Alaska Fire Portal

The Forest Steward's Guild is looking to survey organizations that either currently practice prescribed fire or would like to in the future. This will help better understand the insurance market across the country and work with brokers and underwriters to produce a better product. They would like as broad of a sample as possible, spanning all types of fire practitioner backgrounds in order to best understand what is needed!

How you can help: take the survey and forward it to practitioners who might want insurance to implement prescribed burns or better prescribed fire insurance coverage than they currently have.

Prescribed fire is vital to ecosystems and is becoming widely regarded as a cost-effective management tool with major benefit. However, even the most carefully planned burn comes with some risk. This is an incredibly large barrier to implementation due to the lack of high-quality liability insurance available. This problem continues to grow as more agencies pull their prescribed fire insurance plans from the market.

The Forest Steward’s Guild has struggled with this exact barrier and has uncovered some currently available options and potential long-term solutions. For more information on the background of this project and FAQs, please visit https://foreststewardsguild.org/prescribed-fire-insurance

In August the Environmental Protection Agency released guidance on documenting particulate matter or ozone events influenced by prescribed fire or wildland fire. 

Nominations are now open for new members of the International Association of Wildland Fires' (IAWF) Board of Directors. Nominations will be accepted through September 30, 2019 and successful candidates will begin their 3-year term on January 1, 2020. Individuals meeting the requirements may self-nominate.

The proposal process for new CFLRP projects and extensions for existing ten-year projects will involve two tiers of review. This process applies to new projects as well as projects that have received funding for 10 years and are applying for a one-time extension for the shortest time practicable to complete implementation.

Tier 1 (Pre-Proposal):  Applicants provide a brief and high-level description of the proposed CFLRP project or project extension. The Regional Office will evaluate Tier 1 proposals using a common set of criteria and the Regional Forester will decide which projects should proceed with full Tier 2 proposal development.

Tier 2 (Full Proposal): Project extension and new project proposals selected in Tier 1 will proceed with detailed proposal development.  These proposals will be reviewed for completeness by the Regional Office, and if they meet all of the CFLRP eligibility criteria, they will be submitted to the CFLRP Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) Committee for evaluation.

The Alaska Fire Science Consortium (AFSC) seeks a science communication specialist to join their collaborative, dynamic team. They seek a Science Communication Specialist to assist with the discovery and dissemination of wildland fire science as part of a collaborative, dynamic team.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks seeks two post-doctoral research fellows to explore:

• Assessing climate change knowledge co-production and boundary spanning in Alaska, and
• Interdisciplinary analysis of economic impacts of climate change in Alaska.

AFE is holding a photo contest in conjunction with the 2019 Fire Congress. Winning photos will be showcased throughout the Fire Congress and in future AFE materials (e.g., websites, publications, displays).

A team of judges will select an overall winner, runner up, and winners in 5 special categories: After the Fire, Animals and Fire, Fire in Motion, Fire Landscapes, People and Fire.

This incumbent leads a small crew in the collection and processing of data for scientific research conducted by the Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team. There are multiple existing projects for field data collection. One project will focus on three-dimensional characterization of wildland fuels in multiple locations across the country, including the Rocky Mountain region and the south eastern United States. Another project will focus on pre and post-fire fuels inventories in prescribed burn units in central Utah. The aim of a third project will be to characterize fuels in grasslands in the south sound region of Washington.  These data will be used to assess fuel consumption evaluate the overall predictive capability of fuel consumption and fire behavior models. Plot data collection includes tree measurements, vegetation measurements and identification, and above and below-ground fuel quantification and classification. There will likely be opportunities to participate in other fire research projects throughout the season.

If you haven't had a chance to submit your oral presentation or fire circle abstract for the 8th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress, you still have time to do so! They are extending the deadline to accommodate summer schedules and those in the field. See the link below for details and submit your abstracts no later than Thursday, August 15.

Abstracts for poster presentations and attached meetings will be accepted until August 30, with no extensions.

What is mentoring?

The first mentioning of the word “mentor” goes back to an ancient Greek story about a young child called Telemachus who grew under the supervision of an old trusted friend of his father’s named Mentor. Since then, the name of this character started being used as a common term for “trusted tutor”.

Today, we use the word “mentor” for anyone who makes a positive, guiding influence on another person’s life. ‘Mentoring’ is the process of direct transfer of experience and knowledge from one person to another.

IAWF’s Approach:

The IAWF will have an open period for applications two times per year. After the applications are received and reviewed, we will match the mentors and mentees based on interests and geographic location. IAWF encourages both face to face mentoring and online remote mentoring, depending on the location of the participants. Both parties will need to mutually commit to six months. We will provide you with resources, i.e. checklists, agreements, suggestions, etc.

The National Park Service, Alaska Regional Office is hiring a remote sensing specialist for a 1 year internship starting Fall 2019. The participant will assist with various fix-wing mounted structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry projects.

The Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) has been awarded the privilege of administering the distribution of the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) TREE grant, which is designed to help graduate students travel to present at conferences, symposia, and workshops related to wildland fire science and management.

All registered graduate students in good academic standing in a field related to wildland fire science, ecology, or management in the U.S. are eligible to apply for grants. Depending on costs and the number of applicants, grants may fund all or a portion of estimated travel expenses including transportation, lodging, registration fees, and presentation preparation costs, where applicable. Funds cannot be used for food and incidentals, student stipends, direct research costs, or faculty research/administration costs. Grants will be paid as reimbursements for submitted receipts. 

Grants are limited and competitively awarded, and can only be awarded to current graduate students in the U.S. who are presenting the results of their fire-related research. This grant is for students without other Joint Fire Science Program support.