2025 Yellow Star Thistle TREX Hosts 101 Participants!

Bella utilizes strip fire within a meadow. Photo Credit: Thena Tak.

In Trinity County, the June burn window opens early in the morning, and closes when the diurnal winds arrive around noon. In order to implement fire safely during this year’s Yellow Starthistle Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (YST TREX), fire practitioners awoke at 5:00 AM, sometimes earlier, and emerged from their tents to prepare for the day before building their lunches and eating a communal breakfast at 6:00 AM. The waning of the moon was all the more observable, walking through the campground before dawn, before the birds stirred, moving through moon shadows. Sunrises blazed over the horizon, warm and golden, orange and red. Sunsets lingered each night on the other end of the Hayfork valley, imbuing us all with the power, energy, and beauty of the summer solstice.

Researchers used cameras, large stationary sensors, and a fleet of drones to capture temperature, particulate matter, carbon dioxide and other atmospheric gas measurements during Tuesday’s burn to better understand fire dynamics. Photo Credit: Alex Mines.

During the 11-day YST TREX, 101 participants filtered in and out of the Hayfork Fairgrounds and throughout the Hayfork and Hyampom valleys to work, train, and learn together in service of wielding beneficial fire as a tool to manage invasive YST. The TREX model brings people of all walks of life together to understand and apply different perspectives and experiences throughout the fire world. No one considers themselves an expert. Rather, continuous lifelong learning from other people and fire itself makes students of us all.

This year’s attendees consisted of California Prescribed Burn Association (PBA) members, volunteer firefighters, cultural fire practitioners, students and researchers of various disciplines, filmmakers, artists, musicians, and everyday people with a passion for fire.

“Fire and Music Project” cellist James Jaffe plays a solo piece after Thursday’s burn.

Photo Credit: Christian Tensuan.

We brought together participants from all over California, Nevada, and Oregon, as well as international fire practitioners and researchers from England, Ecuador and Canada, and over the course of 8 burn days, we accomplished 10 burns on 7 different land ownerships totaling 124 acres. Beyond the acreage, the real impact of the TREX model lies in human investment and relationship building.

“I’m a descendant of Ruffey Rancheria Shasta peoples and my ancestors put fire on the land for thousands of years, for time immemorial,” said 22-year-old module leader Hazel Jordan. “And when I put fire on the land I’m connecting with them and reaching back in time, and I feel their presence with me, guiding me forward. This opportunity gave me the skills to carry that forward into my community, to bring us back, to create spaces where we can achieve that.”

“To say this experience was transformative is an understatement,” Megan Killeen, Communications Coordinator for the Watershed Center reflected. “I’d been on maybe 10 burns with the Trinity Integrated Fire Management Partnership prior to this training. Even though I love prescribed fire and it’s some of my favorite work to perform, I had a lot of imposter syndrome before this TREX, feeling like I didn’t fit into the fire world. This learning environment has been so empowering. I feel more confident and capable, like I belong here, like I’m just as worthy as anyone else with the calling to keep putting good fire on the ground. I’ll never forget the way this feels.”

The Watershed Center’s Fire Management Team’s motto, “Fire is for everyone,” rings especially true at TREX events. Throughout the ten days, we welcomed 26 iFireNet researchers from national and international educational institutions, as well as three separate film crews from Canada, the U.S., and South Korea, introducing numerous folks to their very first prescribed burn. Many went on to say they were eager to join their local PBA or otherwise find ways to engage with good fire. Meanwhile, a spectacular, hard-working kitchen staff kept all of these learners well fed with nutritious, balanced meals every single day. Local residents set up lawn chairs to observe one of the burns, having a fantastic time watching the intentional and thoughtful application of fire to a well-loved meadow. Followers on social media expressed enthusiasm on our daily posts and asked questions about YST phenology to better understand the purpose of the burns, their timing, and their effects.

“You don’t need to drag a drip torch to be a part of this movement,” reiterated Erin Banwell, Co-Director of the WRTC Fire Management Team. “People can help with paperwork–there’s plenty of it. They can bring food to share. They can spread the word to their friends and families. Fire practitioners come in all forms, shapes, and sizes and they’re all important. Everyone belongs here.”

“I joined the Hyampom VFD and became a Fire Operations Specialist because I live in a fire-adapted ecosystem and feel as though it’s my responsibility and obligation to put fire on the ground,” said Ellen McGehee, also with the WRTC Fire Management Team.

There’s no better time to take fire back into our hands. How will you pick up the torch?

We would like to offer our heartfelt gratitude to many people and organizations, including the Volunteer Fire Departments of Hayfork, Hyampom, Kettenpom-Zenia, and especially to Captain Heather Gossman for feeding scores of people for the duration of this training.

Funding for this project provided in part through a Regional Forest and Fire Capacity grant awarded by the California Department of Conservation and through support provided by the USDA Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy, under the terms of the PERFACT IV Agreement #24-CA-11132543-080. The content and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of such agency or The Nature Conservancy, and no official endorsement should be inferred.