The prescribed burn begins on a California hill with a drip torch to light brush, needles and fallen branches, the flames spreading out on the forest floor far below the tree canopy.
Students on this Saturday class learn how to keep the burn under control, while others stand by ready to assist with water pumps, hand tools and first aid.
“People have an innate fear of fire because it's only been an enemy that's been wiping out communities and it's still doing that," Kocher said. "But if you do it at the right time, under your own conditions, it can be your friend and it can treat the forest as opposed to destroying it." The Saturday class for two dozen volunteers – mostly college students and a few private landowners - at the Blodgett Forest Research Station west of Lake Tahoe turned out just as the experts had hoped.
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