Learning and Burning Together in the North Bay
Welcome to our community of neighbors helping neighbors to put good fire on the ground! If you are interested in getting your property in the queue for a prescribed burn, please fill out this Intake Form.
If you’d like to learn about upcoming prescribed burns, participate in a burn, join a pile burn, attend a fire ecology or permitting workshop, join a community BBQ, or learn about all other events hosted by the Good Fire Alliance, sign up for our listserv by emailing main+subscribe@gfa.groups.io – or bookmark this page.
Check out pictures from recent burns and links to local resources below. If you have any questions, email us directly at goodfirealliance@gmail.com.
Good Fire Alliance
Spring Fire Ecology Workshops
April 11 & April 26
Hosted by: AG + Open Space
Saddle Mountain Open Space Preserve, Santa Rosa, CA
Both workshops are currently sold out but we encourage you to join the waitlist! When cancellations occur, the organizers will offer open spots in the order people signed up.
To be added to the waitlist for April 11 event, please contact Tony Passantino at tony@sonomaecologycenter.org.
To be added to the waitlist for April 26 event, please contact Monica Delmartini at Monica.Delmartini@sonomacounty.gov. If contacted by Monica, you will have 24 hours to confirm your spot before it is offered to the next person.
Saturday, April 11 9:30am - 1:30pm
Post-Prescribed Burn and Grassland Ecology Workshop
Visit a grassland in spring following a prescribed burn to learn why this site was selected, how the burn was planned and conducted, and what the early results have been. We’ll discuss California native grasslands, the role of fire in stewarding rare plants, and how burn planning can support ecosystem health while protecting wildlife and controlling invasive species. The workshop is intended for land stewards, fire practitioners, and community members interested in local ecology and flora. Led by: Monica Delmartini, Stewardship Specialist and fire ecologist with Ag + Open Space, and co-led by Tony Passantino, Education Program Manager with Sonoma Ecology Center.
Sunday, April 26, 9:30am – 2:30pm
Reading the Landscape for Fire: Pre-Burn Outing (Mixed Hardwood Forest)
This outing will focus on post-wildfire and pre-prescribed burn considerations in a 50-acre mixed hardwood unit we hope to burn this year. The area burned at low severity during the 2020 Glass Fire, providing an opportunity to discuss wildfire behavior, post-fire vegetation and fuel changes, burn unit preparation, and indicators that conditions are appropriate for re-burning. As with the previous workshop, we’ll explore how to balance multiple objectives, including rare plant stewardship, community risk reduction, and ongoing research. The workshop will be led by Monica Delmartini and co-led by Devyn Friedfel of Pepperwood Preserve. The outing includes a ~3-mile round-trip hike through moderately steep terrain with frequent stops for discussion.
A Prescribed Burn in grasslands at Sonoma Mountain Vernal Pools Preserve, stewarded by Sonoma Land Trust. May, 2025. Image: Joe Plaugher
Prescribed burn in a redwood forest, Martin Griffin Preserve, February 2025. Promoting diversity of native plants that provide food and habitat for wildlife; removing duff, fallen branches; improving soil health; helping redwoods to become more resilient. Image: Erika Lutz
Tending the understory at the Martin Griffin Preserve, February 2025. Image: Erika Lutz
Handline training, part of S-130 Basic Wildland Firefighter & Firelighter (FFT2) certification, required for participation in some prescribed burns, 2025. Image: Erika Lutz
2025 GFA spring BBQ potluck. Sign up for our list-serve above to receive invites to all future parties and classes! Image: Erika Lutz
Prescribed burn at Monan's Rill, Santa Rosa, October 2024. Image: Erika Lutz
Prescribed fire chainsaw training, 2024. Image: Erika Lutz
Burn pile training, 2024. Want to bring a good fire workshop to your community? Let us know at: goodfirealliance@gmail.com. Image: Erika Lutz
2024 GFA BBQ potluck. Image: Erika Lutz
Grassland burn at the Pepperwood Preserve to remove medusahead grass, an invasive species that pushes out native plants. Image: Ian Nelson
Students at a prescribed burn training at the Martin Griffin Preserve, 2024. Image: Erika Lutz
Fire ecology walk at the Pepperwood Preserve, 2024. Image: Summer Swallow
Local Resources
Intake form for prescribed burns in the North Bay
Prescribed burn guide for Sonoma County
Tips for Building Burn Piles (PDF) and Pile Burning Tutorial (video) for Sonoma County (including links for required permits, and phone numbers to call)
Guía para Quemas en Pila (PDF) Quemando Pilas en Sonoma (video) (Building Burn Piles in Sonoma in Spanish)
Contractors to assist with thinning, pile burning, broadcast burning prep, invasive species, post-fire restoration
Training Opportunities:
Fire Forward offers a variety of trainings, from volunteers looking to assist with burns to people pursuing careers as fire practitioners.
Pepperwood Preserve offers frequent pile burning workshops.
LandPaths organizes unique community “patch burns” — smaller, low-severity burns that are open to everyone, from children to elders.
Good Fire Alliance Instagram page
Articles, Webinars, Books on Beneficial Fire
If you are new to prescribed fire:
A San Francisco Chronicle feature with illustrations of what California’s forests looked like before and after fire suppression and an explanation of how good fire can reverse these changes
A Bay Nature article by Dr. Don Hankins (Plains Miwok), “Reading the Landscape for Fire”
Adapting western North American forests to climate change and wildfires: 10 common questions summarizes over 300 peer-reviewed studies on the benefits of prescribed fire
Books: California Indians and Their Environment and Tending the Wild document Indigenous stewardship practices, including cultural fires, in what is now California
A New York Times video featuring the work of some of the GFA fire practitioners
If you have been working with beneficial fires for a while:
Prescribed Fire Effects in Coast Redwood Forests in the Bay Area, by Taj Katuna, UC Berkeley
Managing Invasive Species with Good Fire, by Devyn Friedfel, Pepperwood Preserve
Lessons Learned on Prescribed Fire, Volume 1, by Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council (submit your lessons!)
California Fire Science Consortium is a great resource for the latest research and webinars on good fire
Good Fire Alliance Steering Committee
GFA is a grassroots alliance of about 1,000 members. Our Steering Committee promotes coordination, collaboration, skill building, and outreach for good fire projects in the North Bay. New steering committee volunteers are elected every year in March. Sign up for our list-serv above to receive the application next year if you are interested in applying!
A special thanks to Patti Aaron (Sonoma Resource Conservation District) for providing support to the steering committee volunteers.
From left to right: Jennifer Stanfield, Preston Duncan, Brian Peterson, Kristina Rizga, Monica Delmartini, Anne Crealock. Committee members not in the photo: Joe Plaugher, Jiordi Rosales, Darrell Brooker. Image by Erika Lutz