Fighting Fire with Fire

NRES Students Traveled to Sierra Nevada to Assist in a Prescribed Burn on a Southern California Edison Property in Shaver Lake, CA


Fifteen students enrolled in a core forestry and natural resource management class assisted with a prescribed burn on Southern California Edison property in Shaver Lake, Calif. in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains in April. The hands-on field trip was ideal for the silviculture course which focuses on forest management. Students spent the weekend building a fire line, burning, and collecting data for their course project. “There's a time and place to learn in the classroom but there are advantages to getting hands-on experience in the field,” said Patrick Levesque, a fourth-year forestry and natural resources major. “You come back to the classroom feeling more confident in your knowledge and capable of doing more.” Levesque said he plans to pursue a master’s degree in fire protection engineering at Cal Poly before seeking a job as a consultant on building defensible spaces in wildland areas.