- This time we're looking at how wildfires affect our communities and recreation.

That's all coming up right now on Wild Nevada.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Support for PBS Reno and Wild Nevada comes in part from the William N. Pennington Foundation.

Bill Pennington was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and gaming pioneer who built a legacy of community service in Nevada.

This program is brought to you in part by the Konner Kent Robinson Giving Fund.

100 years of living in 28 years of life.

To give is life's real gift.

- [Announcer 2] And by Millie Hopper and Millard Reed, Kristine Perry, Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation, Margaret Burback, in memory of Sue McDowell, Mark and Susan Herron, and by individual members.

(bright music) - Sometimes when you're planning for an adventure, you have to change plans and oftentimes it's because of things outside of your control like wildfires.

And that's what happened to the Wild Nevada crew this season and it became the inspiration for this episode.

So this time on Wild Nevada, we're looking at what it means to live and recreate with wildfires.

We had originally planned to hike into Davis Creek Regional Park this season, but that hike had to be canceled due to extreme fire damage.

We changed our plans and our topic.

I met with Park Ranger Nick Steuer to learn more about the impacts of the fire on the park and the surrounding area.

So the park looks a little different this visit than I'm used to.

- Yes, very different.

We had a fire come through here on September 7th of 2024, the Davis fire ended up burning about just over a 100 acres of our park here.

- What's the future for Davis Creek Regional Park?

- So we are gonna be reopening to the public, which is the good news.

Most of the park was spared.

The most of the day use side.

All of the campground was spared.

So we do have plans of reopening.

We just have to take care of some things before, you know, make it safe for the public to enter.

And so we've got some hazard trees, as you can see, that need to come down.

We need to restore power and restore water to make it safe again.

But we do plan on reopening and allowing the public back in hopefully soon to enjoy their recreation again in the park.

We are doing some planting projects.

We're gonna be doing some seedlings of native shrubs, bitter brush, sagebrush, desert peach, which is, what was found in this area.

So we will be doing some community based projects where we plant those things.

We also have some Jeffrey Pines that are gonna be donated to us by a local nursery.

So in the spring we're hoping to do a planting with the community as well and get some of those Jeffrey Pines planted back in.

(gentle music) So this is the Ophir Creek Trail, the official start.

It's a seven and a half mile trail that goes straight up the hill to the Tahoe Meadows with about a two to 3,000 foot elevation gain.

Very popular trail with mountain bikers, hikers, even equestrian as well.

- And a lot of the trails survived.

It's kind of this portion of it that was most impacted.

- Correct.

Just this initial start of the trail.

Rest of the trail has not been impacted by the fire thankfully.

- So that's part of when you welcome people back to the park and talk about helping the park recover, it's understanding that there'll be zones that are different, but there's gonna be a lot to still enjoy.

- Yes, there will be areas that are look differently.

As we can see here, just everything scorched.

But most of the park, which we're thankful for, was spared.

This is just the entrance to the park that's gonna look different once we do reopen, but the rest of the park should be the same.

- From the rains that we've had recently there's little bits of green already popping up.

- Yep.

Nature, you know, nature comes back.

Nature has a way.

So we're gonna be doing what we can to help out with some shrub plantings and some tree plantings, but overall it's just gonna take some time.

You know, it'll take some time before things will start regrowing, and the area start getting repopulated with different plants.

- So when a person comes back to the park and visits, what are you hoping that they can bring to the park and what do you hope that they learn from the fact that so much of this has been impacted by a fire?

- I would say an appreciation for the land.

We have a beautiful park here.

A lot of people come visit the park regularly.

We would just hope that people would appreciate the land and just be safe, be fire safe, be bear safe, you know, just exercise those outdoor ethics, you know, as they're recreating in the park.

- [Chris Orr] After seeing the impact of a wildfire up close at Davis Creek, I had the chance to meet with some of the scientists from the team who study the aftermath of these fires.

Meagan Carter served as the Forest Service BAER Team co-coordinator on the Davis fire.

- So the BAER team is a Burn Area Emergency Response team.

We get a bunch of our specialists from the forest and we go out and we assess the risks and the critical values that we have on the forest that we would like to protect from the risks caused by a fire.

And we want to do that very quickly.

It's an emergency response.

So our biggest concern is the first big storm that comes in, what's gonna be swept away?

What's gonna be damaged in that storm that we want to protect?

So what we're calling critical values are these values that are on forest service lands that are related to human safety.

So people going into the burned area, how are we going to protect them?

Is it a hazard tree falling on a trail?

We protect our infrastructure, our roads, our trails, our buildings, campgrounds.

We're also very concerned about our cultural resources.

We wanna protect the heritage sites out here.

- So the work that the BAER Team does really helps determine when a person can get back into lands that have been touched by a wildfire.

- Yeah, yeah, we really make those recommendations based on the recovery time, the potential, those hazards might be out on the landscape.

Really what we want to do is make sure that we make it safe.

We often put signs up saying that they're entering a burned area and they have specific risks that they need to be aware of if they go in.

- And how long would you say that assessment is going to be in effect for a burn area?

How long does that process take?

- Yeah, so our work is completed within that first year after the fire has been called contained.

So we aim to get all our treatments in in that time and really understand what the fire is doing.

In that recovery period, after that one year period, we actually have different programs that we then use to help further rehabilitate the burn.

Like our BAR Program is Burn Area Rehabilitation and that's where a lot more of our treatments continue, where we do vegetation recovery projects.

Once we get into that rehabilitation phase, we also have the potential for re-seeding efforts.

If we're doing plantings, we love volunteers, we would always love more hands.

(gentle music) - There are many factors in the severity of a wildfire.

To get a better understanding of the significance of how weather conditions impact fires, I visit with Chris Smallcomb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

So when we hear about a red flag warning day, that's coming from you here at the Weather Service.

- That's coming from us here at the National Weather Service.

So we're solely looking at the meteorology in that respect.

Now we do coordinate with the Forest Service and other land management agencies in terms of hey, is it vegetation, can it burn?

Because there's no point in putting out a red flag warning if the vegetation can't burn, it's too wet or something like that.

But we wait for it to be dry enough.

We wait for those windy days, those dry days, those days with a lot of thunderstorms and then we put out that red flag warning.

So that's coming directly from us.

And we know, we see that as a tool for preparedness for getting the communities and the fire service agencies prepared for those days when if a fire starts, it could actually go big fairly quickly.

You know, for the most part when we look for those gusty wind and dry days or days with a lot of lightning, you know, we'll put out a red flag warning, but there's kind of the worst of the worst.

So the upper echelon of red flags, so it's like really windy or really dry, or the vegetation has just been like super cooked all summer long, and so it's just prime for any kind of big fire behavior.

So we call those PDS red flag days, Particularly Dangerous Situation, red flag days.

So we really set a high bar to those because they are really bad situations where if a fire starts, people may have minutes to evacuate kind of situation.

So if you're out in nature, you know, I'm a trail runner, I'm out on trail, sometimes fairly obscure trails and when it's a red flag day, I constantly have my eyes peeled and you know, if I potentially see a new fire start, where's my exit strategy?

You know, how do I get outta here really quickly because on those red flag days, those fires can expand in size very rapidly.

So as an outdoors person, those red flag days are just days to be extra aware for potential new fire starts.

- So when we have seen some of the larger fires that have come through the region, weather still plays a role in how we recover from those fires.

- Absolutely.

So one of our bigger involvements here at the weather services is post-fire hydrology and flooding and you know after the recovery from the fire and that's a thing that can linger for years.

You know, one, two, three years after the fire, especially if it's a high intensity burn, lots of timber, you know, very hot fire, it can take several years for it to recover enough where that flood, that flood risk isn't as enhanced.

So like, you know, on the Davis Fire, you know, there's definitely elevated concern going into this winter for debris flows for mudslides, rock slides, flash flooding, that kind of thing cuz the soil, it doesn't have anything to hold it back anymore like it used to.

And then if a fire is particularly hot, it creates what's called a hydrophobic layer.

So basically cooks the soil enough where if the rain hits it, it just runs right off.

It doesn't go into the soil like it normally does.

So we're involved in all of that.

So we set up certain rainfall thresholds that if it hits it in a storm, then we issue a flash flood warning to give the community alerts that stuff that goes on your phone.

(gentle music) - [Chris Orr] If you are familiar with Nevada's landscape, then you may also recognize some of the agencies that help manage and maintain it.

To learn more about the role that they have in managing how wildfire impacts the state, I meet with Bill Buckley from the Nevada Division of Forestry, and Matt Zumstein of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

- State and federal agencies working together is not unique.

There's several states out there that roll out that model.

However, I think we do it particularly well here in the state of Nevada.

We have a great relationship with NDF and a long history of collaborating on projects across the landscape.

Fire can devastate a landscape pretty much quicker and faster than any other natural force or unnatural force that we deal with.

It's probably our biggest threat.

You know, insects and disease and climate change are some other ones, but they're a little bit slower moving than what you would see with a mega fire.

- Fire is a natural part of this ecosystem.

It's something that as land managers we have to take into account that a fire is eventually gonna come through this forest.

And so managing for that in order to reduce the impacts to these important infrastructure and communities and these important ecosystems is something that we take very seriously and it's a huge part of how we account for what we do.

Something that that may not come intuitively is there are too many trees, there's too much vegetation out there.

Trees are beautiful.

They serve a really amazing role.

There's a certain number of trees that this ecosystem can hold, like the forest you see around us with the blue marks on the trees, all of these trees are gonna come out.

We're really looking to, again, decrease the threat of severe and catastrophic wildfire, but we're also looking at increasing forest health.

Reducing these number of stems will increase the amount of resources that each one of the trees will have available to it and just make the tree healthier, make the forest healthier.

- We're trying to reduce fuel loading, and reintroduce fire to these landscapes under ideal conditions so that the outcomes and the results of the fire that we're putting on the ground are beneficial to the landscape and the resources that we're trying to manage.

Past three to four years we've been burning in and around this area, either burning piles or doing understory burns to try and keep those ladder fuels down to a minimum to try and get some of that carbon back into the ground to try and, you know, reduce the brush and the fuels that would basically carry fire into the crowns to where under high winds it would be fast moving and very difficult for us to be able to steer it around the values or have any kind of effect under certain conditions.

We're trying to keep that fire on the ground, and you know, there's several ways to treat the landscape.

Mastication, hand cut and pile, which is what's happening here.

And we will create the piles that we burn, but prescribe fire and understory and broadcast burnings.

It's another tool in the toolbox that land managers are trying to implement.

- In order to implement these management actions, we have a very rigorous protocol that we go through and it starts with a plan that's been peer reviewed throughout the agency.

It's been reviewed by outside agencies in order to make sure that the rigor of that plan is spot on.

So before anything's ever lit, there's a very sturdy, solid plan that we can rely upon.

We understand that it can be very inconvenient to have smoke in the air or your favorite park to be closed down because there's, you know, these prescribed burns that are going on, but like Matt mentioned, it's a really important tool that we have in order to adequately manage a forest.

- I think part of being fire wise as a citizen is understanding that, you know, we're trying to conserve and preserve these forests and you know, if you're hearing machinery in your neighborhood or if you know there's some smoke in the air that might be bugging you or you know, your favorite trails not accessible at a given time because we're treating in that area, you know, just a little bit of patience and understanding that, you know, we're trying to keep this area a healthy forest.

And the big picture of things, you know, fire is a natural part of the landscape and it's something that especially us out west here, we live with and you know, that being said, nature has a way of recovering and so for the most part we're hoping that there's enough seed trees out there that mother nature can regenerate on its own and in those areas where it needs help, that's what we're focusing in on.

(bright music) - In Nevada, separate from forestry lands, the Bureau of Land Management is responsible for 48 million acres of public land.

With so much area under their stewardship, I meet with Jennifer Diamond, a fire prevention mitigation and education specialist with the bureau, to find out how they prepare for wildfire in our public lands.

Tell me a little bit about what is the best way for people to get out and enjoy some of these beautiful landscapes responsibly.

- Be prepared for fire because fire was here before us and so we have to live with fire.

Know before you go to recreate and if you do get evacuated, have a go bag ready.

Know what you should do.

Know the numbers, the websites that you need to go to to follow all this.

- When fire restrictions are put into place, is it specific to an area or is it statewide?

- It is usually specific to an area.

So we take fuel, moisture samplings.

We'll go out here and we'll sample things such as sage to see how much moisture is actually within that plant that's living.

So that means how quickly it's gonna dry out, right?

So we make decisions based on how much moisture is in those live fuels.

Also, we have something called our one hour, 10 hour, 100 hour, those are the dead fuels.

And so basically it means how quickly those fuels can dry out.

So sometimes people might say, but it just rained yesterday and it's wet, right, but those one hour fuels mean that it can dry out in one hour.

So with these winds that we frequently get around here in Nevada, they can dry out really quickly.

So just because it rained doesn't mean that they are wet enough to not cause a fire.

- When we use the term prescribed burn, why is it called prescribed?

- Yeah, it's called a prescription for a reason because it has to be the right fuel moistures, it has to be the right winds, it has to be the right area, the right tool for the right job, right?

So we want it to burn not too hot to where it is burning like a wildfire, right?

We want it to burn very moderately on the landscape so that we're not destroying the soil because it's all in the soil.

Really if we take away those nutrients in the soil, then nothing's coming back.

But if it's a low severity burn, then everything's gonna flourish after that.

We're putting more carbon and more nutrients back into the soil for things to flourish and grow and be beautiful again.

- [Chris Orr] So just like a prescription makes you healthy, it helps keep the land healthy.

- It does.

It's gotta be the right tool for the right job.

- For many of us, multi-use trails give us access to open spaces and wild places.

To learn more how wildfires can impact trails, I talk with a professional trail builder as well as a firefighter, Kevin Joell of Sierra Trail Works.

So why did you offer Prison Hill as a good example of trail building?

- Well, this was a project that we did earlier this year and the trail design was through a burn scar that burned about three years ago.

And so some of that had to be factored in into the trail design and then also into our construction techniques to ensure that we're putting in a trail that will last for generations with minimal maintenance.

Trail design has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and even be beyond that, you know, decades earlier.

Trails generally were built in the past as the shortest route from point A to point B, and now we have a better understanding of how water and users affect a trail and we incorporate that knowledge into the design and construction techniques to ensure that we're building trails that cause minimal environmental impact and that they last for generations without having a large maintenance demands.

When we were looking at the final design, incorporating in the fact that the area had burned and was kind of devoid of the native vegetation, that kind of affects how you do the final layout.

It's kind of hard sometimes with some of our invasive and noxious weeds.

They're very pervasive and they're, you know, they choke out some of the natives.

- So in your experience, does a better built, well-designed trail hold up to not just water and weather, but other environmental factors like use and fire?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So in our landscape, in the Great Basin here, fire is just a natural part of that.

And so we know that an area where we build a trail may be impacted by fire and the fire generally doesn't burn the trail.

It may burn some of the associated infrastructure, bridges, benches, signposts, but generally the trail survives okay.

Where the issues develop is when you lose the vegetation around the trail, you may get people starting to shortcut the trail like on a switchback and you may also have more water coming onto the trail.

So the vegetation is normally kind of sucking up some of that groundwater and surface water and when it's all gone, that water has nowhere else to go than to kind of just collect on the surface or run down the surface.

And so we've had some trails that, you know, have been in areas of wildfire that suddenly became muddy.

That in a normal year, all that water was sucked up by the trees and so the suddenly the trail kind of became muddy and needed additional rock armoring to protect the trail's integrity.

So when we build a modern sustainable trail, it's by its nature more resilient to wildfire.

(gentle music) - To get a sense of the damage that a fire can do on a trail not built to withstand the elements, Kevin takes me to a trail not far from Davis Creek Regional Park that was burnt by the same wildfire.

Kevin, when you get into a landscape like this that is so freshly burnt and you walk this trail, what do you see needs to be done?

- Well, to open up a recreational resource like a trail back to the public after a burn, when it's in a forested area, it's really important that the hazard trees be taken care of.

So as you can see here, you know, this was kind of a complete burn, a really hot burn, and it pretty much took everything.

Very few of these trees are gonna survive.

You just see a few little spots here and there that still have some green needles.

That tree may survive, but most of the others burned completely.

And so when those burn within their height of the trail, that has a risk of then falling on the trail or an unsuspecting trail user in the future.

Basically it needs like a safety assessment, kind of a maintenance assessment of like what needs to be done to be able to open this area back up for the public to safely recreate in and then it's a matter of restoring the landscape.

So that could be planting seedlings to try to get some trees to regrow, seeding for native grasses and shrubs to try to get some of the native plants an opportunity to come back before some of the invasives just go ahead and grow on their own.

And this trail was not sustainably built.

You can already see signs of erosion on it because it's over grade, it's too steep than how we would build a trail today.

So the water collects on the trail and it runs down the trail within a burn scar, you know, it's real easy for kind of a mud flow or mudslide to occur and really move large amounts of soil and change the landscape.

And so like this would be an ideal example of a trail that kind of just it needs a complete reroute to be more sustainable so that through the next thunderstorm event, through the next fire event, and standing up to future trail users, for not just, you know, 10 years, but you know, looking at this for decades into the future, that our public lands are protected for our use and the future generations to use as well.

(bright music) - That's all I've got time for in this episode, but there's so much more information to be aware and informed of when it comes to living and recreating in lands where wildfire is part of the landscape.

And I wanna give a huge thank you to the first responders, the firefighters and the organizations that help keep our homes and communities safe before, during, and after wildfires.

For more information about this or any of the Wild Nevada series, visit our website at pbsreno.org and stream us with the PBS app.

And until my next Wild Nevada, I hope you have some Nevada adventures of your own.

(gentle music) Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming these incredible agencies who stepped up during the Davis Fire, starting with Trucking Meadows Fire Protection District.

(audience cheers & applauds) United States Forest Service.

(applause continues) (indiscernible) Forestry.

(indiscernible) Fire Department California.

Our police department.

(applause continues) (indiscernible) Fire Department.

Reno Fire Department.

(fireworks pop) (applause continues) Waso County sheriff's office.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Support for PBS Reno and Wild Nevada comes in part from the William N. Pennington Foundation.

Bill Pennington was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and gaming pioneer who built a legacy of community service in Nevada.

This program is brought to you in part by the Konner Kent Robinson Giving Fund.

100 years of living in 28 years of life.

To give is life's real gift.

- [Announcer 2] And by Millie Hopper and Millard Reed, Kristine Perry, Thelma B and Thomas P. Hart Foundation, Margaret Burback, in memory of Sue McDowell, Mark and Susan Herron, and by individual members.

(bright music continues)