Humboldt County PBA members and friends:
I hope this finds everyone happy and healthy! We were glad to see some of you in late October at our burn in Kneeland, and we have our fingers crossed for some nice dry spells this winter where we can do some oak woodland and/or other burning. Also remember that as PBA members, you are welcome to borrow equipment from our burn trailer—just let us know what you’re working on and we’ll help set you up. Jeff has been busy spending various grants, and our PBA cache is pretty impressive. New additions include leaf blowers, more hand tools, and a bunch of other great stuff!
CAL FIRE notified us yesterday that fire season will officially be over as of next Monday, December 9 (see attached press release). From Dec. 9 through May 1, 2020, you will not need CAL FIRE permits for your prescribed fire or pile burning projects. You will still need air quality permits (and smoke management plans for projects >1 acre), as they are required year round, but remember that recent Air Board decisions and state grant funding have made it so air quality permits are now free for most of the projects PBA members are doing! Don’t forget to renew your air quality permits (they expire Dec. 31) so you can be ready to jump on burn windows in the new year. (We’ve noticed over the past few years that the first week of January tends to be beautiful for burning but hard if you haven’t renewed your permits—see attached pic from Jan. 2, 2019.) And remember that it’s always a good idea to notify CAL FIRE and your local fire departments if you’re burning, even if you don’t need a permit.
Many people have been asking us why the PBA didn’t do more burning this fall, and I wanted to share a couple of thoughts. The primary reason is that we didn’t have many burn units that were fully prepped and ready to go for the fall window. Several projects were close but not quite ready because they are receiving federal funding that has extra strings attached, and other landowners were excited to burn but didn’t quite have their units prepped or their air quality permits and SMPs in place. I think many of these projects will be ready by spring or next fall, but it’s a good reminder that we need to be thinking about project prep and air quality year-round so we’re not scrambling to pull things together at the last minute. And I recommend talking to me and/or Jeff if you are trying to secure grant funding for your projects—it’s good to consider the various ways funding can be a barrier in itself. It’s a learning process, though, and we’re all just figuring it out 😊
We will be in touch soon with the dates for our spring member meeting (likely in March), and we’ll let you know when/if we are able to do some winter burning. Winter oak woodland burning is my personal favorite!
Thanks to everyone for your support and enthusiasm. Hope to see you all soon!
Lenya
2019 HUU FIRE SEASON TRANSITION