Fire Forward

To the many hearts and hands it takes to show up to this work, we celebrate you. Keep dreaming to the stars with your feet planted on the earth. Forever burning for you, Fire Forward Videos by Erika Lutz and Michael Garrett #allhandsecology #fireforward #goodfire #prescribedfire #firefamily #spaceshipearth

Audubon Canyon Ranch is now All Hands Ecology. It’s nice to re-meet you. Why All Hands? Because caring for the earth takes all of us. Every act of attention matters. Together, care becomes action. Why Ecology? Because ecology is home — the web of relationships between all living things, including people, and the places we share. Ecology reminds us that we are connected and shows us how to care for one another and the earth. Our new name is a reminder: to engage people, to work side by side, and to keep showing up for the places and beings we love. Thank you for joining us on this path. 🐚 Photo credits: 1-3) Erika Lutz, 3-4) Catie Clune, 5-6) Dr. Quinton Martins, 6-7) David Lumpkin #allhandsecology #forallthatconnectsus #auduboncanyonranch

What should I expect from a prescribed burn? 🔥 Returning good fire to the land is an essential tool for restoring balance and resilience in our forests. It’s important to know why prescribed fire matters and why they're conducted year-round. Learn more about what to expect from a prescribed burn from our partners at Sonoma Land Trust (@sonomalandtrust ), Cal Fire (@calfire ), and The Nature Conservancy (@ca_conserve ). #prescribedfire #goodfire #fireresilience

Stand with good fire 🔥🌱 We support AB 1891: the Beneficial Fire Capacity Act, a new California bill sponsored by the Karuk Tribe and the Watershed Research & Training Center, and co-authored by local Assembly members Damon Connolly and Chris Rogers. We encourage you to get to know this bill and support it by contacting your California representative. This bill helps get more good fire on the ground by: • Committing stable funding for community burns • Supporting burning led by tribes and tribal orgs • Expanding training and workforce capacity • Making beneficial fire more accessible across CA We already know prescribed and cultural fire for ecosystem health, reducing catastrophic wildfire risk, and protecting communities. The challenge now is building the capacity needed to reach the state’s goal of treating 800,000 acres with beneficial fire. State and federal wildland management agencies can’t reach this goal alone — and this bill helps bridge that gap. Stand with us in supporting this bill, which is currently moving through California legislature. Find your rep at findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/ and tell them you support AB 1891: the Beneficial Fire Capacity Act. Our deep gratitude goes out to the Karuk Tribe, @hayforkwatershedcenter , @asmdamonconnolly , @asmchrisrogers , and the many supporters for breathing life into this new legislation. 📸 Erika Lutz (1, 4-5, 8) & @sashwaburrous (2-3, 6-7) #goodfire #prescribedfireworkforce #fireresilience

As we prepare for spring burn season, we’re committed to sharing information about our prescribed burns as we work to return more good fire to North Bay landscapes. We believe fire stewardship should include the practice of community care. We understand an encounter with unexpected smoke or fire on the land can elicit a range of responses. That’s why we share information before the prescribed burns we lead and make updates readily available during the operation. Here are 3 ways you can stay informed about our prescribed burns: 🔔 Monitor smoke alerts on your mobile device with the @watchdutyapp . Get updates for any prescribed burn by tapping the green Rx flame and toggling the notifications switch to ON. 💬 Follow us on social media at @fire.forward and @allhandsecology to see information and stories about how and why we burn. We share links to Watch Duty reports for all our prescribed burns in our bio. ✉️ Get personalized notifications for our prescribed burns in your email inbox. Sign up at allhandsecology.org/smoke-alert/ #allhandsecology #fireforward #goodfire #smokeready

NEW RESOURCE 🌱 How is prescribed fire smoke managed? The prescribed burns we conduct have many measures in place to mitigate and reduce smoke impacts on nearby communities. Whether there is smoke in your area from wildfires or prescribed burns, we want you to be prepared. Check out our latest blog post “How to be smoke ready” (link in bio) to see ways to reduce impacts of smoke on your health and wellbeing. Photos by @tradewindshd (1) and Erika Lutz (2-8) #allhandsecology #fireforward #prescribedfire #smokeready

Getting good fire on the ground and keeping our communities safe requires a healthy, thriving, and empowered workforce. To find meaningful and durable solutions to both the climate and the wildfire crisis, this is non-negotiable. Our land worker friends with North Bay Jobs with Justice (@northbayjwj ) are contributing to the good fire movement in truly transformative ways – training farmworker organizers for fireline and forestry work, implementing fuels and restoration projects, and facilitating bilingual community burns and trainings. Join us as we march in solidarity with our fire family at the May Day Worker Power March next Friday, May 1 in Santa Rosa. A single organization or individual can never create the future we want to see. Together we’re proud to join our friends on the fireline — and in unity on the marching line. ¡Sí, se puede! ✊❤️‍🔥 Photo: @jen.mora Flier: North Bay Jobs with Justice #mayday #workerpower #northbayjobswithjustice #firefamily

Congratulations to the 25 rising and future prescribed fire leaders who just completed our latest course, L-280: Followership to Leadership! Held at the iconic Eames Ranch in Petaluma, participants learned foundational principles that allow fireline leaders to lean into the collective strengths of the team. The course covered a range of topics including the art of leading, moving through transitions, and stewarding team cohesion. They practiced the roles of ethical decision-making and situation-dependent leadership as field exercises. There *may* have been blindfolds, lava, and a small dinosaur involved. Many thanks to our friends at the Eames Institute (@eamesinstitute ) for setting the backdrop for this course in their stunning barn and regenerative homestead. We're grateful to share a kindred approach to life and work with creative problem-solving, a commitment to playful education, and tenacious dedication to forming quality connections. Want to join us for an upcoming training? Keep an eye out for our next course S-219: Firing Operations. Whether you are new to the field or working on fireline leadership certifications, check out our trainings page to see the range of NWCG courses and workshops (link in bio). 📷 Erika Lutz & Garrett Gradillas #allhandsecology #fireforward #goodfire #eventuallyeverythingconnects @allhandsecology @tribalecorestoration @northbayjwj @sonomalandtrust @marincountyparks @sonomacountyparks @castateparks @spyeconservationinc @yolorcd @sonomarcd @marinwildfire @ccnbcrew5 @centralcoastpba

Get to know Karyn Smoot, Prescribed Fire Projects Coordinator! 🔥 Many of you already know Karyn (they/she) as a practitioner on the Fire Forward prescribed fire module. In their new role, Karyn will lead projects on Fire Forward’s new burn planning and training cadres to improve equitable access to prescribed fire in the San Francisco North Bay and beyond. Born in San Francisco, Karyn grew up appreciating the flora and fauna found in and around the city. After studying ethnic studies, environmental studies and Chinese in college, they spent nine years as a worker-owner at Rainbow Grocery Cooperative and an organizer against displacement. Karyn started their fire journey by attending prescribed fire training exchange (TREX) events, burning with the Good Fire Alliance, and interning at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Wildfire Resiliency Program. Before joining Fire Forward, they worked as a traveling crew member on The Nature Conservancy’s Prescribed Fire Modules. More recently, Karyn has helped develop and lead chainsaw trainings and introductory fire workshops for Queer and BIPOC stewards, working to increase access to these valuable skills. With deep family roots in California, Karyn has found purpose in understanding and stewarding the landscapes that sustained her ancestors for four generations, and California Native peoples since time immemorial. As an uninvited guest on these lands, she hopes to practice stewardship in solidarity with indigenous communities who are reclaiming and restoring lands locally and around the world. Please join us in celebrating a new chapter with Karyn and our improved capacity to return more good fire to North Bay landscapes and Bay Area communities! 📸 Sashwa Burrous (1), Erika Lutz (2-3, 5, 8-9), Michael Garrett (3-4), Matt Dolkas (6-8), Karina Cardella (10), Len Mazur (12) #allhandsecology #fireforward #prescribedfireworkforce #greenjobs #climatecareers

Update 5/9/26: The application period is now closed. Sign up for our eNews to be the first to know about future job openings (link in bio). We’re hiring two prescribed fire practitioners to join us at All Hands Ecology! 🔥 This full-time position with competitive benefits is based in Petaluma with additional travel throughout the North Bay and beyond. Prescribed fire practitioners play a key role in advancing the mission of our dynamic conservation organization that stewards over 5,000 acres of protected land and works closely with private landowners, government agencies, other organizations, and the community to bring “good fire” to the landscape. Working as part of the collaborative and highly motivated Fire Forward program, this work is performed in service of ecological health and community safety and is rooted in healing our relationship with the land and each other. Our practitioners operate as members of a 12-person prescribed fire module, working under the supervision and leadership of a squad lead and a module lead. Practitioners are an integral part of the Fire Forward program and All Hands Ecology team, implementing stewardship projects, putting good fire on the ground, and participating as instructors in various courses and workshops for the community. This role requires a high level of organization and collaboration. Successful candidates will demonstrate excellent communication skills, a passion for stewarding the land, and a commitment to continuing the ongoing progress of good fire in the North Bay. The application period is open through May 8, 2026, with a start date in early July. 🔗 See the full position description and apply at allhandsecology.org/work-with-us/ (link in bio). 📸 Erika Lutz 🎵J Dilla “The Diff’rence” #allhandsecology #fireforward #prescribedfireworkforce #greenjobs #climatecareers

Get to know Adam Sawicky, our new full time Prescribed Fire Projects Coordinator! 🔥 Adam started working with us in 2023 through a unique partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) that split his time between supporting national prescribed burn efforts through TNC and regional prescribed burn efforts with our Fire Forward program. Having spent the past three years leading one of The Nature Conservancy’s Prescribed Fire Modules in assignments all over the country, Adam is excited to settle into a more place based, community-oriented role with All Hands Ecology. In his new role, Adam will work to maximize burning and training opportunities in the San Francisco North Bay and throughout the state that increase capacity to plan and implement prescribed fire. Adam grew up in Petaluma. With years of outdoor guiding experience to grow his appreciation for the environment and nurture his ecocentric outlook, he sought ways to reshape his relationship with surrounding landscapes. Graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Forestry and Natural Resources, he gained valuable insight regarding the extensive interconnectedness of natural systems, including the significance of fire in California’s ecosystems. This new perspective, served with a fresh sense of stewardship, sent him to seek reciprocity, and to become involved in putting good fire back on the land. After gaining necessary skills and experience through community Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs), the Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) program, and working on a Type 1 Wildland Fire Module, Adam is eager to offer his skills and knowledge, and to be involved in the good fire movement. Seen above are some favorite moments with Adam — on the GFA hand crew in the 2020 Walbridge Fire (6-8), tending redwoods in a 2025 prescribed burn (9-10), reseeding coastal prairie after a burn in 2023 (2-3), and restoring coastal forests with prescribed fire in 2024 (4). Join us in celebrating Adam’s new role with us and his homecoming to the North Bay community! 📸 Erika Lutz (1-5,9-10), Garrett Gradillas & Sasha Berleman (6-8). #allhandsecology #fireforward #prescribedfireworkforce #greenjobs #climatecareers

2026 Point Reyes Birding & Nature Festival: Exploring Coastal Prairies on April 25, 2026 Join Catie Clune, Brian Peterson, and Julia Berkey from @allhandsecology for an afternoon of exploring coastal prairies and how the use of fire is restoring this rich habitat along the Bourne Ridge at Martin Griffin Preserve. This short and strenuous one-mile uphill trek up the ridge will bring us to our coastal prairie restoration site, stopping for a midday picnic in the meadow. We will make frequent stops to observe and discuss the landscape to learn how this once-thriving coastal prairie ecosystem has gradually transformed into a dense Douglas fir forest and how we are working to restore it. Grasslands, once dominant across California’s coastal landscapes, are an often-overlooked biodiversity hotspot. However, they are among the state’s most rapidly vanishing ecosystems, with less than 1% of undisturbed prairie remaining—primarily within Point Reyes National Seashore. Coastal prairies are disturbance-dependent ecosystems, meaning they not only adapt to change but require it to thrive. On Bourne Ridge, small remnants of these grasslands persist, with native seed banks lying dormant beneath encroaching firs and shrubs. Since 2016, we have been working to restore ecological balance by reintroducing beneficial fire to the landscape. Prescribed burns conducted during the moist winter months help reduce forest density, allowing more sunlight and space for native grassland species to regenerate. As sunlight reaches the soil, long-buried native grass seeds can germinate and flourish once again. Register for Exploring Coastal Prairies in our bio link #allhandsecology #fireforward #goodfire #pointreyes 📷@sashwaburrous