22 to watch in 2022: Prescribed fire champion Sasha Berleman builds Bay Area volunteer corps, wider acceptance of ‘good fire’

Name: Sasha Berleman

Position: Wildland fire scientist and director, Fire Forward for Audubon Canyon Ranch

On the job since: 2016

Age: 32

Hometown: Raised in Temecula, Calif., but has been living in the East Bay and recently bought a home in Richmond

Why Berleman is someone to watch:

The prescribed fire movement has gained tremendous momentum in recent years, driven by concerns about climate change and catastrophic wildfires, and Sasha Berleman has been right at the center of it. As director of Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program, she’s been working for the past five years in partnership with others to expand training opportunities for prescribed burn practitioners and increase acceptance of “good fire” on the land to reduce dead fuels, lessen fire risk and rejuvenate native plant communities.

A UC Berkeley-educated fire scientist, Berleman’s goal is to “increase capacity” for conducting prescribed burns on a large enough scale to have a real impact on safety and ecology. She and her team have continue to expand the Fire Forward program, with new training programs to increase the pool of volunteer practitioners and squad leaders, as well as providing a new yearlong program for 10 fellows and internships for four people through Santa Rosa Junior College.

Berleman last year served on a panel that developed new state prescribed burn boss curriculum and certification standards and hopes to complete her own federal burn boss qualifications in 2022, allowing substantially greater authority to conduct landscape-scale burns. The Fire Forward program also has its first full-scale wildland fire engine being assembled right now.

What others are saying about Berleman:

“Sasha’s not just training and spreading the word, she’s getting the work done. She is the example of how we move forward. She has trained over 300 people in the basic minimum qualifications, but she’s also providing advanced training opportunities. She has five of her people right now burning in New Mexico in the Gila National Forest. And she’s leading burns north of the Bay Area in steep, rugged country that’s dominated by brush and timber. And she’s doing it with grace and with a thoughtful approach. And so, yeah, I think she is the example of what we need to be doing.” — Jeremy Bailey, prescribed fire director for The Nature Conservancy’s North American Fire Team and creator of the Prescribed Fire Training Exchange model

What Berleman says about 2022:

“We, as a whole, on the local, regional and state level have made so much progress this year in so many aspects of prescribed fire and prescribed burning. I’m really excited to see all these pieces coming together in the new year.”