2024

Press Release Archive

Past Updates

December 19, 2024
The natural resource crew worked hard all day today tidying up and putting out our burn piles. The majority are out, and are being patrolled overnight, but a smaller crew will be back tomorrow to take care of the rest of them. With rain predicted for early Saturday morning we are hopeful that this round of burning will be over and we can get back to it in January. 

December 18, 2024
Due to the warmer, drier weather, no additional piles were ignited today. Instead, crews spent the day pushing in ends and cleaning up the black between the (~400) piles and surrounding fuels. State Park staff will be monitoring piles overnight and we’ll be back at it again tomorrow. More of the same for tomorrow as weather remains warm and dry and no new ignitions planned. 

December 17, 2024
It was a beautiful day in Nisene Marks, we lit another 220+ piles along Santa Rosalia Ridge. It was a good to have a clear day without the rain cooling the piles off. Crews will be here through the night. Tomorrow, we will be tending the piles (no new lighting) and through the rest of the week. We will be back again in the new year for another round of burning.

December 16, 2024
The resource crews got busy and lit roughly 200 burn piles today before the rain shut them down. They will be back at it again tomorrow.

November 13, 2024
In a good year, our window for burning our grasslands at Wilder can range up to several days; this year’s window lasted just four hours… Thanks to the hard work of our crews, we were able to successfully burn 200 acres of grass before the light rain moved in and put us out of prescription until next year. 

November 10, 2024
The atmosphere has finally begun to moisten ahead of predicted rains. We patrolled our burn yesterday and will continue today. If we get the rain that is predicted this will be our last patrol and last update for this burn.

Next up on our list for burning are the coastal prairies at Wilder Ranch.

November 8, 2024
We are in patrol status for our burn at Butano. We will have a State Parks engine on scene from 0800 to sunset through the holiday weekend, or until it rains. The hazard from falling trees is significantly diminished, but we are suggesting that trail closures be extended through the weekend. 

November 7, 2024
We are in patrol mode on our burn, waiting for rain. We had to fell a large Douglas fir that threatened the campground today. After three days of pumping water into it and using all the tools we have developed over the years for putting fire out in big trees, we were losing the battle and had to resort to a saw and a jack to put it on the ground safely. 

November 6, 2024
More of the same on the plot today. So far, the red flag conditions haven’t given us significant problems. We will keep an eye on things through tonight and look forward to cooler, calmer weather predicted for Thursday and Friday.  

November 4, 2024
A quiet, smokey day on our burn. We are cleaning up trails and have begun to ‘mop up’ near our control lines. This is the process of putting out any fire or smoldering fuels on the edges of our plot to make an escape less likely during the predicted hotter, drier and windier weather that is predicted for the middle of this week. 

November 3, 2024
It was a relatively quiet day on the burn plot today. We got help from visitor services as we continue to clean up the debris from trees that have fallen in the campground and across trails. Most of what is still burning on the plot are the stumps and roots of Douglas fir trees that were killed in the CZU Fire in 2020. Although it’s been breezy, we haven’t had any control issues so far. 

November 2, 2024
These last two rain events have calmed our fire down, and we watched a motivated giant salamander head for the creek to breed. However, there is still active fire in the bases of some old growth redwoods around the Butano campground. We will continue to work on that as we head into a drying trend predicted for early this next week. 

November 1, 2024
We are happy to have rain in the forecast, but the prediction is for it to be followed by dry windy weather bordering on a red flag warning. We’ll be patrolling our burn through it all and do not anticipate any issues. 

October 31, 2024
Yesterday marked the end of ignitions at the burn plot while we also welcomed rain later in the night. We received a little less than a quarter of an inch which settled remaining active areas down significantly. We still have fire in both large firs and redwoods and our crew is working to put these out in locations where they are near the parks infrastructure and also cleaning up after those that have already fallen. Our crews will continue to patrol through the weekend while we look forward to more rain. 

October 30, 2024
Burning in redwood forests can be challenging and dangerous. Today we had an incident with an old growth redwood that burned, weakened, and fell unexpectedly. Adapting to fire behavior is a must for our crew when in these situations. After the long hard day, we'll be looking forward to the forecasted rain. Our crews will continue to patrol through the weekend while keeping a sharp eye out for falling trees. 

October 29, 2024
Ignitions began today on our 157-acre prescribed fire on redwood understory at Butano State Park with the help of Cal Fire, the San Mateo Resource District, and Scott’s Valley Fire. Conditions have been ideal to achieve our ecological and fuel reduction objectives. Parks personnel will continue to patrol this burn for the rest of the week. 

July 1, 2024
The prescribed burn on the Hollow Tree Trail is almost out. There are still about a dozen smoldering logs spread over approximately a half mile of trail. The crews will start today to completely extinguish the burn with patrols in the following days. 

June 25, 2024
Last week, the Natural Resources crew began burning a windrow of fuel along Hollow Tree Trail in Big Basin. This is a continuation of the work done in May along Johansen and China Grade Roads. The windrows of fuel have been burning well and creating some smoke. The burn will continue for one to two weeks before it is completely extinguished.

June 19, 2024
The Natural Resources crew staffed the prescribed burn for the last week and finished cleaning up the burned plot today. All the firehose and signs have been removed and the temporary control lines were repaired. The burn is now considered out, although the crew will check it over the next several days to make sure that nothing was missed.

June 13, 2024
The fire crews finished ignitions today on the sandhills burn. Through a combination of good information, strategic decisions, and a bit of luck, they were able to significantly reduce the impact of smoke to both the campers in the park and the residents of the San Lorenzo Valley.

The Natural Resource crew will be out on the plot tomorrow working to secure the burn and consume concentrations of heavy fuels. Crews will be on site 24 hours a day monitoring the burn plot through the weekend, at which time they will reassess the need for further staffing.

Natural Resources staff expect the burn to be completely out by the end of the day on Wednesday, June 19.

June 11, 2024
The  fire crews have authorization and resources to continue their burn at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park near the observation deck tomorrow. They will ignite six and a half more acres left to light and will begin at about 9:00 am.

Today crews patrolled and rearranged fuels to reduce the threat of escape from the plots that were lit yesterday.

After ignitions tomorrow, fire crews will continue to patrol until all the fuels have been consumed and the plot is cold.

June 10, 2024
The first day of the prescribed burn in the sandhills at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park went well, due to all the advanced planning that went into organizing this challenging burn and extra help from Cal FIRE and State Parks staff from Bay Area and Diablo Range Districts. The crews were only able to ignite six and a half acres of a planned thirteen acres due to concerns over smoke impacts, including a pulse of smoke making its way up the San Lorenzo Valley and reducing air quality for a couple of hours after ignitions were completed.

The  crews will work to pile and burn as much of the fuel in the plot as they can tomorrow, and then we will try to complete ignitions on Wednesday, with continued patrols through the weekend.

June 5, 2024
Prescribed fires at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park will begin Monday, June 10 or June 11 or June 12, depending on weather conditions. Ignitions are scheduled to occur between 8 am and 5 pm. Powder Mill Road, Ridge Road and Pine Trail may be closed during the burn operation and the public rerouted during this time. If using the trails during this time period, please follow all directions from State Parks staff and obey trail closure notices to ensure everyone's safety.

This 13-acre prescribed burn near the observation platform is part of a long-term strategy at the state park to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire and to maintain rare ponderosa pine sandhills habitat. This rare habitat type relies on fire to maintain a healthy ecosystem and regenerate sensitive species. In addition, this project provides increased fire protection for nearby residential areas.

The work will be dependent on weather that will facilitate smoke dispersal. Over the days following ignition, the burn will be monitored 24 hours a day.  

May 6, 2024
The Natural Resources crew finished ignitions on Friday before the Saturday rain. For the next few days, they will be patrolling and extinguishing any remaining hot spots. They will finish this clean-up phase on Wednesday and remove the portable tanks and fire hose at that time.

May 3, 2024
Natural Resources crews have finished ignitions on the China Grade Road portion of the plot, and with rain predicted for Saturday morning they will spend today lighting along the Hollow Tree Trail, which is the lower line for the plot. If all goes well, the crews will have reduced the fuels around the edges of this roughly 1,000 acre plot and be in a good position to reduce fuels in the middle of the plot later this year.

Our hope is that this work will reduce fuel loads and prevent a second high intensity fire in this area like what we saw happen in the footprint of the Lockheed Fire, when the CZU Lightning Complex Fire incident reburned that area.

May 1, 2024
This afternoon the relative humidity went outside of the prescription parameters and ignitions were halted. Tomorrow the Natural Resources crews will likely begin lighting concentrations of fuels on the Hollow Tree Trail portion of the plot, which is significantly cooler, wetter, and more sheltered from the wind.

April 29, 2024
We have had very favorable weather for the past couple of days and the Natural Resources crews are looking forward to more of the same. The crews have been able to make progress down China Grade Road ,consuming concentrations of downed branches and trees that were killed in the CZU Lightning Complex Fire, reducing the hazard from these fuels along the road. Crews will continue lighting and patrolling through this week as long as the current conditions continue.

April 24, 2024
The Natural Resources crew had a good day lighting concentrations of heavy fuels along Johansen Road today under cloudy skies that turned to drizzle this afternoon. They will be back tomorrow to do more of the same. 

January 16, 2024
We will start pile burning tomorrow, January 17, through January 24 at Big Basin. The burns will be continuously staffed during this time and will continue as long as there is a permissible burn day. Burning will be along North Escape Rd., Skyline to the Sea, Creeping Forest Trail, the Redwood Loop Trail, Dool Trail, and Meteor Trail. 

Big Basin is open and there will be no trail closures. Burning will happen rain or shine. 

January 8, 2024
We've had a busy start to 2024! Since January 5, we have burned 123 piles at Castle Rock State Park. It’s taking some effort to get the piles lit because it has been so wet recently, but we are making good progress. We hope to finish the remaining 126 piles at Castle Rock in the next three days. 

January 2, 2024
Happy New Year! We will begin pile burning starting tomorrow, January 3, through January 10 at the Fall Creek subunit of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, along the Truck Trail. The burns will be staffed continuously during this time and will continue as long as there is a permissible burn day. As always, permits have been obtained from the Monterey Bay Air Resources District and Cal Fire. Please call Portia Halbert at (831) 251-2883 if you have any questions about pile burning at Fall Creek.

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