n forestry
C
al Fire Battalion Chief Sean Griffis
spots smoke rising in the distance,
about 10 miles from where he stands
on a hill in Nevada County. He had
approved a burn permit for a pri-
vate property in that area, but there’s
more smoke than he would expect.
He calls the nearest fire station to
check it out. He can never be too
careful these days.
On this May morning, Griffis is
with his four-man crew as they do
cutting and pile burning, remov-
ing brush that had grown 8 feet tall
in many places. The work is almost
a daily occurrence in this part of
the Sierra Nevada foothills during
the spring. This job is on 200 acres
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Sean Griffis serves as a “burn boss,” meaning he oversees
prescribed fire programs and leads crews to conduct these fires.
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comstocksmag.com | June 2019
at Reader Ranch, whose owners are
clearing land for cattle grazing and
to reduce wildfire risk. The ranch
is in the footprint of the 49er Fire,
which tore through Nevada Coun-
ty in 1988, causing what was, at the
time, unprecedented damage.
“The operations chief, at that
time for the fire, came out and was
recorded as saying, this is the fire of
the future, this is what we’re going
to see from here on out,” says Griff-
is, who is in his 40th fire season.
“Over the years, he has been proven
correct. … The 49er Fire was for the
folks before me, my predecessors, my
mentors, my captains that I worked
for, that was their fire of a lifetime.
But now I’m having one of those ev-
ery year.”
Most of the state’s largest wild-
fires have happened in the past 15
years. The last two years have broken
records for death and destruction.
Today’s conditions are unlike any-
thing from the past. Warmer tem-
peratures and decreased humidity
— driven by climate change — and
heavy vegetation in California’s for-
ests can turn a spark into a massive
threat. Flames burn hotter and move
faster, creating infernos with their
own weather patterns. Blazes burn
during months when historically the
fuels would have been too wet, like
what happened with the Camp Fire
in Butte County that burned most of
Paradise in November 2018.
The U.S.’s approach to forests
has long been a misinformed re-