We're your neighbors. And we're tired of watching things burn.
NCPBA was built by people who live here, work this land, and understand what's at stake if we don't bring good fire back to the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Built from the ground up. By the community, for the community.
The Nevada County Prescribed Burn Association was founded on a simple conviction: the crisis in our forests can't be solved without all of us working together.
Prescribed fire is one of the most effective tools we have for reducing catastrophic wildfire risk and restoring ecological health to fire-adapted landscapes. But using it safely and legally takes coordination, equipment, trained hands, and trust. That's what NCPBA exists to provide.
We're a community of landowners and volunteers who show up for each other's burns, share knowledge and equipment, and work in close partnership with CAL FIRE, the Nevada County Resource Conservation District, and the Wildfire Ready Coalition of Nevada County. We're not here to replace agency fire management. We're here to extend its reach into the places where community-led action makes the difference.
Oak woodland, Sierra Nevada foothills — Nevada County, CA
Three principles that guide everything we do.
Community-led
Every burn we support is planned and conducted by the landowner. Our role is to show up with trained volunteers, shared equipment, and organizational support. The land is yours. The decision is yours. We back you up.
Agency-partnered
We work within the regulatory framework, not around it. That means close coordination with CAL FIRE on burn permits, weather windows, and fire behavior. Our members understand the rules because following them is what makes this work sustainable.
Ecologically grounded
Prescribed fire isn't just a fuel management tool. It's an ecological process that this landscape evolved with. We take that seriously in how we plan burns, choose timing, and think about long-term land health.
The people behind the organization.
Theo Fitanides is a Landscape Resilience Project Coordinator with the Yuba Watershed Institute, bringing over a decade of expertise in botany, habitat restoration, and native plant cultivation to his work in the Sierra Nevada foothills. A Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate with a B.S. in Biological Sciences, Theo specializes in the ecology of California native plants and their role in fire-adapted, resilient forest ecosystems. He has led landscape-scale fuel reduction and forest health projects across the Nevada County region, including the 205-acre Little Deer Creek Landscape Resilience Project, working to reduce wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface while balancing habitat diversity and ecological integrity. As Board President of the Nevada County Prescribed Burn Association, Theo brings both scientific grounding and deep place-based knowledge to the community's efforts to reintroduce fire as a land stewardship tool.
A Nevada City-based filmmaker, land steward, and prescribed fire practitioner, I've spent over a decade documenting conservation, land stewardship and indigenous allyship work across the Sierra. The more I talked to the experts, the more I saw a throughline: fire's absence was the primary cause of our forest's ill health.
When YBBC decided to disband, I took up the mantle to incorporate the Nevada County Prescribed Burn Association and appoint its original board. My vision for getting the NCPBA off the ground is simple: find the folks whose eyes light up when they are asked about putting fire back on the ground and bring them together to share the gospel of the drip torch.
In 1989 I became a wildland firefighter based out of Chico. After four seasons on the fireline, I transitioned into software development and eventually settled in Shasta County.
Motivated by my firefighting experience, I gradually transformed our manzanita-covered property into a well-groomed shaded fuel break. In July 2018, the Carr Fire consumed 230,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,600 structures, including most of our neighborhood. Our home and property remained intact. An island of green within the black. The years of hardening and preparation had paid off.
But only to a point. The neighborhood disbanded and we were living in a burn scar. We were surrounded by hills of charred dead trees and ash-covered foundations where houses once stood. It’s windy and noisy because miles of forest are gone. Our possessions survived, but it wasn’t a win. It was time to leave.
We relocated to undeveloped land in Nevada County and started clearing manzanita again. The Carr Fire taught me that personal preparation isn't enough. Resilience has to be built at the community level. Prescribed fire is one of our most effective tools for doing that. That's why I joined the Nevada County Prescribed Burn Association — committed to helping our community safely and effectively use prescribed fire, not just to reduce wildfire risk, but to help restore our fire-dependent ecology.
Our Advisory Council brings together expertise in fire ecology, conservation, land management, and local policy to help guide NCPBA's work.