The 2021 International Fire Ecology and Management Congress will be held Nov. 30 – Dec. 4 in Miramar Beach, Florida. The conference is being co-hosted by the Association for Fire Ecology and Tall Timbers Research Station. The Southern Fire Exchange is supporting the conference by co-coordinating the conference field trips that will take attendees to locations around North Florida that have examples of overcoming fire management challenges and prescribed fire barriers. Proposals for conference special sessions are now being accepted and general registration will open in July. Read more about the upcoming conference and opportunities for student scholarships.
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New SFE Video: UAVs for Measuring Prescribed Fire Behavior
A new Southern Fire Exchange video features Jim Riddering, Ph.D., the Remote Sensing Program Manager at the National Center for Landscape Fire Analysis at the University of Montana. In this video Jim talks about his project at the 2017 multinational Prescribed Fire Science Consortium event held at Tall Timbers Research Station and Pebble Hill Plantation in North Florida and South Georgia.
Continue ReadingSFE Webinar June 29: Restoring the Pine Barrens – Attitudes towards restoration of a threatened ecosystem in the U.S. South
Join us for a free one hour webinar from the US Forest Service Southern Region, the University of Georgia, the Southern Fire Exchange, NC State University, and the University of Florida.
Society of American Foresters CFE Credit Expected.
Presenters:
Dr. Jason Gordon, University of Georgia
Dr. John Willis, US Forest Southern Research Station
Webinar Description: Fire is a critical element for the restoration of native longleaf pine forests in the southern United States. This research explored public interest in restoration of this threatened ecosystem and the application of prescribed fire, a key component of restoration. We report on a project conducted across eight southern states with the following objectives: (1) to identify if prescribed fire has kept pace with demand for planting longleaf following disaster events and (2) to identify landowners’ and public interest in ecological restoration using science-based prescriptions and how managers may use this information to increase prescribed burning. To address these objectives, we collected data from key informant interviews and a public telephone survey. Results demonstrated several important predictors of social barriers to prescribed burning and types of landowners most likely to burn in longleaf ecosystems. We conclude with a discussion about ways to increase dialogue among stakeholders to help them understand the risks and benefits of appropriate ecosystem management using fire. Following the presentations there will be time for audience Q/A with the speakers.
Continue ReadingWebinar Recording: SFE Webinar: Prescribed Burn Associations in the Southeast – A Conversation With Experts
The recording of the SFE webinar, Prescribed Burn Associations in the Southeast – A Conversation With Experts is now available on the SFE YouTube channel.
Continue ReadingSFE Webinar May 6: Fire Suppression and Mesophication of Upland Oak Landscapes
SFE Webinar May 6, 1:00-2:00 PM ET
Historically pyrophytic and open-canopied upland oak landscapes across the central and eastern U.S. are shifting to closed-canopied forests dominated by shade-tolerant, often fire-sensitive species. Mesophication, a hypothesized process initiated by intentional fire exclusion by which these encroaching species progressively create conditions favorable for their own persistence at the expense of pyrophytic species, is commonly cited as causing this structural and compositional transition. While many forest ecologists and land managers accept the mesophication hypothesis as evidence for these shifts, the reason for these changes is not clear and many questions remain. In this presentation, we will consider current evidence for mesophication plus knowledge gaps and potential future research that considers which tree species and tree traits create self-perpetuating conditions and under what conditions tree-level processes might affect forest flammability at broader scales. The goal is to promote research that can better inform restoration and conservation of oak ecosystems experiencing structural and compositional shifts across the region.
Presenter:
Dr. Heather Alexander, Assistant Professor of Forest Ecology, Auburn University
Society of American Foresters CFE Credit Expected.
Continue ReadingSFE Webinar: Fire Suppression and Mesophication of Upland Oak Landscapes
Historically pyrophytic and open-canopied upland oak landscapes across the central and eastern U.S. are shifting to closed-canopied forests dominated by shade-tolerant, often fire-sensitive species. Mesophication, a hypothesized process initiated by intentional fire exclusion by which these encroaching species progressively create conditions favorable for their own persistence at the expense of pyrophytic species, is commonly cited as causing this structural and compositional transition. While many forest ecologists and land managers accept the mesophication hypothesis as evidence for these shifts, the reason for these changes is not clear and many questions remain. In this presentation, we will consider current evidence for mesophication plus knowledge gaps and potential future research that considers which tree species and tree traits create self-perpetuating conditions and under what conditions tree-level processes might affect forest flammability at broader scales. The goal is to promote research that can better inform restoration and conservation of oak ecosystems experiencing structural and compositional shifts across the region.
Presenter:
Dr. Heather Alexander, Assistant Professor of Forest Ecology, Auburn University
Society of American Foresters CFE Credit Expected.
Continue ReadingSFE Webinar Recording Available: Introduction to the SE FireMap – A New Tool to Map Fires Across the South
The recording of the SFE webinar, Introduction to the SE FireMap – A New Tool to Map Fires Across the South, that was held in April 2021 is now available.
View the archived webinar here.
Continue ReadingNew Fact Sheet: Longleaf Pine and Fire
The Longleaf Partnership Council (LPC) is pleased to announce a new communications fact sheet, Thriving on Fire: The Resilient Longleaf Pine. This informational product showcases longleaf pine’s unique tolerance to fire as well as highlights the economic and conservation benefit to planting longleaf and utilizing prescribed burning as a forest management practice.
The fire resiliency fact sheet is the third in a series of communications documents that was requested by the LPC in Fall 2017 to demonstrate how longleaf pine can outperform other pine species during natural disasters. The first communications document, Longleaf Resiliency: Insects and Diseases, was released in 2019, and the second, Blowing in the Wind: Advantages of Longleaf Pine in Wind Storms, was released in 2020.
The LPC’s sincere gratitude goes out to Lisa Lord of The Longleaf Alliance, Jennifer Fawcett of North Carolina State University Extension Forestry, and David Godwin of the Southern Fire Exchange and the University of Florida for writing and designing this document, and Evan Wheeler for literature review. The LPC is also very thankful to those who reviewed the content, and the funding partners at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, International Paper, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Georgia Wildlife Federation.
Continue ReadingSFE Webinar Recording: Potential Applications of PBAs for Family Forest Landowners
The recording of the Potential Applications of Prescribed Burn Associations for Family Forest Landowners webinar originally held March 24th is now available.
Continue ReadingSFE Webinar: Introduction to the Southeast FireMap
The SE FireMap is a new fire mapping system for the Southeastern United States. Developed with funding provided by the USDA NRCS, SE FireMap uses a remote sensing based approach to track both prescribed fire and wildfire activity on public and private lands across the range of the longleaf pine. SE FireMap is being developed as a critical decision support tool to maximize the effectiveness of fire management practices across boundaries, ecosystems, and jurisdictions. This webinar will introduce the SE FireMap, describe the source of the fire data, and explore the current opportunities to use the data. Following the presentations there will be time for audience Q/A with the speakers.
Presenters:
Bridgett Costanzo, Working Lands for Wildlife Coordinator-Eastern US, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Joe Noble, Geospatial Program Director, Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy
Lucas Furman, SE FireMap Technical Oversight Team Lead, The Longleaf Alliance
Society of American Foresters CFE Credit Expected.
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