The Society of American Foresters’ journals, Forest Science and Journal of Forestry, have compiled recent articles about the southern US region.
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North Georgia Prescribed Fire Council to Meet Remotely
**Updated 5/7/20** The North Georgia Prescribed Fire Council meeting scheduled for June 4 will be held remotely as a Zoom webinar. Registration and other details can be found in the meeting announcement below.
Continue ReadingThe Georgia Prescribed Fire Council, a statewide coalition of land managers, landowners, forestry consultants, conservation organizations, universities, and state and federal agencies promotes the safe use of prescribed fire as an essential natural resource management tool to ensure ecosystem health and reduce wildfire risk. The first North Georgia Prescribed Fire Council meeting was held in 2019 at North Georgia Technical College in Jasper Ga with 200+ in attendance. The Council had plans to hold the 2020 North Georgia Prescribed Fire meeting on Thursday, June 4, 2020 but due to the COVID 19 restrictions on large groups, the 2020 meeting will be a virtual meeting using ZOOM technology. There will be a normal full agenda of speakers with live interaction from the audience available for questions and comments. ZOOM is very easy to use and there will be technical help for any issues. The 5-hour meeting, with breaks, will address critical issues for prescribed fire practitioners and advocates, with a special emphasis on north Georgia and its unique terrain, population, and forest types. Meeting attendees will hear from prescribed fire experts on 8 different topics as you will see on the meeting agenda.
North Georgia’s public and privately-owned forestland is a significant economic, biological, recreational, and aesthetic resource. Carefully planned prescribed fires prevent the build-up of flammable, naturally-occurring fuels that set the stage for destructive wildfires. Prescribed fire also helps ensure healthy habitat for plants and animals, including rare and endangered species in Georgia.
Continuing Forestry Education and Master Timber Harvester credits will be available for those participating in the full conference.
Join us on June 4th at 10:00 AM on your computer or other device to learn about the state of prescribed fire in North Georgia.
For more information about the Georgia Prescribed Fire Council, visit www.garxfire.com
Respectfully,
Frank M Riley Jr. CF
Chair, Georgia Prescribed Fire Council
New USFS SRS GTR: Fire in Southern Appalachians – Understanding Impacts, Interventions and Future Fire Events
A new General Technical Report (GTR) from the US Forest Service Southern Research Station (GTR SRS-249) discusses the 2016 wildfire year in the Southern Appalachians as well as the current prescribed fire situation within the region and forecast fire activity for the region through 2060. Download and read the full GTR here (pdf) or access the USFS SRS source page.
The USFS SRS-249 abstract:
Continue ReadingFrom October to December of 2016, a confluence of human and environmental factors led to an outbreak of wildfires across the Southern Appalachian Mountains. This report examines the time trends of fire in the Southern Appalachian region, including mitigation activities and forecasting acres burned. The introduction (ch. 1) of this report describes the 2016 Southern Appalachian fires on public lands and provides a brief description of the methodology used to understand economic impacts of fire. Chapters 2 and 3 examine how prescribed fire is used in this region. The final chapter (ch. 4) describes how we can expect area burned by both human- and lightning-caused fires to change given increases in global temperatures, fuels, and wildland fire management.
NWCG S-131 Online $35
Our partners at the University of Florida Natural Areas Training Academy are offering an online section of the NWCG S-131 training course in June. Registration is online $35. Register by June 1, 2020.
S-131: Firefighter Type I
Due to the effects of COVID-19, this workshop will take place in an entirely VIRTUAL FORMAT
Registration: $35
This is a National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) training course designed for individuals with wildland fire experience who are currently qualified as a Firefighter Type 2 (FFT2), and who desire to be qualified as a Firefighter Type 1 (FFT1) or Incident Commander Type 5 (ICT5) in the National Interagency Incident Management System: Wildland Fire Qualification System Guide (PMS 310-1).
Online component: complete 7.5 hours of work (pre-recorded lectures, readings, and quizzes) at your own pace anytime between June 1 and June 15, 2020
Live virtual component: join us via Zoom for a live session (group exercises and discussions) on June 16, 2020
This course will explore fireline reference materials, communications, tactical decision making, position responsibilities, and operational leadership.
All participants should have wildland fire experience and must have evidence of having completed S-130/190 (Basic Wildland Firefighter training) prior to this course. Please plan to have your IRPG with you during the live session.
Registration closes June 1, 2020. Register here.
***Please note that Eventbrite processing fees are NONREFUNDABLE, meaning that if you need a refund, Eventbrite will provide only a partial refund, minus the Eventbrite processing fees. For more information, visit Eventbrite’s policy here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/support/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/is-the-eventbrite-fee-refundable?lg=en_US.
AGU Solicits Manuscripts for Fire in the Earth System Special Collection
The American Geophysical Union has opened a new special collection, Fire in the Earth System across 10 of its journals. Manuscripts will be accepted until May 2021 to allow the inclusion of findings from the 2020 (northern-hemisphere summer) and 2020–21 (southern hemisphere summer) fire seasons.
Continue ReadingBiennial Longleaf Conference Abstract Deadline Extended
The abstract submission deadline for the 13th Biennial Longleaf Conference has been extended to May 6. The conference will take place in Wilmington, NC October 20-23, 2020.
Continue ReadingAn Extension Guide for Wildland Fire Programming
The Southern Fire Exchange recently contributed to a new informational guide from NC State Extension titled Wildland Fire Programming – A Guide for Extension and Outreach Professionals. The guide includes tips for hosting prescribed fire demonstrations, fire festivals, field tours and prescribed fire related workshops. Natural resource and forestry Cooperative Extension agents will certainly want to check out this guidebook as well as anyone who works in public outreach related to fire.
SFE also has several webinars related to this topic:
- Lessons Learned from Hosting Learn-n-Burn Events: Moving Landowners from Interest to Action
- Fire Festivals: Lessons Learned from Planning and Coordinating
New USFS Wildfire Risk Visualization Tool
The brand new Wildfire Risk to Communities interactive map and data visualization tool provides individuals, communities, leaders, agencies and cooperatives seamless wildfire risk information for all 50 states. The interactive browser-based map data and reports are available at the community, county and state levels. The tool is intended to provide citizens and decision makers with information that can help them to understand wildfire risk based on hazards and vulnerabilities. This information can assist with scenario planning, fuel treatment prioritization and a wide array of fire adapted community related processes. Wildfire mitigation specialists will definitely want to check out this resource.
Continue ReadingUpcoming Special Fire Issue of the Journal Remote Sensing
The open-access MDPI journal Remote Sensing is seeking submissions for an upcoming special issue titled “Fires on Forest Environments”. Manuscript submissions are due October 31, 2020.
From the call for papers:
Dear Colleagues,
The increase frequency and damage that fires cause in natural ecosystem is becoming a global fingerprint of climate change. Recent fires in California, Europe and the Amazon basin are a clear example of the need for accurate monitoring and assessment of conditions of fires and the conditions that can cause then, respectively. In this special issue, we would like to explore the role of fires and its monitoring and assessment via remote sensing technologies. We invite those researchers interested on the topics above to submit their contributions. As climate change becomes more predominant, and ecosystems become more responsive to natural and human induced fires, there is a pressing need to build consensus and knowledge base on fire remote-sensing topics. Therefore, regular, methods and synthesis papers are invited.
Prof. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa
Dr. Joanne Nightingale
Guest Editors
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Fire Lines Wins ANREP Gold Award
SFE’s Fire Lines newsletter received the 2020 Gold Award from the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals (ANREP) for best Newsletter or Series of Articles. In 2019, SFE’s Lessons Learned from Hosting Learn-n-Burn Events webinar received the Gold Award for best Televised Conference – Video Conference – Webinar.
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