APCD
Update by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department
September 13, 2023
UCSB Cultural Burn Update: Today’s burn is postponed due to smoke and weather concerns.
We’ll update the community once we find a suitable weather window for a safe and effective Cultural Burn.
By the Air Pollution Control District
WHAT: Prescribed cultural burn of approximately 14 acres of restored native perennial grassland.
WHEN: September 13, depending on conditions. The burn will be ignited in several small plots, each of which could burn for 20-30 minutes. This time of year is when cultural burns were traditionally practiced.
WHERE: UCSB’s North Campus Open Space.
WHY: This one-day burn will restore traditional practices that enhance the biodiversity of native grasslands. It will also help the community reconnect to the land, plants, and wildlife by learning about the long history of indigenous burning. Prescribed, or planned, fires typically burn less intensely than wildfires. The burn will be conducted when the meteorological conditions are highly favorable to direct smoke away from population centers.
WHO: This prescribed burn is planned and coordinated by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, UCSB’s Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration, members of multiple bands of the Chumash, and with Santa Barbara County APCD, San Luis Obispo County APCD, San Joaquin Valley APCD, Ventura County APCD, and the California Air Resources Board to minimize impacts on air quality on surrounding communities.
HEALTH PRECAUTIONS: If you smell smoke, take precautions and use common sense to reduce any harmful health effects by limiting outdoor activities. When you can smell smoke or when it is visible in your area, avoid strenuous outdoor activity and remain indoors as much as possible. These precautions are especially important to children, older adults, and those with heart and lung conditions. Use caution when driving near prescribed burns due to reduced visibility.
A portable air monitor will be set up in the area to monitor air quality conditions.
This burn depends on weather and air quality conditions that are favorable for smoke dispersal. If the conditions are not as desired, the burn will be rescheduled.
To view a statewide prescribed burn map and other features, visit the Prescribed Fire Information Reporting System (PFIRS) website: https://ssl.arb.ca.gov/pfirs/firm/firm.php
Back in the day when UCSB had a football team, another cultural event, the homecoming bonfire, was celebrated annually by the campus Greek community by torching off a mountain of lumber scraps that University contractors had dumped by the lagoon.
A great place for birding—
Unbelievable, that traditions started by my generation from the ceremonial burning of coaches in the streets of Isla Vista could reverberate across the cultural boundaries into the burning of grasslands and the ritual sacrifice of numerous lizards, mice, birds and snakes.. IS THERE ANY SANITY left in this crazy leftist society? What a bunch of horse crap! As the nuts in the government stated, always consult with indigenous knowledge ?? WHY?? Just big bunch of nuts and flakes.
Sorry, but seeing CHIP say anything about “science deniers” is absolutely hilarious. Says the guy who still says that wind and solar are dirtier and worse for the environment than oil and gas.
CHIP – no one is opposing this.
“Only science deniers are opposed to planned burns at this point.” LOL whatever man.
Using planned fires to maintain land in a safer and more natural condition is and should absolutely be a bipartisan issue we can all agree on. We know fires burned regularly prior to the colonial era, we know frequent fires help control pests and disease, we know frequent fires prevent fuel accumulation and mitigate fire hazards, and we know that frequent fires help protect large mature plants from being destroyed in more intense conflagrations. Only science deniers are opposed to planned burns at this point.
YETI – how is any of this “leftist?” This has nothing to do with couch burning. The indigenous practice is just “nuts and flakes?”
Today seems like good day for prescribed burn. Not too hot, dry, or windy. What happened?
Oh the hypocrisy of the Elite-Academia / Environmentalists… A “cultural burn” in some light fuel grass is embraced, burning and thinning overgrown forest lands of underbrush is environmentally incorrect… LOL!
Sac, what is your alternative to planned burns if it’s too risky? Was the thomas fire safer than planned burns? Was the Carr fire safer than planned burns? Was the Cedar fire safer than planned burns? Of course not! Planned burns are absolutely safer and less destructive than the alternatives, the only question is timing and preparation. Organizations that systematically delay and prevent planned fires bear significant responsibility for the ecological destruction and loss of life caused by wildfires throughout the western US. This needs to stop, and planned burns need to be carried out on a massive scale as quickly as possible in order to restore the land to a more natural condition and prevent the next tragedy.
CHIP – you’re hyperventilating, calm down. I’m just saying if a particular prescribed burn is deemed too risky to surrounding land/towns or the weather is causing it to be higher risk, then they will be opposed on a case by case basis. No one, NO ONE, is trying to ban all prescribed burns.
Chip, exactly what do you mean by restore the land to “a more natural condition”.
What, at this point, is “natural”?
So if a prescribed burn is dangerous, you think it’s better to wait for an unplanned fire to start unexpectedly?
CHIP – yeah, if on certain day, a prescribed burn is dangerous due to conditions, hell yes, wait a day.
Contrary to those childish demands, you don’t get to do anything you want all the time without consequences. Professionals and other adults make decisions and sometimes you don’t get what you want that day.
Coast, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Educate yourself on good fire practices or just shut up.
COAST – why do you and CHIP have this weird obsession with liberals (or whoever you’re ranting against) being against prescribed burns? We/they are not.
Sac, that is because leftist organizations use a variety of tactics including nuisance lawsuits and spreading misinformation in order block efforts to implement science based forest management practices.
CHIP – just because ALL prescribed burns don’t go unopposed, doesn’t mean the left is trying to stop them. Really, use some sense here. In some cases, they result in circumstances that would be too risky/dangerous to outweigh the benefit. You don’t get to do whatever you want all the time. It’s part of being adults.