Frequently Asked Questions

Prescribed burns, also known as prescribed fires, are controlled, intentionally set fires applied to achieve specific objectives. Objectives include to:

• reduce hazardous fuels and lower the risk of high-severity fire impacting communities

• manage invasive species, such as medusahead, yellow star thistle, and barbed goat grass

• enhance forage production for cattle and wildlife

• recycle nutrients back into the soil

• restore natural ecological processes within fire-adapted ecosystems

As the name implies, prescribed burns are set under a prescription of ideal conditions for safely and effectively burning to meet the specific objectives of the landowner. Prescriptions include conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and fuel moisture. Prescribed burns include both broadcast and pile burns. Broadcast burns involve applying fire to a predetermined area of a landscape whereas pile burns involve burning piles of branches and other fuels. Both are effective land management techniques.

The forests, woodlands, and grasslands throughout California are considered fire-adapted and fire-dependent, meaning that plant and animal communities have developed specific traits to survive wildfires and even to thrive following wildfires. In fact, fire is essential to many of the plant and animal species living around us. Black oaks have a thick bark that allows them to resist fire damage and resprout if their canopy is burned. Giant sequoias require a high temperature for their cones to open and fire removes litter and duff allowing seeds to germinate. Wildlife, such as woodpeckers and deer, are also attracted to recently burned areas due to the abundance of insects and fresh forage. By returning fire to the landscape, we can help restore many of the functions of these fire-adapted ecosystems.

Hazardous fuel loads have built up due to fire exclusion and suppression for over a century in ecosystems across California that once experienced frequent low-severity fire. The accumulation of more live and dead vegetation on the landscape is a large factor contributing to the catastrophic wildfires we are seeing today. By returning fire to the landscape under the right set of conditions, we can reduce these fuel loads and lower the risk of high-severity wildfire in treated areas.  

By signing up for our mailing list, you will learn about all upcoming opportunities to get involved. Emails will be sent out alerting everyone on the mailing list of when burn days or other events will take place, how to register, and provide information for you to be prepared to participate.

We welcome everyone to participate, even if you are just interested in seeing a prescribed fire take place. We love when parents bring kids to our burns and have even had smoke-sensitive participants contribute by taking weather during our burn days.

Once you register for a burn, you will be sent detailed information about the location of the burn, the expected time of briefing, and any other special instructions important to be prepared. When you arrive to the burn site, you will sign a liability waiver and pick up any personal protective equipment (i.e., hard hat, gloves, safety glasses) that you need. We will all circle up to conduct our briefing where we will assign tasks and discuss the objectives, safety, communications, and tactics for the day ahead. If any prep work is needed, such as line construction or thinning, this will be completed following briefing. We will start ignitions once the unit is ready and conditions are favorable. Once we are comfortable turning the responsibility of monitoring the burned area over to the landowner, we will conclude the burn day with an after-action review where we will discuss lessons learned and accomplishments.

• What tools are utilized in a prescribed burn, such as a drip torch, and how to safely use them

• Potential hazards when performing a prescribed burn and how to mitigate them

• Necessary considerations when performing a prescribed burn such as weather forecast, wind, relative humidity

• How various factors such as temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity, terrain, sun exposure, moisture content of fuels targeted to be burned, and changes in those factors can affect a burn

• How to create a burn pile for successful ignition

Prescribed fire does come with risks, such as property damage, personal injury, and legal liability. YGPBC takes all possible action to reduce these risks to landowners and participants by working closely with the local CAL FIRE unit, securing all of the necessary permits, and by only burning when the spread of fire can be well-managed. We do not burn under weather conditions that could lead to unmanageable fire behavior and we will not burn unless we have adequate resources available and fire breaks in place. YGPBC works with participants to ensure they have the necessary knowledge to safely participate by spending time during briefing reviewing safety protocols and known hazards, talking with adjacent landowners, discussing what to do in the event the prescribed burn escapes its control lines, and having knowledgeable and experienced participants engaged in the planning and implementation of all burns. Although escaped prescribed fires often make the news, research shows that the actual occurrence is rare with estimates of less than one percent of all prescribed fires reported as escaping, with most escaped prescribed fires being minimal in size, presenting almost no risk of fatality, and minimal risk of insurance claims or lawsuits. 

No! We are a volunteer-based organization with a goal of making prescribed burning accessible to anyone that wants to be involved. We only ask that you contribute your time and sweat to participate. 

Landowners interested in conducting a prescribed burn on their property should reach out to the YGPBC Coordinator to discuss the available options and to schedule a site visit. During the site visit, we will walk your property, ask about your goals and objectives, and work with you to develop a burn plan and map out a burn unit. We will give you an expected timeframe for your burn but will ask you to be patient as burn windows can be fickle. As this is a volunteer-based program, landowners that have actively participated in other YGPBC burns are prioritized for having their properties burned. 

As the burn day approaches, we will work with you to write a burn plan, secure the necessary permits, and we may need to revisit the property with a CAL FIRE battalion chief to secure a burn permit. In preparation of the burn, we may also ask you to begin preparing your property for the burn day, such as by constructing fire lines and thinning, and to reach out to neighboring property owners to alert them that a burn will be occurring. If you haven’t already participated in YGPBC prescribed burn, we also highly recommend that you join us on a burn day to get a feel for what a prescribed burn may look like on your property.