Grounded Truths LLC

Why I'm not burning til after it rains: this is the current Energy Release Component (ERC) overlaid with the Burning Index (BI) for Missouri, Southern Iowa, Eastern Kansas, and Eastern Nebraska. ERC & BI are key fire danger indices that inform where Smokey Bear's hand goes on the fire danger scale and potential fire restrictions ("burn bans"). Deep red is "DANGER! DANGER!"
Want to look for yourself? Go here: experience.arcgis.com/experience/f9d7f7f920494c3db…)

4 months ago | [YT] | 1

Grounded Truths LLC

For my Prescribed Firelighters out there, especially those who are Prescribed Burn Association leaders, NGO staff, or contractors with several prescribed fire units to juggle, and most definitely if those units are spread out over an area - this tool will help you keep track of all of them and when they're possibly coming into good burn windows.

6 months ago | [YT] | 0

Grounded Truths LLC

Are you a prescribed fire planner or practitioner in the Midwest US region? Univ of MN is running a study and would like to hear from us on how we plan and implement prescribed burns in the Midwest. This would include government, NGO, private enterprise, and PBA members who plan and implement prescribed burns.

Survey takes about 20-25 mins if you're in MO and burning across woodlands, savannas, and grasslands, and wish to answer questions for all 3 fuel types.

Use the QR code or go here to find out more and participate: z.umn.edu/firesurvey

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6 months ago | [YT] | 0

Grounded Truths LLC

What's your big #wildfire or #prescribedburn problem that you wish you could just "make it go away?"
Drop it in the comments!

11 months ago | [YT] | 0

Grounded Truths LLC

#wildfire questions? "Why don't they..." "What's this mean?" "How come..."
If I don't have the answer, 99% chance I know someone who does, at least about American wildland firefighting.

Ask away and I'm happy to answer!

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Grounded Truths LLC

Those looking for Prescribed Fire content: follow my new Substack, Prescribed Firelighter! Prescribed Firelighter will focus purely on the "Why, How, and What" of Prescribed Fire, along with lessons learned and best practices.
The split begins with an exploration of "What Makes a Good Burn Boss", with part 1 fresh off the press today!
prescribedfirelighter.substack.com/p/what-makes-a-…

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Grounded Truths LLC

"Basic Fire Effects for Landowners - Simple Ways to Measure Your Prescribed Fire Effectiveness"

If this was a one-day, in-person course with lots of hands-on and how-to, based on the way professional fire managers measure prescribed fire results, but made accessible to you as a landowner, it would be worth:

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Grounded Truths LLC

Did you know that the sun plays an INCREDIBLY important role in fire behavior? Sunlight pre-heats fuels, driving moisture out of them and making them more available to burn.
These graphics (courtesy NWCG) help demonstrate that principle.
In the prescribed fire world, we generally want to stay away from those peaks in the "flammability curves" one - unless it's a really cool, moist day, in which case we may want to play the peak or we might not have enough fire behavior to meet objectives!
On a warmer drier day though, we want to be doing ignitions WELL away from those peaks, because those peaks on warm dry days are when problem fire behavior is going to happen.

An entire branch of wildland fire science has been developed around this principle and theory, called the Campbell Prediction System, by Doug Campbell. I've used Doug's system since I was a rookie firefighter, and it's helped me to accurately predict extreme and problem fire behavior in wildland suppression ops, and to make better decisions on the prescribed fire side as a firing and burn boss.

The 4th edition is online-only and can be found for free here: cps.emxsys.com/

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1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

Grounded Truths LLC

Let's redefine Black Friday!

Instead of getting up at 4am with the fam and friends to go brawl for it all at the mall - sleep in, easy a good breakfast, very some folks together, and go light up a burn unit!

You do have them prepped and ready to go right? Lines in, snags and other hazards mitigated, etc?

1 year ago | [YT] | 1

Grounded Truths LLC

"Why isn't anyone doing anything about the #wildfire near me?!"
www.nifc.gov/nicc/incident-information/imsr

Nationally, there are almost 25,000 personnel (yep, I posted and you read that right - that number includes support positions such as base camp workers, Incident Management Team staff, air tanker and helicopter pilots and crews, etc) assigned to 116 large incidents.

"What's a 'large incident'?" A fire that is over 100 acres in timber, or 300 acres in grass or shrub.

"But that's not large?! The fire near me is 20,000+ acres!!!" Believe it or not, about 95% of fires are caught, or "controlled" as the official term goes, at UNDER those acreages.

1 year ago | [YT] | 1