From May 30–June 3, the Ventura County Prescribed Burn Association (VCPBA) partnered with California State Certified Burn Boss Woody Bouska (CARX) to host a CA-219 Firing Operations course for advanced firefighters and prescribed fire practitioners.
Photo by Ian Jimenez/ Ventura County Fire/VCPBA | Firefighters stand with water resources ready as Rx fire is used to treat yellow star thistle. | Location: Besant School/ Happy Valley Foundation
During this course, students learned how to safely conduct ignitions and holding operations. Participants completed two days of classroom instruction followed by three days of field exercises, gaining experience serving as Firing Boss and Holding Boss. Course material consisted of the following: the importance of clear communication, coordination, understanding weather, fire behavior analysis, contingency planning, and adaptive management.
Between June 1–3 (Ca- 219 course) and June 24, VCPBA safely completed 64 acres of prescribed burning across two different landowners: Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and Happy Valley Foundation (Besant Hill School). The burns served multiple objectives: providing hands-on training opportunities, preventing seed production of invasive yellow star-thistle plants, and promoting future germination of native species including: lupine, redmaids, vinegar weed, and others. In preparation for the burns, VCPBA partnered with Santa Barbara Community College to conduct vegetation monitoring pre-fire at Besant. Surveys are planned for next year to assess if objectives were met at Besant to reduce yellow star thistle seed set and to encourage germination of native annuals through seed scarification.
Local ecologist Monica Matthews, who participated in the CA-219 course, reflected on the importance of prescribed fire:
“The use of good fire for land care is a very old practice, especially for many Indigenous communities and Nations in the Americas. I’ve worked in land management and restoration in different ways for most of my life, and I love learning about different practices for caring for the land.”
When asked about her biggest takeaway from the course, Matthews emphasized the importance of communication:
“It was a great class and I learned a lot. A lot of what I learned comes down to reminding me how important communication is.”
Her favorite part of the experience was the opportunity to collaborate and learn from others:
“I love collaborating with people, seeing the work through their eyes, and learning from that. I got to work with some awesome people and enjoyed developing firing and holding plans for prescribed burns.”
Matthews also spoke about why this work matters:
“To me, two key pieces of environmental resilience are land care and community. Good fire has a way of bringing together people with different backgrounds, getting us all talking about the common interest we share in caring for the land, and working through our different perspectives on how to accomplish that common interest.”
These VCPBA broadcast burns represent a tremendous collaborative effort. Sincerest gratitude to all partners involved in making these broadcast burns a reality: the Ventura County Resource Conservation District (VCRCD), Besant Hill School and the Happy Valley Foundation, Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (VCAPCD), Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority Fire Department (MRCA FD), Bell Canyon Fire Department, Chumash Fire Department, Ventura City Fire Department, Beverly Hills Fire Department, Ventura County Fire Department, CAL FIRE, The Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians, Pala Fire Department, Ventura County PBA, San Luis Obispo PBA (SLOPBA), Los Angeles PBA (LAPBA), Santa Barbara City College botany students, Atmore and Son’s, and many volunteers.
Huge thanks to the funding agencies that enabled this work to continue and grow: Cal Fire- Fire Prevention Grant, Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority, and the Department of Conservation / State Coastal Conservancy “Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program”.
This work could not have been done without the help from the community/volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering with the VCPBA or have questions, please email here: [email protected].
