Practicing Fire Adapted Stewardship

By Kelsey Stalker with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District

Fire has helped shape and define Tahoe's forests, contributing to nutrient recycling and amazing biodiversity. Without fire, forest fuels accumulate, and important ecological benefits to the watershed are lost.  

Finding a balance between too much and too little fire - while also protecting natural resources, life, and property - is a massive undertaking. For those living in Tahoe's Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), fire adapted stewardship is a way to do what we can, where we can, to take care of these special places.  

Many forests, creeks, and meadows of this region are sensitive habitats recovering from significant disturbance and historic fire suppression. Understanding the context and needs of these ecosystems can lead to a deeper connection of place, a better understanding of fire's role in the ecosystem, healthier forests, and more wildfire-ready communities. 

In the Lake Tahoe Basin, this work happens neighborhood-to-neighborhood through Fire Adapted Communities (FAC). The FAC framework encourages community-wide wildfire education, fuel reduction, evacuation preparedness, and partnerships that increase wildfire resiliency. More than 100 neighborhoods in Tahoe are leading efforts to better understand and improve how they live with fire, practicing stewardship through community education, data collection, collaborative mapping, workdays, and more.  

Working together towards this common goal can accomplish so much more than anyone acting alone. Communities across the country participate in collaborative fire-related organizations through Fire Adapted Communities, Firewise, Fire Safe Alliances, Prescribed Burn Associations, and others. Whether it's putting good fire on the landscape or creating defensible space in your community, living with fire has the potential to bring people together. 

Learn more about fire adapted stewardship practices at these upcoming collaborative webinars: Firewise Data, Community Mapping, and Engaging Your Neighbors in Wildfire Preparedness. These virtual workshops are a collaborative effort between the Tahoe Network of Fire Adapted Communities and Living With Fire at the University of Nevada Reno Extension.