A new issue (Volume 10, Issue 3) of the Oak Woodlands & Forests Fire Consortium newsletter (IGNIS) is now available.
To view this newsletter, CLICK HERE or find it at their website HERE.
Continue ReadingUniting Fire Science and Natural Resource Management
by Staff
A new issue (Volume 10, Issue 3) of the Oak Woodlands & Forests Fire Consortium newsletter (IGNIS) is now available.
To view this newsletter, CLICK HERE or find it at their website HERE.
Continue Readingby Staff
The following letter was written by a group of more than 40 fire and forest scientists led by The University of New Mexico’s Matt Hurteau, a professor in the Department of Biology. It addresses concerns with a recent decision over new directives aimed at requiring Planning Level 2 and Regional Forester approval for prescribed burns. The blanket national policy is focused on reducing short-term risks but does not account for the fact that national forests and grasslands in the United States cover a large geographic area that experiences a wide variety of climatic conditions.
Continue Readingby Staff
A new storymap from National Public Radio covers the history and current state of wildfire in the Eastern US, and how that is changing with climate change.
Continue Readingby David Godwin
On Thursday, August 12, 2021 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM ET, The University of Neveda “Living With Fire” Virtual Workshop Series will host a question and answer (Q&A) workshop with Dr. Steve Quarles, University of California Cooperative Extension Advisor Emeritus and the retired Chief Scientist for Wildfire and Durability, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety Research Center. The Q&A session will be focused on home hardening, or building or retrofitting homes to withstand wildfire. For more information and to register.
Continue Readingby Staff
A recent CNBC article covered some of the apps available to help track air pollution and air quality as wildfires cause widespread impacts across the globe. Options discussed include QAir’s AirVisual, Air Care, Breezometer, and others run by government agencies.
Continue Readingby David Godwin
The recording of the SFE webinar from the end of June is now live on the SFE YouTube Webinar Archive. While the title mentions pine barrens, this webinar is all about landowner perspectives on restoration practices and efforts related to the native longleaf pine ecosystem.
Continue Readingby David Godwin
A team from the Longleaf Alliance and the University of Clemson Cooperative Extension recently created a three-part video series exploring the native ground cover of the xeric longleaf pine ecosystem. These great videos explain how fire is an important tool for managing the diverse and interesting. Check out the videos, share them with your local landowners, and learn about this fire-dependent Southeastern ecosystem.
Continue Readingby David Godwin
The National Weather Service office in Tampa, Florida has recently developed a series of short presentations that explore specific Florida weather topics. For fire and land managers in Florida, these “Weather Workouts” cover:
Sea Breeze Thunderstorms
Rip Currents
Hurricane Climatology and Flooding
Storm Surge and River Forecasting
NWS Online Tools and Services
Nws Damage Surveys and Forecast Models
El Nino, La Nina, Arctic Oscillation, and Super Fog
These short presentations may be useful additions to your next team meeting or RT-130 annual fireline refresher.
by David Godwin
The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network (FACNet) recently shared a recording of a series of panel presentations discussing planning for community smoke impacts from prescribed fire programs. The recording is on YouTube and also embedded below.
Continue Readingby David Godwin
The US Forest Service Research Data Archive recently released a new edition of the Spatial wildfire occurrence dataset for the United States spanning the period 1992-2018. The spatial data can be downloaded directly from the Archive page.
Abstract:
Continue ReadingThis data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2018. It is the fourth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. In addition to incorporating data for 2016-2018, some previously unavailable nonfederal wildfire records for the period 1999-2015 were acquired either directly from the state fire services (NH, NJ) or indirectly from an updated National Association of State Foresters database (AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, HI, ID, IL, OK, SD) and added. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.17 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 165 million acres burned during the 27-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included.