Burn Boss: Leading the Charge in Prescribed Fire Safety

In California’s forests, where the fear of fire is real, the title “Burn Boss” reflects a level of training and experience valuable throughout the Sierras for using ‘good fire.’ Organizations up and down the state are working to make prescribed fire a safe land management tool for private landowners.

Nevada County resident Cordi Craig holds the formal designation “State-Certified Burn Boss (CARX),” and is proud of the contribution she makes as Prescribed Fire Program Manager at Placer County Resource Conservation District (RCD), where she helps private landowners understand fire behavior and prepare to use prescribed fire to improve forest ecology and protect themselves and their neighbors.

The designation is part of California’s effort to decrease catastrophic wildfires by reducing the fuel load on a million acres of forest a year. It’s a very ambitious goal.RCD is approaching the challenge with the conviction that you can “burn a million acres by training a million landowners to burn one acre.” Simplifying prescribed fire, where possible, is one of their strategies.

Although her job is all about education, support, and access to resources, Craig comes to the work with a hands-on background in wildland firefighting. Granted, she doesn’t look the part; slender, young and female. Don’t be fooled; she is both physically and mentally tough. Craig was a respected member of a Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest firefighting crew when the RCD snagged her. Long before that, she was an AmeriCorps member tasked with measuring greenhouse gasses in mountain meadows, where a love of wild places took deep root. After college, she knew she needed the kind of experience you get outside academia – for instance, on the business end of a McLeod, hand-cutting a fire line. She recognized that to earn co-workers’ respect, “you need to be able to swing a tool. You need to be able to keep swinging for twelve hours without complaining.”

As a result, today she doesn’t just explain what a landowner or contractor needs to do for a prescribed burn, she often uses training burns to demonstrate. “I never ask anyone to do work I’m not willing to do myself,” she explains.

Craig’s job begins when someone contacts the RCD looking for information about a possible prescribed burn. Whether it’s a half-acre parcel or dozens of acres, the first step is a site visit.

Craig walks the property with the owner or the person they have contracted for the work, assessing the variables that will affect fire safety: wind, relative humidity, temperature, topography, and the like.

The goal is to minimize risk and reduce complexity as much as possible. Craig says, “Similar to learning to use a chainsaw or drive a car, landowners can learn how to use these dangerous tools safely, with the appropriate protective gear, and the competence to recognize what is above their skill level and when they need professional assistance.” It’s an educational process. Craig points out the specific challenges and opportunities the proposed site offers, detailing what safe burn management will involve on the specific property.

It’s called “prescribed” fire, she says, “because, similar to a doctor’s prescription, the burn is conducted under a specific dose to achieve an objective. Low-complexity prescribed fire is implemented under a specific range of temperature, relative humidity, and wind parameters, especially for private landowners using low-complexity prescribed fire.” The landowner must obtain the particular legal permits required for a prescribed burn, no matter how small, and Craig enjoys serving as a guide throughout the pre-burn process.

As an employee of the RCD, she’s a technical advisor, hosting low-complexity demonstration and training burns so landowners can feel more comfortable using fire as a land management tool on their own properties. Craig strongly recommends attending a training burn for some real-life familiarity. “Gaining experience at prescribed burns is critical to improving your skills, knowledge, and confidence in prescribed burning,” she offers.

Although Craig has a real heart for the “down and dirty” work involved in a live prescribed fire, she is equally committed to increasing fire literacy throughout the community. Her goal is making prescribed fire safe, accessible and better understood by the community.

In addition to advising individual landowners, Craig regularly offers free workshops and virtual seminars on weather/fuels/fire interaction for anyone who’s curious about the “good fire” process. The next one scheduled is “Understanding Fuels, Weather, and Rx Burn Prescriptions,” December 4, 5:30-7:00 PM To register, contact cordi@placerrcd.org.

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“Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment! See next week’s Messenger for more on what’s being done to make prescribed burns safe, legal and accessible.”