The recording of the SFE webinar, Prescribed Burn Associations in the Southeast – A Conversation With Experts is now available on the SFE YouTube channel.
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NWCG FCESC 2021 Spring Refresher Webinar Recordings
The videos from the Fire Environment Continuing Education Subcommittee (FCESC) Spring Refresher Webinar are now available on the Committee website.
Continue ReadingPartner Webinar: Ethics and Professional Forestry
Foresters have an ethical responsibility to those they serve. However, sometimes it is hard to determine where the line is between what is ethical and what may be construed as unethical. This course serves as a reminder of our ethical duties and gives examples of situations where ethics come into play.
Foresters have a responsibility to manage land for both current and future generations in an ethical fashion. This course is a refresher in ethics as they apply to forestry situations. Real life examples will be used to illustrate how tough ethical dilemmas may be handled by and to help us identify those areas that skirt the edges of ethical conduct. The North Carolina State Board of Registration for Foresters is pleased to have Butch Bailey, Extension Associate with Mississippi State University, put a new face on the traditional ethics presentation. Examples of ethics related situations from North Carolina will also be presented by the board. This course is being offered by the North Carolina State Board of Registration for Foresters as a service to the professional forestry community.
Partner Webinar: Southeast Climate Monthly Webinar
The Southeast Climate monthly webinar series is held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 10:00 am ET. This series is hosted by the Southeast Regional Climate Center, in partnership with the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the NOAA National Weather Service. These webinars will provide the region with timely information on current and developing climate conditions such as drought, floods and tropical storms, as well as climatic events like El Niño and La Niña. Speakers may also discuss the impacts of these conditions on topics such as agriculture production, water resources, wildfires and ecosystems.
Continue ReadingPartner Webinar: Fighting Fire with Fire: Rx Fire Toolbox to Combat Identified Social Barriers
Elevated fuel loads together with projected hotter and drier climatic conditions will likely lead to more frequent erratic wildfires in the western USA. Recognition that changing climate and decades of fuel accumulation are increasing the risks of wildfire has led to calls for fire management reform, including the widespread use of prescribed fire to reduce fuel loads. However, this shift in fire management emphasis is failing to be widely adopted due to social and regulatory barriers to using fire. To ensure fire management reform is broadly adopted on private land in the western states, the attitudes of stakeholders towards the use of prescribed fire as a wildfire reduction tool need to be clearly understood.
Presenter: Dr. Urs Kreuter
Continue ReadingPartner Webinar: Working Lands for Wildlife – The Long View: Sustaining Our Oak Forests
This FREE working lands webinar hosted by Ruffed Grouse Society &American Woodcock Society and the NRCS Working Lands for Wildlife program will educate landowners and natural resource professionals on working lands conservation programs intended to benefit wildlife species and promote forest diversity.
This webinar has been approved for the following. Please register here to receive credit.
- 2 CFE credits (category 1) with the Society of American Foresters
- 2 CEUs (category 1) of the Certified Wildlife Biologist® Renewal/Professional Development Certificate Program for participation in the webinar
- USDA-NRCS Conservation Planner Certification
Throughout history, oak forests have been appreciated for their enormous ecological, economic, and social value. These benefits are widely acknowledged by foresters, wildlife biologists, hunters, conservationists, and landowners.
However, successfully managing oak forests is no easy task. It requires knowledge, forethought, and patience. Due to land-use history, fire suppression, and poor or lacking forest management we are gradually losing our oak forests throughout the Central Hardwood Region and Eastern United States.
In this webinar, we will take the “Long View” by looking back in time to see how human history has influenced the oak forests we have today. This historical grounding will allow us to look forward and consider how our actions today can ensure we restore and sustain oak forests into the future.
To do this, we must first gain a comprehensive understanding of the history of our oak forests in the Central Hardwood Region and learn about their widespread value to people, deer, grouse, songbirds, and pollinators. We will then look more closely at current research and how these dynamic forests grow and change in the face of natural and human disturbances. Speakers will then share practical examples of far-reaching, thoughtful forest management on family land and how those examples can be replicated to perpetuate our oak forests throughout their range.
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 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.
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