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DRIPTORCH DIGEST A Newsletter for the Southeastern Prescribed Fire Community

No. 7 September 2016

Message from the Coordinator This issue is filled with information on the great work that is being done around the region to maintain and promote resilient land-scapes (page 2), provide new training opportunities for students (page 3) and women (page 5), to help land managers mimic nat-ural fire and restore/maintain healthy ecosystems (page 8) and more.

With diminishing funding for prescribed burning, it is important to share stories such as these with others. Sharing your successes will not only increase communication about prescribed fire, but will also show others how more resources dedicated towards prescribed fire can truly make a difference.

As always, I hope you find this newsletter to be useful, and con-tinue to help me fill it with your great work.

Happy burning and be safe on the fire line!

Jenn Evans Fawcett

In This Issue

Southeast Cohesive Strategy

Spotlight on a Cohesive Strategy Success Story

LIT Updates

The 4 Rights Campaign: Pre-scribed Fire is Right 4 the Envi-ronment

Wildland Fire Engine Resources Needed for Students

The Emerging Trajectory for Landowner Prescribed Burn Associations

Mobile App for Forest Service Research Data Archive

Winter Prescribed Fire and Litter-Roosting Bats

New Video: “From Fire Comes Light”

E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Data-base

Drones that launch flaming balls are being tested to help fight wildfires

Florida Fire Teams

Other News Headlines

LANDFIRE Updates

Honors, Awards & Opportunities

Upcoming Events

Resources

Partner Newsletters

Driptorch Digest is designed to enhance communication among various federal, state, and local agency staff, educators, land managers,

and others who are interested in prescribed fire-related issues. Driptorch Digest advocates the pursuit of credible, unbiased, science-based

information. Material contained in linked articles is from the original authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the SERPPAS

Prescribed Fire Work Group.

A new engine recently donated to NC State University will allow students the opportunity to receive wildland fire training experi-ence. Read more on page 4.

“We need a new wildfire

paradigm - a new reality in

which we stop

automatically extinguishing

all fires, significantly ramp

up controlled burning, and

engage and empower

communities to help create

a different, healthier and

necessary new relationship

with fire.”

- Chris Topik, Director of NA

Forest Conservation with The

Nature Conservancy

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National Strategy Committee Crosswalk and Strate-gic Alignment Update By Gary Wood The National Strategy Committee (NSC) Planning Group has been working the past several months to review sev-eral fire documents and plans to identify gaps and barri-ers. The review is of the Cohesive Strategy National Strategy, Cohesive Strategy National Action Plan, Nation-al Barriers and Critical Success Factors, the 2014 Quad-rennial Fire Review, and the Wildland Fire Leadership Council’s four National Priorities identified in November 2015. Needless to say this has been a very tedious process and task to conduct, but hopefully when completed it will help identify areas that need additional focus. Once com-pleted, this information will be shared with the incoming members of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) as they look at establishing their priorities of fo-cus. I recently attended a meeting of the NSC where this re-view was worked on and discussed. Much discussion was centered around landscape resiliency and prescribed fire. While much work has been accomplished by the WFLC Smoke Management and Air Quality Task Group at the National level, there are still Regional opportunities to continue to build trust and relationships with the public and regulatory agencies through education and outreach. Many of you have assisted with sharing your expertise with our partners and the public to promote the need for prescribed fire and it is paying dividends for practitioners. Our previous efforts and cooperative work ethics have been very successful for prescribed fire and our land-scapes. The Southeast is very fortunate to have the abil-ity to continue to apply prescribed fire upon the land-scape, where other Regions continue to struggle to do so. Several times during discussion on prescribed burning in our meeting folks would look to me and say “You don’t

have a problem doing this in the Southeast”, and “You’re lucky in the Southeast to be able to prescribed burn as much as you do, we don’t have that opportunity”. With continued efforts to burn within acceptable limits, and continuing outreach and education hopefully the Southeast will continue to be able to not have the prob-lems others do. I look forward to attending more meetings discussing prescribed fire where folks look to me and say “You don’t have this problem in the Southeast do you?” Success Stories Needed Wildland fire success stories from around the region are being collected and shared here on the Southeast Cohe-sive Strategy website. They continue to attempt to edu-cate the public by using wildland fire “Success Stories” from around the region to showcase the outstanding work projects in the Southeast. Do you have a successful ef-fort? Please send your story along with high resolution photos to Holly Campbell at hcampbell@sref.info.

Time to Get Serious about Implementing the Cohe-sive Strategy Source: Cohesive Strategy Western Region Blog Chris Topik, Director of NA Forest Conservation with The Nature Conservancy penned an insightful blog about get-ting serious with the implementation of the Cohesive Strategy. “We need a new wildfire paradigm - a new reality in which we stop automatically extinguishing all fires, significantly ramp up controlled burning, and engage and empower communities to help create a different, healthier and nec-essary new relationship with fire.” This is after all, part of the vision of the Cohesive Strategy, to...as a nation, live with wildland fire.

The second edition of the Cohesive Strategy newsletter was released on June 27, 2016. You can read it here. If you have questions about the SE Cohesive Wildland Fire Mgmt. Strategy, contact Gary Wood at gwood@southernforests.org.

Southeastern Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy

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SPOTLIGHT ON A COHESIVE FIRE STRATEGY SUCCESS STORY

Wildland Fire Interagency Partnership at Rappahannock River Valley NWR

By Holly Campbell, Southern Regional Extension Forestry, and Steve Hubner, Forester, US Fish & Wildlife Services

National Cohesive Fire Strategy Goals: Improve Wildfire Response, Maintain and Promote Resilient Landscapes

SE Regional Values: Ecological Services

Partners: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rappahannock River Valley

National Wildlife Refuge, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National

Military Park, The Nature Conservancy, Virginia Department of Con-

servation and Recreation, AmeriCorps National Civilian Community

Corps

Outside of Tappahannock, Virginia lies the Rappahannock River Val-

ley National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). The Refuge, purchased by the

US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 1996, consists of multiple

tracts along the Rappahannock River, totaling 8,720 acres. The pri-

mary objective of the Refuge is to protect 20,000 acres of wetlands

and adjacent uplands along the river. Over time, the Rappahannock

NWR has become an important bird habitat, providing nesting or

breeding grounds for bald eagles, grasshopper sparrows, and the

American black duck. The Refuge also contains agricultural fields,

fresh and brackish wetlands, mixed pine and hardwood forests, and

grasslands, each providing diverse habitat to a variety of plant and

animal species. The grasslands, totaling 1,558 acres, are managed

with prescribed fire or herbicides to maintain an early successional

shrub and field habitat.

On April 14th and 16th, 2016, twenty-two wildland firefighters from

the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), National Park Service

(NPS), The Nature Conservancy of Virginia (TNC), Virginia Depart-

ment of Conservation and Recreation (VADCR), and AmeriCorps

National Civilian Community Corps collaborated to burn 90 acres of

grassland at the refuge.

The primary goals of the prescribed burn were to manage early suc-

cessional habitat and reduce flammable fuels for the upcoming spring

wildfire season. Prescribed fire benefits native warm season grass

regeneration and species diversity because it removes accumulated

thatch and reduces woody competition. As well, Rx fire improves

habitat for migratory birds and other native wildlife by providing soil

nutrients to replenish grasses and other forbs (food source) and room

for nesting and foraging (shelter and reproduction).

Accomplishing the habitat management and fuels reduction goals of

this burn were made possible by interagency collaboration.

Gregg Kneipp, from NPS shared that "Not every agency has enough folks to do everything you need to do with prescribe fire. Interagency

collaboration is the only way to get things done. Burns like this would be impossible to do otherwise." USFWS firefighter Steven Hubner

agreed, “It is great to see all these firefighters represented by their agency logos coming to help us. Sharing of firefighters between agen-

cies in Virginia is the best way for all of us to accomplish our fire management goals. Last month we were helping TNC and VADCR ac-

complish their prescribed burning.”

This burn is an excellent example of USFWS meeting two important goals of the National Cohesive Strategy – maintaining and promoting

resilient landscapes and improving wildfire response.

Visit www.southernwildfire.net to learn about more southeastern prescribed fire success stories.

AmeriCorps firefighter Tyler Crohn using a drip torch. Credit: George Tabet, Wildland Firefighter, AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.

Firefighters Chris Barton, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Natalie

Bey, AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, hold the fireline

with a type 6 engine. Credit: Steven Hubner, Wildland Firefighter, US

Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Partners Corner

Longleaf Implementation Teams The new Texas Longleaf Taskforce website is now operational at txlongleaf.org. The former site will no longer be maintained.

Quarterly LIT Updates can be found on this America's Longleaf website.

The US Forest Service recently released the Longleaf Pine Cone Prospects for 2016 and 2017 Report, which forecasts longleaf pine cone production in the southern region. Estimates show the 2016 crop averaging only 3.4 cones per tree.

The 4 Rights Campaign: Prescribed Fire is Right 4 the Environment

August 2, 2016, By Bill Tripp, FAC Learning Network

The 4 Rights Campaign is being spearheaded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pacific Region. It revolves around pre-scribed fire being done at the Right Time, with the Right People, in the Right Place, as the Right Choice. It all started within the BIA Prevention Program in response to a few individuals recog-nizing that the meadows were filling in, what was once wet was now dry, and prescribed burning could help to reverse this trend. Prescribed fire enables a plethora of positive feedback loops, one of which is the mitigation of the negative conse-quences of unmanaged fire.

The BIA has integrated this campaign as a teaching tool at the California State Fair. Camp Smokey and the Little Red School House are teaching about how Native Americans have used fire for generations and how traditional resource man-agement ties

into prescribed fire today. It is truly opening minds to the idea of prescribed fire again. Tribes are also implementing these principles through partner-ship activities enacted under authorities such as the Tribal For-est Protection Act, Reserved Treaty Rights Lands Fund, Depart-ment of the Interior Resilient Landscapes Program and by other interagency/intergovernmental means. Prescribed fire and man-aged wildland fire are perhaps the two greatest tools we have to provide for balanced ecological function. Read the full story here.

Wildland Fire Engine Resources Needed for Students The North Carolina State University (NCSU) Department of For-estry & Environmental Resources recently received its first wildland fire engine, which was donated by the NC State Natu-ral Resources Foundation. The engine had originally been used at the Hofmann Forest for wildfire suppression, but will now be used for teaching NCSU students and certifying them as NWCG Firefighter Type 2 (FFT2).

The engine will also be used by students to gain wildland fire experience by conducting prescribed burns on NCSU's experi-mental forests, partner lands, and to assist private landown-ers. This engine will be joined by a second wildfire engine in September.

A critical component of the teaching mission will be to have both engines fully equipped as a Type Type 6 and Type 7 en-gine. The list of required hoses, fittings, nozzles, and hand tools is large. The NCSU Department of Forestry and Environmental Re-sources is soliciting donations of new or used equipment for the two engines. If you have new or used equipment tak-ing up room or gathering dust in your fire cache please consider donating it to the university's wildland fire program for teaching new NCSU wildland firefighters. No donation is too small or too large. Suggestions for grant programs that provide funding for this type of need are also appreciated. For more information or to make a donation, please contact Bob Mickler by email (ramickle@ncsu.edu) or by phone at (919) 673-2176).

Little Red School House, California State Fair. Photo Credit: BIA, Soledad Holguin

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New Research

The Emerging Trajectory for

Landowner Prescribed Burn

Associations

A new article entitled, “From Grassroots to National Alliance:

The Emerging Trajectory for Landowner Prescribed Burn As-

sociations” by John R. Weir (Oklahoma State University), Dirac

Twidwell (University of Nebraska), and Carissa L. Wonkka

(University of Nebraska) describes the opportunity from PBAs

to shift from localized cooperative associations to an organized

network of PBAs.

Key findings :

Due to woody plant encroachment and seeing the need

for fire on their lands, private landowners throughout the

southern Great Plains have started forming prescribed

burn associations (PBA) to assist each other with conduct-

ing prescribed fires.

Members of PBAs work together by pooling equipment

and other resources, organizing training opportunities, and

assisting with prescribed burns on each other’s properties,

while teaching upcoming generations and inexperienced

members the value of fire in grassland conservation and

how to safely use it.

Local PBAs provide an important network among individu-

als within a community that are having difficulty conduct-

ing prescribed burns by themselves.

Creating functional linkages among PBAs at state and

regional levels is a positive step toward addressing chal-

lenges that cannot be solved by an individual local PBA.

There are over 50 PBAs working in the southern Great

Plains. As the number of PBAs has grown so has the

need for bringing these groups together. Oklahoma, Tex-

as, and Kansas have formed statewide PBAs to assist and

promote the local PBAs.

As PBAs have grown in number, there is now a clear op-

portunity to develop an organized network of PBAs at the

local, state, and national levels that can address cross-

scale ecological and jurisdictional challenges limiting their

effectiveness.

Mobile App for Forest Service Re-search Data Archive From Firescience.gov Friday Flash eNews, Issue 163

Research Data Archive (U.S.Forest Service) publishes and preserves research data created by scientists funded by the U.S. Forest Service (including long-term data from experi-mental forests and ranges), the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Re-search Institute, and the Joint Fire Science Program.

With this Android and Tablet App, you can explore more than

150 data sets documented using the Biological Data Profile metadata standard, with review by the authors and the archive staff.

Winter Prescribed Fire and Litter-Roosting Bats

A recent Compass Live blog post by Sarah Farmer, USFS

Southern Research Station Science Communications, provides

an overview of a study led by Roger Perry, a research wildlife

biologist at the SRS Southern Pine Ecology unit.

The study offers some recommendations for managers con-

ducting winter prescribed fires in areas where bat species

roost in forest floor litter.

One recommendation to promote bat survival is to conduct

prescribed fires during the warmer periods of winter and

during afternoons, when bats are likely to be in shallow

torpor.

Read the full text of the article.

Some bat species such as the eastern red bat roost under leaf litter for short periods of time during the winter. Photo by billy liar, Creative Commons.

Burning on warmer days and during afternoons could promote

bat survival

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New Video: “From Fire Comes Light” This new video from NC State’s Department of Forestry and Environ-mental Resources with input from SE CSC PI, Jennifer Costanza, de-tails fire’s role in promoting biodiver-sity in the Coastal Plain biodiversity hotspot. See the Video

E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database

Need a fire science resource? Chances are that the Fire Ecology Database will have it. The Database provides access to bibliographic records in a unique, extensive col-lection of fire ecology and fire sci-ence literature. Just click here, then enter your search terms and locate citations for fire science you need.

Tall Timbers Research Station (TTRS) and the Southern Fire Ex-change hope to improve the data-base over the next few months us-ing input from a recent survey on how the database is being used. The Southern Fire Exchange will also host a webinar later this year to help improve awareness of the data-base and how to best use the search functions.

The database is regularly updated with new fire science citations, mak-ing it an up-to-date resource for lo-cating books, government docu-ments, conference proceedings, journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.

News From Around the Region

Drones that launch flaming balls are being tested to help fight wildfires From NPR, Aug 3 2016

On a warm, sunny morning at the Homestead National Monument of America in southeastern Nebraska, a burn was set to test a fire-starting drone by UNL NIMBUS Lab drone team of University of Nebraska. To simplify the task of fire distribution, Tidwell and his colleagues have developed fireball igniters called “dragon eggs” which get dropped out of an unmanned drone. The balls contain a liquid that, once injected with alcohol, starts a chemical reaction causing them to ignite after hitting the ground, lending new fuel to the fire. The UNL NIMBUS Lab drone team hopes their technology will help ensure safer pre-scribed burns by keeping firefighters out of dangerous terrain. Click here for the full article.

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Florida Fire Teams Update By Heather Hitt, FWLI

In order to help land managers mimic natural fire and restore/maintain healthy ecosystems, Wildland Resto-ration International (WRI) has created three Ecosystem Restoration Teams (ERT) in Florida. The Northeast Florida Team was established in 2015 and is support-ed by State Wildlife Grant, Gopher Tortoise Mitigation, National Wild Turkey Federation, Threatened and Non-game Species Management, and National Fish and Wildlife Federation funding. This Team is based in Gainesville, operating out of the Alachua County Trust’s Prairie Creek Lodge and is available to help public and private conservation lands conduct pre-scribed fire and other management practices.

As of May 2016, WRI created two more ERTs with the help of a contract with the Florida Park Service. The Central Florida Team is based at The Nature Conserv-ancy’s Tiger Creek Preserve on the Lake Wales Ridge and the Southwest Florida Team is based in Nokomis, just south of Sarasota. Though these two new teams will primarily support Florida Park Service lands, both will be available August through November to support other entities on the Lake Wales Ridge and beyond (see map).

All three ERTs will assist with prescribed burn prepara-tion and implementation, hardwood control, invasive plant treatments, and other fire management practic-es. Each ERT is comprised of three to five NWCG qualified, college educated staff and equipped with a type six engine, type seven UTV, and 4WD project truck.

For questions, or to request the assistance of one of the WRI Teams, please contact Evan Hall at Evan.Hall@WildlandRestorationInternational.org.

The Florida Forest Service (FFS) Cooperative Outdoor Burning and Resource Assistance (COBRA) Team continues to assist partners on and around the Brooks-ville and Mount Dora Ridges since 2013 (see map). They are also funded by State Wildlife Grants and the National Wild Turkey Federation. They are equipped with four trained employees, a crew cab pick-up, JD dozer, fire plow, small drum chopper, disk har-row, Type VI brush truck and an ATV. The Team is housed at the FFS Withlacoochee headquarters north of Brooksville.

For questions, or to request the assistance of the FFS Team, please contact Steve Guckian at Ste-ve.Guckian@FreshFromFlorida.com.

Other Headlines Researchers Use Audio to Learn About Wildlife after Wild-

fires, yourcentralvalley.com

Fighting Fire With Fire, TakePart

Collaborative Research to Help Wildland Firefighters Survive,

Sefandel (Jun 24, 2016)

Prescribed fire used on 204,000 acres of state forests, The News Press (Aug 3, 2016) ‘Experts’ program stokes interest in prescribed burns, Kane County Chronicle (Aug 14, 2016)

Clemson team working to restore longleaf pine forests, The Times and Democrat (Aug 15, 2016)

News From Around the Region Continued….

Prescribed burn by ERT at Faver Dykes State Park , Florida.

Credit: Ryan Kennelly

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LANDFIRE BpS "Macro Review" Underway

Building on the momentum generated during LAND-FIRE’s Biophysical Settings (BpS) review project, a new option to look at larger areas is now available -- the “macro review.” As most land managers and ecologists know, many BpS types span large areas (Intermountain Sagebrush shrublands, for example), thus necessitating regional variants. The macro review is designed to facilitate an examination of how LANDFIRE BpS models and de-scriptions relate to one another across large geogra-phies.

LANDFIRE wants feedback on the current collection of variants for selected BpS groups and invites SERPPAS members to look at what’s going on and weigh in with your expertise.

CLICK HERE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE MACRO RE-VIEW SITE

Unfamiliar with the project? CLICK HERE for back-ground/context on the LANDFIRE BpS Review.

Three-part Series: “In the Field” In-terviews

LANDFIRE ends its summer in the field post card series

where we checked in with practitioners and looked at

what they’re doing. August’s post card comes from Jor-

dan Long, a remote sensing scientist with Stinger Ghaf-

farian Technologies (SGT, Inc.), Technical Support Ser-

vices Contractor to the US Geological Survey Earth Re-

sources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in

Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Read Jordan’s interview.

Read the interview with

Matt Reeves, Research

Ecologist with the Human

Dimensions Program head-

quartered at the Rocky

Mountain Research Station

in Montana.

Read the interview with

Margit Bucher, founder

and current board mem-

ber of the North Carolina Prescribed Fire Council, and

co-lead for the Southern Blue Ridge Fire Learning Net-

work. She oversees the fire management program on

50,000 acres of Nature Conservancy lands in North Car-

olina.

News From Around the Region Continued….

Remember: LANDFIRE’s BpS Review deadline has

been extended to October 31.

Details.

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Honors, Awards, and Funding Opportunities

TREE Travel Grants for Students Interested in Wildland Fire Science and Management

The Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) and the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) are offering grants up to $1,500 to fund student travel to fire-related conference, symposia, workshops, and laboratories. These competitively awarded grants will fund direct travel costs for transportation, lodging, registration fees, and printing or preparation of presentation materials (e.g. posters, maps, audio-visual materials). Both graduate and undergraduate students are eligible. Click here for more information.

.

Certified Burner Courses Multiple locations, Alabama

Several certification courses and re-certification cours-es are occurring in July-September. The dates and locations can be found here.

Clinton, Louisiana—December 14-16, 2016 This workshop will provide essential information for conducting prescribed burns safely and legally in your timberlands. Registration is $100 per person if re-ceived by Dec 5 and $150 after that. The registration fee covers lunches, refreshments, handouts and sup-plies. The workshop will be limited to the first 30 appli-cants. For more information about this workshop, click here, contact Brian Chandler, or call 225-683-3101.

Annual Prescribed Fire Council Meetings Several state Prescribed Fire Council Annual Meet-ings have been scheduled for the coming months. Be sure to save the date for your state’s meeting! Not a member of a fire council? Click here to learn more about a council near you. ALPFC—Auburn, AL — September 1, 2016 Agenda and Registration SCPFC—Edgefield, SC- September 21-22, 2016 Meeting Information and Registration LAPFC— Alexandria, LA September 28, 2016 No details available.

GAPFC — Tifton, GA — September 29, 2016 Learn more here and stay tuned for more details. NFLPFC— Tallahassee, FL October 12, 2016 Registration information will be available soon on the Florida PFC webpage

Longleaf Academies

The Longleaf Alliance offers short-courses as in-depth classroom and field instruction to better prepare land-owners and natural resource professionals to address management specific to longleaf forests (such as pre-scribed burning!) and to create a uniformly well-informed network of longleaf managers.

Longleaf 101 and 201 Academies (including their new Longleaf 201 Academy: Longleaf and Fire) are being conducted throughout the region. Click here to learn more, or here to find an Academy near you!

Oct 04, 2016 - Oct 06, 2016 Nemours Plantation, Beaufort County, South Carolina Longleaf Academy: Understory 201

BehavePlus Workshops A free, two-day workshop on the BehavePlus fire modeling system is being offered at five different loca-tions in the South-east this October. Dates, locations, agendas, and reg-istration information is available here. Don’t miss this great training op-portunity to better understand how to use BehavePlus for predicting fire behavior under different scenarios as you prepare pre-scribed burn plans.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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UPCOMING EVENTS CONTINUED….

Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREX) serve seasoned wildland fire professionals in need of specific experience, as well as students and new firefighters who are beginning to shape their careers. This fact sheet provides more information about TREX and how you can become involved. Contact jlevans3@ncsu.edu to discuss possibilities to set one up in your area.

Spanish Language TREX, Santa Fe, NM Sept. 14-30, 2016

Yurok Tribe TREX, Weitchpec, CA Sept. 19-Oct 2, 2016

Klamath River TREX, Orleans, CA October 3-16, 2016

Northern California TREX, Arcata, CA October 18-28, 2016

Loess Hills Training Exchange, Ord, NE March 2017

Yurok Tribe Training Exchange, Weitchpec, CA March 2017

Central Oregon Training Exchange, Bend, OR April/May 2017

Ashland Forest Training Exchange, Ashland, OR April/May 2017

Want to attend a TREX to advance your prescribed fire skills and experience? Click here to apply.

Webinars

August 31, 2016, 1 PM ET Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) with Robin Innes and Illana Abrahamson. For more information and to register, click here.

September 22, 2016, 1 PM ET

New Fine Fuel Moisture Model with Jim Brenner and Matt Jolly. For more information and to register, click here.

October 11, 2016, 1 PM ET

How important is it to mimic natural fire regimes in the SE Coastal Plain? with Reed Noss. Click here to register for this webinar.

November 10, 2016, 1 PM ET Successful Prescribed Fire in the WUI – Mike Wharton and Justice Jones. Click here for more information and to register.

***NEW SFE WEBINARS POSTED***

Two recent Southern Fire Exchange webinars are now available for

viewing at any time.

Legal Liability for Prescribed Fire in the Southeast

Development of a Micro-UAV for Prescribed Fire Ignition

More upcoming webinars can be found on the Southern Fire Ex-

change Calendar. Archived SFE webinars can be viewed on the SFE

YouTube page.

Archived webinars through LANDFIRE are posted on their YouTube

channel.

Meetings & Conferences

Sep 22-23, 2016

2016 FAEP Annual Conference & Training Symposium, Bonita Springs, FL.

Nov. 1-4 , 2016

11th biennial Longleaf Confer-

ence, The Longleaf Alliance. Sa-

vannah, GA

November 2-6

2016 Society of American Forest-

ers National Convention Madison,

Wisconsin

November 14-17, 2016

2nd

International Smoke Symposi-

um, Long Beach, CA

November 28-Dec.2, 2016

Beyond Hazardous Fuels: Man-

aging Fire for Social, Economic,

and Ecological Benefits. Tucson,

AZ

November 28– Dec 2, 2017

7th International Fire Ecology and

Management Congress held con-

currently with the 2nd Applied

Fire Science Workshop: FireVi-

sion 20/20: A 20 Year Reflection

and Look into the Future. Orlan-

do, FL

February 1-3, 2017

International Congress On Pre-

scribed Fires

The first international congress

about prescribed fires will be held

at the University of Barcelona,

Spain.

More events can be found on the

Southern Fire Exchange Calendar.

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TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

The Wildland Fire Management Research, Develop-

ment, & Application (WFM RD&A) program is provid-

ing opportunities for individuals to gain and improve skills

in large fire decision support, fire behavior analysis, and

in Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS).

Selected individuals will assist the WFM RD&A by sup-

porting incidents at the National Geographic Area Coor-

dination Center (GACC) Decision Support Centers.

There are two on the job training opportunities available:

Call When Needed opportunities, which supplement

regular staff as necessary. Support lasts a few hours

to two shifts.

Mentee opportunities, which are 14 day (or longer)

commitments where individuals are integrated into

the RD&A staff.

For more information and links to other types of fire train-

ing resources, visit the WFM RD&A Decision Support

Training webpage.

For additional opportunities, visit: National Wildfire Coordinating Group Training, National Wildland Fire Training

JOB POSTINGS FFT2: Wildland Restoration International is seeking a Prescribed Fire & Habitat Restoration Team Member for a central Florida-based team. Details are available in the job announcement.

More jobs can be found at: www.wildfirex.com and the Southern Fire Exchange Job Board.

May 7

WORKSHOPS & FIELD TOURS

Sep 27, 2016

8:30 AM to 3:00 PM CT

Munson, FL “Forest Stewardship Workshop: Use Pre-scribed Fire Safely and Effectively”

This program will provide an overview of the uses of fire in natural resource management and the proper planning necessary for a successful pre-scribed burn. A burn demonstration will be planned and executed if conditions allow. $10 fee covers lunch and materials.

You can reserve a space by contacting Bethany at the UF/IFAS Santa Rosa County Extension Office at (850) 675-6654.

Tue, Oct 25, 2016 - Fri, Oct 28, 2016 Tall Timbers Research Station, FL “Prescribed Fire for Wildlife” This training session is designed for land manag-ers and wildlife stewards. This session will focus on wildlife habitat management opportunities associated with prescribed fire in Florida.

Nov 2-3, 2016 Wintergreen Resort, VA Bridging the Gap: Managing the Ecological Needs and Social Perceptions of Fire in the Cen-tral Appalachians Join Fire Learning Network (FLN) colleagues from Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Mary-land, and Kentucky for the annual Central Appa-lachians FLN partnership workshop. Click here for more information and how to register.

October 2016

A free, two-day workshop on the BehavePlus fire modeling system is being offered at five different locations in FL, GA and AR and MS this October. Dates, locations, agendas, and registration infor-mation can be found here.

More fire-related workshops can be found on the

SFE event website.

UPCOMING EVENTS (Continued…)

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The occurrences of fires around the globe can identify the broadscale environmental

variables that affect their likelihood across different ecosystems. Image from global-

firedata.org. Source: Coexisting with Wildfire.

Newsletters

Check out the some of the other newsletters from partner agencies and organizations that contain even more natural resource/wildland fire-related information!

Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers & Scientists Newsletter (Nov. 2015)

Department of Defense Natural Selections Newsletter (Spring 2016)

Fire Learning Network Networker Nos. 216 (August 3), 217 (August 17)

Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks LCC Newsletter (August 2016)

Joint Fire Science Program Fire Science Digest Issue 22 (January 2016)

LANDFIRE Post Card (August 2016) and Bulletin (May 2016)

Partners for Conservation Newsletter (February 2016)

REPI Program Newsletter (Winter 2016)

South Atlantic LCC Newsletter (May 2016)

Southeast Region Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (April 5, 2016)

Southern Fire Exchange Firelines Newsletter (July-August 2016) *NEW

Tall Timbers eNews (Spring 2016) and eJournal (Summer 2016)

Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center Two More Chains (Spring 2016)

Contact Us

Have something you’d like to add

to the next newsletter? Please

send news, photos, links, and

comments to:

Jennifer Evans,

SERPPAS Prescribed Fire Work

Group Coordinator

jlevans3@ncsu.edu

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Southeast Rx Fire

Southeast

Prescribed Fire

Update

Resources Moritz and Knowles. 2016. Coexisting with

Wildfire. American Scientist .

McNab, H. (2016). A Preliminary Model of

Yellow-Popolar Seedling Establishment

Two Years After a Growing Season Pre-

scribed Fire in Southern Appalachian Oak

Stands.

Minas, J. P., and Hearne, J. W. (2016). An

Optimization Model for Aggregation of

Prescribed Burn Units. TOP, 24(1), 180-

195

O’Donnell, K. M., Thompson, F. R., and Sem-

litsch, R. D. (2016). Prescribed Fire Alters

Surface Activity and Movement Behavior

of a Terrestrial Salamander. Journal of

Zoology.

More articles can be found in

The E.V. Komarek Fire

Ecology Database.

Driptorch Digest Vol 7