The University of Florida Natural Areas Training Academy will be offering a hybrid NWCG S-130 / S-190 introduction to wildland fire course this spring. Attendees will complete most of the course online and will be required to participate in an in-person field day at one of three different locations on four possible dates. Registration ends April 13th. Cost: $75 More information here.
Continue ReadingJob: Postdoc on Indigenous-Led Fire Applications in the Southwest
Full posting here:
The University of California, Davis, in collaboration with the USGS Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (SW CASC, https://www.swcasc.arizona.edu
), invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship with a focus on Indigenous-led applications of fire in the Southwest for a 2-year period, beginning June 1, 2021. The postdoc will be able to work across both the Middleton (https://nas.ucdavis.edu/ people/beth-middleton) and Safford (https://safford.faculty. ucdavis.edu/people/) research groups, with projects including cultural burning demonstration, outreach, and education (Middleton); cultural burn policy analysis (Middleton); and the ecological impacts of low-intensity fire on SW and Australian ecosystems (Safford). The postdoc will contribute to the need to understand more of the scope of, challenges and opportunities for, and multifaceted outcomes of Indigenous burning, in California and throughout the SW CASC region—in order to better identify regional or state barriers, activate opportunities, and offer support to cultural fire efforts. Following the best practices of Lam et al. (http://www.ecologyandsociety. org/vol25/iss1/art3/) through research, analysis, synthesis, and knowledge sharing, we endeavor to bridge Western and Indigenous knowledge for fire-focused climate adaptation in southwestern ecosystems. We work collaboratively across the CASC network to respond to research needs and develop relevant products for natural resource managers. Possible areas of focus include the following: – Analyze, assess, and develop strategies to address the multi-scalar policy barriers and/or opportunities to implementing Indigenous-led traditional burning across land jurisdictions and ecosystems
– Asses the scales at which Indigenous cultural burning may be applied to address climate change in Southwest ecosystems
– Assess the ecological and policy potential for Indigenous burning to be recognized as a carbon sequestration strategy that provides ongoing biodiversity maintenance.
– Evaluate impacts of cultural burning on fish, wildlife, soils, and water, with an emphasis on ecological changes in both terrestrial and freshwater aquatic habitats.
– Examine the interacting effects of climate change and other stressors (e.g., invasive species, drought, land use change) and cultural fire, with a particular emphasis on cumulative and interactive impacts, and other potential beneficial synergistic effects of cultural burning to reduce/moderate climatic variability.
It is important for the incumbent to have experience working collaboratively with Indigenous populations and knowledge systems; demonstrated research and writing skills; a capacity for strong conceptual thinking; a commitment to staying abreast of the most recent and most robust science in Indigenous fire policy and/or ecology; and a desire to work as a member of an interdisciplinary team. Candidates must possess the ability to work harmoniously in teams with shared leadership capacity and they must be able to speak and write about complex issues for diverse audiences.
This opportunity is open to individuals who are obtaining or have obtained a PhD in ecology, forestry/wildland fire science, natural resource policy and management, Native American Studies, geography, or related fields. Candidates must have the PhD in hand by the start date.
Interested candidates should submit an application that includes CV, cover letter, and 2 letters of recommendation through the Recruit online portal at: https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/
apply/JPF04105 For full consideration applications should be completed by April 26, 2021. The position is open until filled. This postdoctoral fellowship is part of a larger Postdoctoral Climate Adaptation Scholars (CAS) Program established by the National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers (NRCASC) to support management-relevant research and scientific synthesis of emerging research needs related to climate impacts on fish, wildlife, and ecosystems. The objective of the CAS Program is to provide regional-to-national syntheses of climate change impacts on fire regimes, fire management, and fire response; explore resulting impacts on fish, wildlife and ecosystems; and provide the scientific research necessary to help managers adapt to these changes.
For more information visit: https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/apply/JPF04105.
Continue ReadingJob: Fire and Forest Ecology Field Technician
“The Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University (MSU), in collaboration with the USDA Forest Service Northern & Pacific Southwest Research Stations, seeks applications for field technicians on a study investigating forest resilience and carbon recovery after fire in Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests. The crew will be responsible for re-measuring a unique network of field plots in California mixed-conifer forests where pre-, active-, and immediate post-wildfire measurements were collected. Fieldwork will consist of measuring forest structure and composition (identifying trees and shrubs to species, measuring DBH, height, crown characteristics, surface and ground fuels measurements, herbaceous cover). These data will support the overall project goals of (1) determining how pre-fire fuels and environmental factors influence fire behavior and forest carbon loss; (2) defining thresholds of forest resilience, and (3) evaluating the recovery of forest vegetation and carbon stocks. Students and post-graduates seeking field experience for a career in ecology, forestry, or related topics are encouraged to apply. We anticipate hiring one crew member to join a crew of three.”
For more information see the position advertisement (pdf).
Continue ReadingJob: North Florida Land Conservation Steward
The Nature Conservancy is hiring a North Florida Land Conservation Steward based at the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve. Full-time. Funded through June 2022. For more information check out the posting at www.nature.org/careers Job ID #49483.
Continue ReadingJob: Postdoc in Data Science – Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center
The Southeast CASC through North Carolina State University is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Data Science that will work on prescribed fire research related to the Southeast. Some details from the listing:
Continue ReadingThe Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University, in collaboration with the Department of Statistics, the North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and the USGS Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, will be hiring a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in data science to assist with efforts to develop a prototype early warning system for Prescribed Fire Managers (PFMs). The primary research objective of the successful candidate is to characterize short, medium, and long-term climatological-risk for PFMs in the Southeast US, and to build a framework that allows for optimal decision making under uncertainty.
The successful candidate will work with Drs. Brian Reich (Statistics), Jaime Collazo (Applied Ecology), and Adam Terando (USGS) to model environmental conditions conducive to prescribed burning activities over time scales of days to decades in the future. Three major objectives of the position include 1). Define, identify, and model ‘fail-states’, or the sets of conditions that PFMs wish to avoid 2) Model risk exposure of PFMs given existing numerical model simulations of future climate over near-term (days) to long-term (decades) time scales, and 3) develop spatio-temporal models to characterize extreme wildfire risk on decadal time scales.
SFE Webinar Recording Available: COVID-19 Impacts on Southeast Prescribed Fire and Strategies for Keeping Fire on the Ground
The recording of the Southern Fire Exchange webinar from Thursday, February 11th “COVID-19 Impacts on Southeast Prescribed Fire and Strategies for Keeping Fire on the Ground” is now live on the SFE YouTube webinar archive. This webinar featured a research presentation on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Southeastern prescribed fire as well as a fire manager panel discussion that covered strategies for managing prescribed fire programs in 2020 and 2021. Webinar presenters included: Benjamin Poulter, Ph.D., NASA Earth Sciences Division and Morgan Varner, Ph.D., Tall Timbers Research Station. The webinar fire manager panelists included: Greg Titus, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Brett Williams, US Air Force Wildland Fire Branch, and Sasha Ernst, Florida Park Service
Click here to view the archived webinar
Click here to download the webinar slides
New Book: The Fire Manager’s Guide to Blue Ridge Ecozones
In “The Fire Manager’s Guide to Blue Ridge Ecozones” a new book from the Southern Blue Ridge Fire Learning Network, TNC fire manager Adam Warwick explores a wide range of fire maintained ecosystems across the Blue Ridge. The beautiful 165 page guide includes full color photographs and illustrations. You can download the full .pdf file here. A print version of the book is expected soon.
Mission Unstoppable – How Does Fire Spead?
In this January 2021 CBS Mission Unstoppable episode, University of Florida fire ecology professor and Southern Fire Exchange program Principle Investigator Dr. Rae Crandall uses match stick forests, metal trees, and a recent prescribed fire to explain basic principles of fire behavior and effects. This short five minute video would be a great introduction to fire in the Southeast.
Continue ReadingNASA Documents Fewer Prescribed Burns During the Pandemic
A new research data dashboard from NASA shows the changes in prescribed fire use during the COVID-19 pandemic. The satellite derived images show the temporal and spatial changes in the amount of fire on the southeastern landscape from March through August of 2020. You can explore the data and then visit the Tall Timbers Research Station online FireTrendR application to for more information about the NASA MODIS and VIIRS Active Fire datasets.
For an in-depth discussion of this project, followed by a panel discussion with regional prescribed fire managers, register for the free Southern Fire Exchange, NASA, and Tall Timbers webinar on February 11th from 1:00 – 2:30 PM ET. The webinar panel discussion will include fire managers from Eglin Air Force Base, the Florida Park Service, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Continue ReadingSFE Identifies Top Five Regional Fire Science Research Needs
Last fall the Southern Fire Exchange team worked to narrow and identify the top fire science needs for the Southeastern U.S. Using feedback from surveys, evaluations, and our advisory board, we worked with our principle investigators to develop a series of short documents that articulate some of the most pressing fire science needs for the region. These documents were shared with the Joint Fire Science Program to guide their fire science funding priorities for the country. Read more about this process and our top research needs topics for the region. The Joint Fire Science Program maintains an online database of fire science research needs that are national and regional in scope. This process provides an example of how the JFSP regional Fire Science Exchange Network can bridge the gap between fire science and management by identifying and elevating the most pressing and important research topics for funding.

A longleaf pine ecosystem restoration area in northwest Florida. Southern Fire Exchange photo by David Godwin.
2020 Top Five Southeastern Fire Science Research Needs
- Prescribed Fire Smoke Models (pdf)
- Prescribed Fire in Wetland Ecosystems (pdf)
- Spatial Scale of Prescribed Burning (pdf)
- Prescribed Fire on Private Lands (pdf)
- Prescribed Fire and Climate Change (pdf)
