A selection of recent prescribed fire science publications has been compiled by NC State Extension Forestry, Southern Fire Exchange, and the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists with input from researchers from around the region. These publications are particularly useful to include the most current prescribed fire science in training events such as RT-130 Annual Refreshers. Those with questions can contact Laurel Kays, [email protected].
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Fifth National Climate Assessment Public Engagement Workshops
The U.S. Global Change Research Program is pleased to announce a series of public engagement workshops to help inform the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
The virtual workshops, which are free and open to the public, will be held in January and February 2022. The information gathered will help the authors determine which topics to cover in their chapters of the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
More details, including the full schedule and registration links, can be found on USGCRP’s website.
Continue ReadingFLN Networker December 1, 2021
The latest FLN Networker includes a number of items relevant to the South:
Indigenous Voices: There were two announcements from the federal government on November 15: The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the White House Council on Environmental Quality jointly released a new memorandum that commits to elevating Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in federal scientific and policy processes (press release). And the departments of Agriculture and the Interior issued a joint Secretarial Order to strengthen tribal co-stewardship of public lands and waters (press release).
Smoke: The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network Smoke Learning Group has collected some highlights from its learning, including a two-pager on HEPA filter programs and another summarizing a conversation about smoke with social scientist Sarah McCaffrey.
Inequality & Risk Response: The authors of the article “Inequality Hinders Group Efforts to Avoid Environmental Disasters” experimentally explored how people’s contributions to a common solution were affected by differences in (experimental) wealth and probability of risk. “As inequality increases, much depends on the rich, who do not necessarily cooperate.”
Continue ReadingFire Management Today November Issue Now Available
Chance to Join SECASC Blueprint Indicator Teams – Southeast Grasslands and Longleaf Pine
We’re making good progress on the new approach for the 2022 Southeast Conservation Blueprint. A big focus right now is on expanding and improving indicators for use in the new Blueprint. For some indicators, we’re only working directly with data providers and a select group of experts. With others, we’re also opening up the review teams to anyone who’s interested. The first two of those are indicator teams for Southeast grasslands and longleaf pine.
The overall commitment for each team is 1-2 online meetings (1 hr each). The calls will likely happen in January.
Longleaf pine
Thanks to some big progress in longleaf mapping throughout the range, it looks like we can combine work from Florida and in states throughout the longleaf range into a decent indicator. This team will review some options based on those data.
- Sign up for the longleaf pine indicator team (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=urWTBhhLe02TQfMvQApUlMsSMhhZgj5LtUzvT7wy35tUQ05JWUoyMFNVWjUwV0lTVjNJV1E5NENHWS4u)
Southeast grasslands indicator
There’s also some excellent work on current and historic grasslands now. As you probably know, grassland mapping is really tough, but things seem far enough along for a larger Southeast grasslands indicator.
- Sign up for the Southeast grasslands indicator team (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=urWTBhhLe02TQfMvQApUlMsSMhhZgj5LtUzvT7wy35tUMFlPUERPWEdXQ0RWV0RPSko0MFcxNjNYSC4u)
Jobs: The Ember Alliance
The Ember Alliance is hiring for multiple positions. Descriptions and further information can be found on the Ember Alliance Jobs page.
Continue ReadingVirginia Prescribed Fire Council Launches Updated Website
The updated Virginia Prescribed Fire Council website is up and running. The PFC would love to have your thoughts and input to make the site as useful as possible going forward so please feel free to share ideas, documents, links, photos, etc anytime! Under “The Latest” page you will find an event calendar. It’s currently empty, but there will soon be future trainings, webinars, and meetings (such as the upcoming Virtual Meeting).
Continue ReadingJobs: Student Conservation Association Forest Management Corps
In partnership with Student Conservation Association, National Forests in North Carolina will be hosting a regional, roving Forest Management Corps crew for a second year. This four member and one leader crew will engage on silviculture projects with National Forests in North Carolina, Cherokee National Forest, Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest and the George Washington & Jefferson National Forests. The crew will begin in January 2022 and engage from the mountains to the coast through July 2022.
Please share this opportunity with any individuals who are looking to jumpstart a career in forestry. Crew members who complete 640 hours with the program have the opportunity to earn a Public Land Corps hiring authority which allows them to apply with merit status to United States Forest Service jobs. Interested candidates can learn more about the leader position here: https://www.thesca.org/2022-roving-forest-management-corps-project-leader and member positions here: https://www.thesca.org/serve/position/2022-roving-forest-management-corps/po-00731806. Applications received by December 1st, 2021 will be given priority.
Continue ReadingFlorida State Parks Celebrates 50 Years of Prescribed Fire
In 1971, the Florida Park Service conducted its first prescribed fire at Falling Waters State Park in Chipley.
Fifty years later, parks director Eric Draper and a group of veteran burners gathered at Falling Waters to conduct a prescribed burn.
Prescribed Burn Geodatabase for the Southeastern United States
Tall Timbers Research Station is undertaking a project that aims to do the following:
1) Survey Southeastern states to understand their prescribed fire permitting systems.
2) Develop minimum attribution for geodatabase (specific to prescribed fire)
3) Create a geodatabase to include how permit location is tracked, what attributes are collected, spatial characteristics, period of record and data stewardship.
4) Generate a formal updating process for each state.
View a storymap about the project here.
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