By Alexandra Garcia – Wildfire season in California has officially begun for 2022, and along with it so have preparations for monitoring and forecasting these destructive events.
Climate change has drastically altered the terrain of California — causing higher temperatures and lengthier dry periods that prolong fire season and increase the risk of wildfires. Public health is a continued concern as the impacts from these fires in the Bay Area infiltrate air quality with wildfire smoke and particulate matter.
A combatting effort to this was presented by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) during a wildfire season preview at the Board of Directors meeting Wednesday. The presentation was provided by manager Tracy Lee and principal air quality specialist Michael Flagg.
Wildfires have certainly intensified over the last 10 years, encompassing larger areas over longer periods of time. From 2001-2010, 1.6 million acres were burned in the 10 biggest wildfires. The acreage burned by the top 10 biggest wildfires from 2011-2020 more than doubled that number, with 3.5 million acres lost. Just over 2 million acres of the land burned was from 2020 alone, according to the air district.
Low rainfall in the Bay Area is a key contributor to the growing rates of wildfires.
“California is in an exceptional drought, which will provide increased fuel potential for wildfire,” Flagg explained.
He continued to warn that wildfire season reaches its maximum severity potential through September.
“As we get through June and September, the severity of wildfire potential increases with a maximum kind of potential for wildfire culminating in September when we have above normal fire potential for all of Northern California,” he said.
“[Fire potential] is conditional on both meteorological conditions and the start of the rainy season,” Flagg noted.
“We know that air quality can be poor during wildfires,” he said, “As a result, we have a great team of forecasters that use all relevant information they have available to them to produce smoke forecast that help us anticipate when air quality will be poor.”
Citizens concerned about poor air quality levels during wildfire season can monitor particulate matter through air quality data sites including: the Air District’s website, PurpleAir, Clarity OpenMap, AirNow, and the EPA Fire and Smoke Map.
Heading into wildfire season, BAAQMD has several initiatives that will take place as a part of their Wildfire Air Quality Response Program.
An important component of the program is circulating wildfire information and resources throughout Bay Area communities. Social media will be a central tool for residents to stay updated on wildfire preparation.
According to Lee, BAAQMD has done significant media outreach to inform the public of the impacts of wildfire smoke and how to protect their health. A wildfire preparation and safety video series is available on the Wildfire Safety section on the BAAQMD website.
“This season our communications team is planning wildfire Zoom press conferences and briefings with the air district and partner agencies. As new clean air centers come online, they will promote these to Bay Area residents through press conferences and media outreach,” Lee said.
New partnerships with fire departments and public health agencies will be explored for the media events as well.
BAAQMD’s wildfire strategies also include programs that reduce wildfire risks.
The Open Burn program reduces the risks of wildfires through prescribed burning; when the weather is favorable, this form of natural resource management utilizes planned and controlled burns to minimize fuel potential. Forty-seven prescribed fires were exempted from fees between 2021-2022 as a part of this program.
In addition, the Wildfire Prevention Chipping pilot program allows properties to apply for free chipping services that reduce wildfire risks by disposing of material that would otherwise contribute to fuel potential.
BAAQMD is also focused on air filtration initiatives to improve wildfire smoke preparedness in the 2022 season.
In a partnership with the American Red Cross and Bay Area county offices of emergency services, Lee reported that BAAQMD helped purchase air filtration units that will be deployed for use at public sheltering facilities across seven Bay Area counties.
Further air filtration initiatives are supported by Assembly Bill 836, which used $3 million to create a network of publicly accessible facilities with high-efficiency air filtration systems for vulnerable communities.
Counties applied to the grant fund back in January, and project funding amounts were distributed based on the number of undeserved communities in each county. This was determined by evaluating smoke burden and population count.
The program so far has solicited over 300 portable air cleaners, and $1.7 million still remains in the fund.
The presentation concluded with BAAQMD chair John Bauters thanking Lee and Flagg for their presentation.
“This has become an increasing challenge every year,” Bauters said. “It’s become less of a question about how bad and just when.”
11 comments
How interesting, blaming Climate Change instead of monumental incompetence in managing of wild lands or forests within CA’s borders.
Brace for yet. . . . . . ANOTHER, . . . newsom summer
Proving politicians’ TALK, IS CHEAP.
October 27, 2019
‘ ‘I Own This”: Gov. Newsom On California’s Wildfire Emergency,
PG&E Power Shutoffs And More ‘
“Gavin Newsom’s first full day in office, Jan. 8, 2019…”
” “Everybody has had enough,” the governor said, announcing he’d signed a sweeping executive order overhauling the state’s approach to wildfire prevention. Climate change was sparking fires more frequent, ferocious and far-reaching than ever before, Newsom said, and confronting them would have to become a year-round effort.
The state’s response, Newsom added, “fundamentally has to change.”
But two-and-a-half years later, as California approaches what could be the worst wildfire season on record, it does so with little evidence of the year-round attention Newsom promised.”
LAist https://tinyurl.com/jwfxakcv
“California’s 2020 wildfire season thwarted the state’s fight against climate change, spewing enough carbon dioxide into the air to equal the emissions of millions of passenger vehicles driving over the course of a year.
Those roughly 9,600 fires burned nearly 4.2 million acres, killed 31 people, and emitted an estimated 112 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to a California Air Resources Board report released Dec. 31. The number is akin to the greenhouse gas emissions of 24.2 million passenger cars driving in a single year”
bloomberg https://tinyurl.com/46hyarr4
2020
‘Damage from California’s wildfires estimated at $10 billion, experts say’
abc7 https://tinyurl.com/2p88wc46
2021
‘Newsom Misled The Public About Wildfire Prevention Efforts Ahead Of Worst Fire Season On Record’
“An investigation from CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom found the governor has misrepresented his accomplishments and even disinvested in wildfire prevention. The investigation found Newsom overstated, by an astounding 690%, the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns in the very forestry projects he said needed to be prioritized to protect the state’s most vulnerable communities. Newsom has claimed that 35 “priority projects” carried out as a result of his executive order resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres. But the state’s own data show the actual number of acres worked on for those “priority projects” is 11,399.
Overall, California’s response has faltered under Newsom. After an initial jump during his first year in office, data obtained by CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom show Cal Fire’s fuel reduction output dropped by half in 2020, to levels below Gov. Jerry Brown’s final year in office. At the same time, Newsom slashed roughly $150 million from Cal Fire’s wildfire prevention budget.” …
“Overall, the data show Cal Fire treated 64,000 acres in 2019,
but only 32,000 acres in 2020 and 24,000 acres through Memorial Day this year.”
LAist https://tinyurl.com/jwfxakcv
Is estimated there are, going into 2021 fire season 147 million dead trees just in Sierra Nevada mountains.
2021
‘Grinning Gavin Newsom Stands In Wildfire Site: “The Debate Is Over Around Climate Change” ‘
https://tinyurl.com/2p88a6dk
2022
‘Newsom hailed this ‘critical’ wildfire-prevention program. Two years on, it hasn’t completed a single project’
https://tinyurl.com/3jecmvf2
October 27, 2019
YET CLIMATE CHANGE IS TO BLAME for bad air quality REALLY ? ? ? ?
A LEADER (newsom) delegates, then holds those persons in charge responsible !
Failure to show consistent positive results means their unemployment !
Wow, O G…
Your response was almost as long as the article.
I didn’t read it either.
🙂
If Gavin Newsom claimed to be female, his monthly visitor would always be a surprise. Fire season is an annual problem. It happens annually. Every year it happens. Annually. Am I being too subtle?
Climate change is a wonderful scapegoat accepted by intellectual pygmies. Lack or preparedness is what plagues California.
Information (quotes) along with URLs provided so those concerned might gain knowledge, in this instance related to entrenched incompetence protected by sound bite politicians more interested in higher office than state they “run”.
Business makes plans, then delegates implementation of goals in their plans. It is made clear repeated failures result in being FIRED.
Why are there only a small handful in media holding those in charge of this state accountable for repeated incompetence ? ? ?
Wait, you think that our monumental mismanagement of forests is not climate change and in no way could be a part of climate change.
Also, how is the 47.7% of federally controlled land in this state Newsom’s responsibility? And if he did hold those responsible, when would that become government over reach?
Put a special tax on tax payers and more fines From Bay Area air quality district.This is how they solve problems.
Climate Change = Gavin’s inaction
I’ll be a broken record. Get bigger aircraft and put them to use more often so the fires don’t burn for weeks.
The cost of the fuel presents hurdle, but I could be wrong.
This is not really that difficult. Install smoke filtering/removing facilities over all wildfires. BAAQMD should set limits on emissions generated by wildfires.
See? That’s how it’s done!!
AD
What about handing out masks? They seemed to work so well for COVID.
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