Cal Poly students managed a prescribed burn with California State Parks, CAL FIRE and U.S. Forest Service departments on Oct. 13 at the university’s Escuela Ranch, located eight miles north of campus off Highway 1.
The students burned 26 acres of the 2,500-acre ranch from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m, according to natural resources management and environmental sciences (NRES) professor Ashley Grupenhoff. State and federal agencies were only present to provide support, making the burn the first of its kind at Cal Poly because of the fact that students and professors led it.
The NRES students, most of them forest and fire science majors, conducted the burn for NR 470, a senior project class dedicated to learning about and experiencing prescribed burns, according to Grupenhoff.
“Prescribed fire has a lot of implications to restore ecosystem resilience and reduce fuel reduction around homes and wildfire fire risk to communities,” Grupenhoff said. “So, it’s an important tool in the toolbox.”
Grupenhoff, her students and employees from State Parks, CAL FIRE and Forest Service gathered on the ranch at 9 a.m. for an hour-long briefing. They went over how the weather will affect the burn along with participant communication and safety plans, according to Grupenhoff.
The group moved to the 26-acre unit detailed in the burn plan and conducted a test burn to monitor fire and smoke behavior, according to Grupenhoff. Once everything went as planned, the students were split into four groups, each sent out with a number of State Parks and CAL FIRE employees.
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CJ MacLaughlin was one of the students using the drip torch, a tool that allows its user to trickle flaming fuel in a concentrated line.
“You’re not going to get better at understanding how prescribed fire works if you’re not actually physically going out there doing prescribed fire,” the forest and fire science senior said.
Every student got a turn on the torch. Students also practiced using flare guns, normally used to ignite controlled fire in inaccessible or dangerous areas.
State Parks and CAL FIRE employees gave students tips on firing patterns while the Forest Service brought wildfire engines and other resources to keep on hand.
The burn ended with students putting out spots that were still smoldering with water and shovels.
Now that the prescribed fire is over, students will start creating their own theoretical burn plans, according to MacLaughlin.
Grupenhoff first brought up the idea for the class in January 2024 when she joined the NRES department as an assistant professor. She felt students needed to practice prescribed burning during the current wildfire crisis because of its mitigation benefits.
The planning process for the prescribed burn class took two years. It began with Grupenhoff and NRES Department Head Jeremy James submitting a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) notice of exemption, followed by a CAL FIRE burn permit, according to Grupenhoff.
The burn also happened under the California State Certified Prescribed-Fire Burn Boss Program, according to Grupenhoff. This CAL FIRE program allows people who do not work with official fire agencies to become “burn bosses,” otherwise known as people certified to plan and conduct burns on state or private lands.
Though Monday’s burn technically had State Parks Fire Manager Sarah Gibson as burn boss, Grupenhoff created the Escuela Ranch burn plan detailing vegetation, weather conditions, smoke management and contingency plans among other elements, which Gibson signed off on.
Grupenhoff hopes to get the certification to become her own burn boss so that she can increase the pace and scale of Cal Poly-led prescribed burns in the future.
Video story created by Aneka Edwards.
This article has been updated to correct a misspelt name.
