CA-R05Fire & Aviation Management

2021 Region 5 Fire Messages

• The safety of the public, communities and all front-line responders remains our highest priority. The primary response strategy for 2021 will be to continue using local area resources from all partners to achieve rapid containment of fires when they are small, helping reduce the number of large wildfires.
• California has the potential to have another significant fire year, like what was experienced in 2020. The most overlooked factors that determine how bad a fire year will be are the number of ignitions and their locations. Most wildfire ignitions are caused by human activities. Remote locations and difficult access can hamper quick control/containment efforts.
• The Pacific Southwest Region is ready to respond to wildfires and is working in close coordination with tribal, state, and local partners to deploy wildland firefighting resources to protect our communities when called upon to serve.
• Fire does not know which side of the road it's burning on. California's public lands are a patchwork, in size and scale, that are managed by different federal and state entities, and we all see wildfire response as a collective responsibility.
• Federal firefighters are national resources and are mobilized to the highest priority fires in the U.S. This changes throughout the season and our firefighters based in California regularly go on out-of-state assignments. Resources from other geographic areas of the U.S. regularly support fires in California.
• We will rely on the collective strength of the wildland firefighting system that has access to national agency and interagency resources as well as resources from a wide range of federal, tribal, state, local, and international partners.
• All Californians can be assured that the USDA Forest Service, other federal agencies, tribal, state, and local partners stand together, ready to respond to wildfires during the 2021 fire year.
• Our federal agencies, tribal, state, and local partners stand together, ready to respond to wildfire during the 2021 fire year. We are adjusting how we fight fire in response to the ongoing pandemic and as vaccines become more widely available as part of our commitment to protect the American people and our lands.
• The USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region has innovative firefighting technology and is invested in the growth and use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), FireWATCH & Cobra AH-1 helicopters to support wildland fire operations.
• Managing wildfires is inherently complex and challenging, and compounded by climate change. Climate change has brought longer fire seasons; wildfires occurring outside of historic fire seasons in different parts of the country; wildfires burning more land on average each year; more extreme fire behavior; and the increased frequency of wildfires in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) impacting more homes and communities.
• Healthy, thriving forests and grasslands are less vulnerable to extreme wildfires that can devastate watersheds, destroy wildlife habitat, and risk lives. Healthy landscapes can more easily adapt to environmental change, invasive species, and insect infestations. Unfortunately, keeping fire out of these lands has left forests and grasslands crowded with flammable vegetation, resulting in longer fire seasons, droughts, and insect infestations. Whole landscapes are now more vulnerable to devastating, extreme wildfires.
• Wildfires do not stop at property boundaries. Communities and residents must take responsibility to prepare for wildfire. The USDA Forest Service works in partnership with national, regional, state, tribal, local government, and non-government organizations to reduce the risk of cross-boundary wildfires. The biggest challenge to wildfire risk reduction is local capacity to promote and accomplish risk reduction projects on the ground.

National Cohesive Strategy

• U.S. Forest Service personnel in California plan and implement projects and activities consistent with the National Cohesive Strategy on a year-around basis. The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy is a strategic push to work collaboratively among all stakeholders and across all landscapes, using best science, to make meaningful progress towards the three goals:
• Resilient Landscapes
• Fire Adapted Communities
• Safe and Effective Wildfire Response
• Overall strategy and the Western Region Action Plan

2019 Summary

Unmanned Aircraft (UAS)

R5 2020 YTD Wildfire Statistics

R5 Wildfire This Week Last Year (2019)

R5 10 Year Wildfire Average

FY20 YTD Region 5 Fuels Statistics