A recent panel discussion (Social Aspects of Wildfire Crisis Work) hosted by the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station covered a wide range of social science, communication, and fire-adapted communities concepts. While the conversation tended to have a Western U.S. theme, many of the discussion topics can be related to fire in the South. Social science and social aspects can be some of the most complicated, vexing, and challenging aspects of natural resource and wildland fire management. Check out the recording during your next lunch break! You’ll probably learn something.
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Partner Webinar: Beyond PM2.5: The Other Effects of Wildfires on Air and Water Quality
March 19, 2024 from 3 to 4 p.m. ET
Beyond PM2.5: The Other Effects of Wildfires on Air and Water Quality
Register for the webinar
More information and previous webinars
Wildland fire smoke impacts millions of people in the US every year. While the negative impacts of PM2.5 on air quality and human health are well established, wildland fires mobilize other pollutants that impact EPA’s mission areas of clean air and clean water, with implications for human health. This webinar will discuss a wide range of effects of wildland fire on air and water quality, including emerging science on the topic (e.g., pollutants mobilized through the burning of human infrastructure). Finally, the webinar will discuss how this research can inform public communications on the risks of wildland fire and approaches to mitigate those risks.
Presenter: Steve LeDuc, Amara Holder, and Seth Newton, EPA’s Office of Research and Development
Moderators: Sherri Hunt, EPA’s Office of Research and Development
Attendees will have the option of receiving a certificate of attendance for live webinars. Acceptance of certificates is contingent on state and/or organization requirements—EPA cannot guarantee acceptance.
Continue ReadingSFE Webinar Recording: Emerging Technologies in Wildland Fire
The recording of our February 29th webinar “Emerging Technologies in Wildland Fire” with Nathan Burmester from The Nature Conservancy North Carolina, is now on the SFE YouTube Channel. The webinar covered topics ranging from UAS (drones) to weather stations and thermal cameras. The chat was alive with tons of links to resources and products mentioned in the presentation. You can find all of those links in the notes on the YouTube recording.
Continue ReadingWebinar Recording: Pine Savanna Restoration and Ecosystem Services
The recording of the recent SFE webinar “Pine Savanna Restoration and Ecosystem Services” is now available on the SFE YouTube Channel. The webinar featured a presentation and discussion led by Cinnamon Dixon, fire ecologist at Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, Florida. She gave a thorough and easy-to-understand description of a project that showed how prescribed fire, when used over time, can restore agricultural lands, and move former ag lands towards more “natural” reference conditions.
During the webinar, we shared many links and resources with participants. You can find those links below and on the YouTube Description.
- Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Program: https://talltimbers.org/fire-ecology-program/
- Research publication (pdf): https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2021/ja_2021_ulyshen_002.pdf
- Publication home: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969721067917?via%3Dihub
- Research publication summary: https://talltimbers.org/articles/quail-management-provides-many-ecosystem-services/
Webinar Recording: A Prescribed Burners Guide to the Fire and Smoke Map
The recording of the recent SFE webinar “A Prescribed Burners Guide to the Fire and Smoke Map” is now available on the SFE YouTube Channel. The webinar featured an interactive demonstration of the USFS / EPA Fire and Smoke Map along with a discussion of how prescribed burners can utilize the map for smoke management.
During the webinar, we shared many links and resources with participants. You can find those links below and on the YouTube Description.
- AirNow.Gov https://www.airnow.gov
- AirNow.Gov Wildfires https://www.airnow.gov/wildfires/
- Fire and Smoke Map: https://fire.airnow.gov/
- 2020 National Emissions Inventory Technical Support Document: Fires https://www.epa.gov/system/files/docu…
- NWCG Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire: https://www.nwcg.gov/publications/420-2
- Smoke Management Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in the Southern Region: https://southernfireexchange.org/smok…
- Basic Smoke Management Practices: https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/refere…
- Basic Smoke Management Practices (SFE Fact Sheet): https://eadn-wc02-7111601.nxedge.io/w…
- Where there’s fire, there’s smoke: Air quality and prescribed burning in Florida (UF/IFAS Fact Sheet): https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication…
Partner Webinar: Increasing Prescribed Fire Capacity in the Central US
Increasing Prescribed Fire Capacity in the Central US
Hosted by: Great Plains Fire Science Exchange and Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium
Speakers: Chuck Stanley, NRCS, Carissa Wonkka, University of Florida, Wes Buchheit, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever
Thursday, Feb 22nd, 12 PM Central
Register for the webinar via Zoom
Continue ReadingSFE Wiregrass Fireside Chat
Join the SFE Wiregrass Fireside Chat this Thurs. Feb. 1st at 12:00 PM ET where you can meet in a small group with Dr. Rae Crandall, Dr. Jen Fill, and land manager Chris Kinslow.
The Fireside Chat will be an open Zoom meeting where you can connect with a small group of like-minded fire managers and researchers who are working on wiregrass issues. Just like a field workshop, Fireside Chats are an unscripted, unrecorded, low-stress environment, you can get answers to your questions, share your challenges, and build your network. All you have to do is sign up. Login and link-up with a handful of other dedicated managers.
Register for the Fireside Chat meeting here: https://bit.ly/SFEfiresidechat1
Did you miss the SFE Advanced Wiregrass Restoration and Management Webinar? You can watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/9khPiD5g9pM?feature=shared
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Partner Webinar: Reflections from 20 Years of Examining the Social Dynamics of Fire Management
5:00 PM ET, Thursday, February 22, 2024
Sarah McCaffrey, Ph.D., Retired Social Scientist, USDA Forest Service
Hosted by the International Association of Wildland Fire, Association for Fire Ecology, and Pau Costa Foundation
Description: Sarah McCaffrey, PhD, retired in 2022 after 20 years as a fire social scientist with the US Forest Service where her research focused on understanding the social dynamics of fire management. This included research projects that examined the role of risk perception and risk attitudes, social acceptability of prescribed fire, homeowner mitigation decisions, evacuation decision making, risk communication, and agency-community interactions during fires. Since retirement she has been involved with a number of research and practitioner efforts to improve future fire outcomes including as an adviser to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Wildfire Resilience Initiative and Board member for Fire Adapted Colorado. She received her PhD in 2002 from the University of California at Berkeley where her dissertation examined Incline Village, Nevada homeowner views and actions in relation to defensible space and fuels management.
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uf1j-BIxTHq2jL3IawWZ5w#/registration
Continue ReadingPartner Webinar: Overview of Prescribed Fire Liability in State Law with Sara Clark
When: Feb 1, 2024 1:30 PM ET
Hosted by: The Nature Conservancy and the Fire Learning Network.
In this 90-minute webinar, Sara Clark will provide an overview of prescribed fire liability in state law, including definitions of liability and how state laws defining liability interact with certified burn manager programs, tribal sovereignty and cultural burning, and prescribed fire insurance. Sara will provide examples from California and a selection of other states that have defined prescribed fire liability in state law, including an overview of the California Prescribed Fire Claims Fund Pilot that began operating in 2023. This webinar is intended for those who are new to the issue of prescribed fire liability or those more experienced who would like an overview of the subject, especially anyone about to engage on similar policy initiatives in their state or jurisdiction.
Sara Clark is a partner at the public interest law firm Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger LLP based in San Francisco, California. Sara has worked extensively on prescribed fire liability, including an instrumental role in passage of California’s legislation defining gross negligence for suppression costs and establishment of the Prescribed Fire Claims Fund Pilot. She was a co-author of the Good Fire report for the Karuk Tribe, an analysis of barriers to the expansion of cultural burning and recommended solutions. Watch for Good Fire II in February 2024!
You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
Topic: Overview of Prescribed Fire Liability in State Law
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://tnc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GJOas2ICRB6dtH9Hg56Czw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
SFE Webinar: Increasing Large Wildfires in the Eastern United States
A free one-hour webinar from the University of Florida IFAS and the Southern Fire Exchange.
Society of American Foresters CFE Credit Expected.
Presenter:
Victoria M Donovan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Forest Management, School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, University of Florida IFAS | West Florida Research and Education Center
Webinar Description: This webinar provides an overview of changing large wildfire regimes in the eastern U.S., highlighting increasing wildfire number, size, and total area burned within regions of the southeast. In addition, the presentation will discuss how changing wildfire dynamics impact public wildfire risk in the wildland-urban interface. This presentation will summarize the findings from a recent publication (https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL107051). Following the presentation, there will be time for audience Q/A with the speaker.
Webinar Recording: If you can’t make the webinar, look for the recording to be posted on the Southern Fire Exchange YouTube Webinar Archive.
Questions? [email protected]
Register for the webinar here: https://ufl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5Jldn-K4SCOJmgTaUP-yBQ
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