Good Fire on the Mountain

On December 12-14th, 2025, the Mail Ridge Wildfire Resilience Project moved into the prescribed fire phase of its restoration efforts.

Members of Briceland Fire, Telegraph Ridge Volunteer Fire, Palo Verde Volunteer Fire, Petrolia Fire, the Humboldt County Prescribed Burn Association and cultural fire practitioners from Hybrid Indigenous Stewardship came together to help bring what the Wailaki people call N’Shong Konk (“Good Fire”) back to the southern Humboldt landscape.

Following several weeks of site preparation work by the Briceland Fuels Crew, Native Health in Native Hands and Hybrid Indigenous Stewardship, weather conditions aligned to conduct effective burning. Approximately 90 acres of oak under story and roadside piles were treated just ahead of wetting rain.

This work will help improve overall forest health by removing excessive moss, limiting fir encroachment in the oak woodlands and establishing a strategic fuel break to support future prescribed burns within the larger 269-acre project area.

This burn marks the first on-the-ground implementation of a broader, landscape-scale effort spanning the 54-mile crest of Mail Ridge across Southern Humboldt and northern Mendocino counties. Decades of fire exclusion and past land management practices have increased wildfire risk, threatening forest health, carbon storage, and ecosystem balance.