry Cowell on Jan 31.  

Tomorrow and Monday we will finish up the piles on Lodge Rd before we head to Nisene Marks for our broadcast burn. 

January 16, 2026
Today, our third day of burning piles at Big Basin went well, we lit the remaining 25 piles and revisited all the piles from Wednesday and Thursday. 

Revisiting them is called bone piling. This consists of restacking the partially burnt logs and adding some more logs, twigs and leaves to get the pile to light again. I like to think of it as a great game of pick up sticks which we do over and over and over again.  

Tomorrow we pivot to the Old Growth Loop where we will burn 52 piles made by volunteers!

January 15, 2026
Today’s burning was a little spicier with the last week of warm weather and dry conditions making the fuel surrounding the piles more likely to burn. Nothing worrying - just not the cake walk that yesterday was. We were able to burn 45 more piles nevertheless. 

Tomorrow we have another 25 piles or so to finish up before we shift to the old growth loop on Saturday. 

January 14, 2026
Pile burning today went remarkably well, almost couldn’t ask for better conditions. We lit 35 large piles and will continue burn through the rest of the week. As always, we will staff them until they are out. 

Looking forward to Saturday's burn pile day in the Old Growth Loop.

January 13, 2026
Tomorrow we begin a round of pile burning at Big Basin. We will be starting with piles up on Lodge Road and on Saturday we will shift to the Old Growth Loop for a day of outreach to the public while we burn the volunteer created piles. All trails will be open. 

Even more exciting than our pile burning is that the weather is looking good for a 13 acre broadcast burn at Nisene Marks on Tuesday, January 20th. Burning will be in cooperation with CalFire and will take a day of ignitions. Burn down will take a couple more days. If Tuesday, doesn't work out--we will try for Wednesday and so on. There are a lot more moving parts to that burn and it will only happen if all the conditions line up for it. If conditions don't line up we will continue to burn piles at Big Basin through Wednesday of that week. 

January 8, 2026
California State Parks will conduct pile burning at Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz County beginning January 14th. Monitoring and patrol will occur throughout this period and extend into the evening when required. All burning is dependent on weather and air quality conditions that are favorable for smoke dispersal and to meet ecological goals. If conditions are not conducive for burning, burns will be rescheduled. 

Past Updates & Archive

2025 | 2024 | 2023

January 26, 2026
Yesterday (Jan 25), State Park crews began efforts to extinguish (mop-up) any hot spots/smokes within the burn plot. We’re optimistic that by this evening we’ll have this burn plot out cold and will be able to start the de-mobilization process which includes pulling signs, hose, water tank and rehabbing control lines.