Californias Smoke Management Program Managing Wildland Fire - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Managing Wildland Fire Complexities WESTAR Spring Business Meeting April 27, 2017 San Diego, California

California’s Smoke Management Program

Historic Role of Fire

• Fire has always been a part of California’s landscape
• In 1542 Cabrillo named San Pedro Harbor the “Bay of Smoke and Fires”
• Fire plays an important role in California’s forest Ecosystems
• Wildfires single biggest source of high-level air quality impacts (in U.S.)
• Contributes to more than 40% of US fine particulate matter (PM2.5)

based on the EP A’s 2011 National Emission Inventory

• California averages over 600,000+ acres burned over the past five year
• 46,000+ acres of prescribed burning over the past five year

• Provide increased opportunities for prescribed and

agricultural burning, while minimizing smoke impacts

• 1300 Call, Daily Communication Between (CARB, FLMs, Air Districts)
• Burn Day Determinations
• Mutual objectives of protecting public health and

ensuring healthy and resilient forests (Tree Mortality)

• 2011 Coordination and Communication Protocol for

Naturally Ignited Fires

• California’s air quality standards and climate goals
• Meeting air quality standards
• Improving visibility
• Reducing short-lived climate pollutants
• Achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets

Smoke Management Program

Changes from 1890 to 1970

• Sets requirements for:
• Daily burn determinations based on meteorological dispersion rates, air

quality conditions and the amount of emissions predicted

• Burn registration and planning well ahead of time
• Public notification procedures
• Communications on many levels
• Prescribed Fire Reporting System (PFIRS) – Serves as a data and

information interface between regulators, burners and individuals using wildland fire.

• Smoke Management Information distribution system
• Public notification interface
• Emissions tracking and storage
• Meteorological Forecasting – High resolution(2km x 2km) smoke weather

forecasts via CANSAC

Smoke Management Program

California Air Response Planning Alliance

• Multi-Agency Partnership
• ARBs Office of Emergency Response
• Meteorological Forecasting
• Air Pollution Modeling
• Air Monitoring Deployment
• Guide for smoke response

coordination in California

• Lists recommended health actions.
• Daily intelligence briefing
• 1400 Monitoring Call (Smoke response

decisions made)

Key Organizational Objectives

Monitoring Messaging

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Monitoring Wildland Fire Smoke

• Air Quality Management Information System (AQMIS)
• ARB E-BAMs (30 units) - Portable PM2.5 monitoring instrument
• USFS E-BAMs
• Prescribed Fire Information Reporting System (PFIRS)
• Modis Satellite Images
• Hazard Mapping System (HMS)
• BlueSky Modeling System
• National Weather Service (GOES Satellite, Radar, Winds)

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• USFS AirFire Teams, BlueSky
• Integrated effort with CANSAC

WRF (and others high resolution models)

• Website automatically generates

daily plume models twice a day (select your run).

• Estimates current and

future PM concentration values.

• Focus on high resolution

and customization (newer, faster machine)

Modeling Wildland Fire Smoke

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King Fire 2014

Messaging Wildland Fire Smoke

• Work closely with local air districts and

public health agencies

• Sync communications across impacted

areas, and incident commands

• Create Smoke Outlooks and Impact

Summaries

• Goal: Reduce exposure through behavior

modification

• Provide critical decision information:
• Monitor data
• Fire behavior predictions
• Incident command decisions
• Posting on web, blogs, social media

• Smoke specialists deployed as part of an

Incident Management T eam (THSP in ICS) Enables:

• Smoke information within Incident

decisions

• Allows incident decision information

for BlueSky modeling, messaging, etc

• Develops outlooks and other documents

for communications

• Works with local agencies and

communities

ARA Deployments by Y ear

Air Resource Advisors

Multi-Agency Workgroups

• USEPA, ARB, State and Federal Land Managers, Local Air Pollution

Control Districts and NGOs

• Air and Land Managers
• Interagency Air and Smoke Council
• 1300 & 1400 Conference Calls
• CANSAC, PFIRS, RX 410 Training
• Provides a forum to discuss issues regarding air quality and smoke

management in California

• The Goal is Healthy and Sustainable Forests , while protecting public

health!

Thank Y

• u

Dar Mims

Smoke Management Coordinator Air Quality Planning and Science Division California Air Resources Board Dar.Mims@arb.ca.gov