By Mary O’KEEFE

Recently there were some prescribed burns in the Angeles National Forest and within the Crescenta Valley area. There were warnings posted on social media, in CVW and by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. – CV Station; however, many people still did not realize these were controlled/prescribed burns and the CV Station, as well as the offices of CVW, received many calls from concerned community members.

The concern is real. Residents along the foothills are always looking toward the mountains concerned about fire; however, the use of a prescribed burn is a way to be proactive in protecting the area from the spread of wildfires. 

A prescribed burn is a “low intensity planned fire conducted by trained and experienced crews and land managers completed within a specific weather and fuel condition window or ‘prescription’”to achieve land management goals, such as clearing hazardous fuel, improving wildlife habitat, and/or restoring ecosystems. Prescribed fires are set under carefully monitored conditions matching a detailed plan, including factors of weather, fuel moisture and wind speed,” according to the LA County Fire Department (LACoFD).

Prescribed burns have been used by indigenous peoples for many millennia. “Cultural burns” were ceremonial events by indigenous people that links back to the tribal philosophy of fire as medicine, according to National Park Service. 

According to Frank Kanawha Lake, a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service and a wild land firefighter of Karuk descent, “When you prescribe it, you’re getting the right dose to maintain the abundance of productivity of all ecosystem services to support the ecology in your culture.”

According to the LACoFD there are five main methods of fuel reduction:

1. Prescribed Herbivory – the use of goats and sheep to reduce fine fuels.
2. Prescribed Burning – controlled fire to clear dead vegetation.
3. Mechanical Thinning – masticators and graders to change fuel orientation and fire behavior. 
4. Manual Clearing – crews removing ladder fuels by hand.
5. Herbicide Application – Spraying vegetation with herbicide to kill vegetation or retard growth. The primary target with herbicide application is invasive weeds, such as star thistle or Arundo. 

Prescribed burning is a cost-effective method to reduce large fuel loads. 

There are long-term benefits including the ecosystem naturally regenerating, and prescribed fire burns allow native obligate seeders to grow where they were previously crowded out. This can increase biodiversity and allow resprouters the opportunities to grow back. 

Fuel breaks can help slow or stop a fire from a wild land area from entering into a neighborhood, and can also prevent a fire originating in the neighborhood from spreading to wild lands beyond the community, according to LACoFD. 

Conducting a prescribed burn takes a lot of planning and everything has to be just right including cooperating weather conditions. 

The fire agency first starts with a burn plan that includes an incident action plan for burn operation covering all resource assignments as well as all safety, communications, medical and contingency elements. 

The agencies take into consideration the time of year and seasonal rainfall prior to planning the prescribed burn. 

“All burns must be completed inside a defined ‘window’ with optimal weather and fuel conditions to limit risk and satisfy project objectives,” according to LACoFD. “All County of Los Angeles Fire Department fuel reduction projects are California

Environmental Quality Act compliant. The fire department follows local, state and federal environmental laws. For this project, Dudek Environmental

completed a Statewide Fuels Reduction Environmental Protection Plan (EPP).

The EPP was developed to fulfill Governor Newsom’s State of Emergency Proclamation signed on March 1, 2025 seeking to expedite fuel reduction

projects to protect communities and reduce severe risks of catastrophic wildfire.

This EPP provides best management practices (BMPs) and measures to

minimize environmental impacts while completing fuel reduction projects.

Specifically, these BMPs have been designed to protect air quality, water quality,

tribal cultural resources, special-status species, their habitat and other habitat resources.”

The LACoFD monitors the area of the prescribed burn after the burn is completed. 

“We revisit each treatment site every six months and assess vegetation growth,” according to LACoFD. “After the assessment and based on the season, a plan is determined for treating new growth.”

There are not any scheduled prescribed burns in the near future by LACoFD, according to a LACoFD spokesperson.