Eastern Fire Portal

The primary goal of this part-time position is to help the TNC LANDFIRE Team advance the mission of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and major partners by organizing and leading TNC internal communication activities. Second, assist the TNC LANDFIRE Team with external communications among partners and collaborators as requested and appropriate.

This survey is intended for organizations that either do not currently have prescribed fire insurance or their current liability coverage is not sufficient.

Positions are being filled under the Pathways Student Internship Authority which is designed to provide students enrolled in a variety of educational institutions, from high school to graduate level, with paid work opportunities in agencies to explore federal careers while in school.

Responsibilities:

• The incumbent of this position performs a variety of clearly defined tasks within one or more functional areas of biological sciences.
• Biological sciences include forestry, rangeland management, wildlife biology, fish biology, ecology, botany, recreation, natural resources management, biological sciences, and other related disciplines.
• Assignments will vary by Agency and setting.
• The major duties include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Develops and applies knowledge of principles, concepts, work processes, and regulations of one or more functional areas of biological science.
• Assists in one or more phases of the research process.
• Performs routine techniques using a variety of specialized equipment.
• Records instrument readings, collects samples, and takes measurements.
• Maintains inventory of chemical and biological materials.
• Maintains work area in a neat and orderly manner
• Forest Service incumbents in wildland fire management may also perform the following:
• Develops and applies knowledge of fuels management and fire suppression techniques.
• Cleans, reconditions, and stores fire tools and equipment.
• Serves as a member of fire crew assigned to suppress wildland fires.
• Reviews detailed procedural instructions and receives in-depth on-the-job and formal classroom training.

At Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, NY, interns will interact with SUNY-ESF and BNL researchers as members of research teams resurveying long-term Forest Health Monitoring plots established in 2005/2006 across Long Island. During this 10-week internship (June to mid-August) interns will learn plant identification and field methods in monitoring forest vegetation as they develop their own research projects on various aspects of forest change(e.g., tree regeneration or mortality, change in understory plant communities)that will include data collection, data analysis, and reporting results. A weekly stipend ($500/week) and training will be provided. Free dormitory housing is available for students who live >50 miles from BNL. SUNY-ESF students can register for internship credit via EFB 420 and additional research experience can be pursued via EFB 298, EFB 498, or as an honors thesis.

The Allegheny Highlands Burn Crew Manager oversees 4 crew members. They supervise the seasonal burn crew daily. The primary responsibilities of the crew are to prepare and implement prescribed burns in the Central Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia with key partners such as the USDA Forest Service (George Washington & Jefferson National Forest), VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, VA Department of Conservation & Recreation and the VA Department of Forestry. The Burn Crew Manager (BCM) participates in preparing fire lines, maintaining equipment, post-burn monitoring and other tasks. They may also perform other preserve management duties when conditions are not conducive to prescribed fire including, but not limited to trail maintenance, forest thinning and fire cache organization.

As part of the BCM’s ongoing professional development, they will be responsible for keeping abreast of new burn techniques and equipment to enhance skills and maintain/grow professional fire certification credentials.  In addition, they shall work to build and maintain relationships in the professional fire community and in the local community where the Conservancy works. This may include participation in wild land fire suppression activities in partnership with state and federal agencies, either as a TNC employee, or short-term employee of the partner entity (such as an Administratively Determined, short term federal employee).

The primary responsibilities of the Allegheny Highlands Burn Crew are to prepare and implement prescribed burns in the Central Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia with key partners such as the USDA Forest Service (George Washington & Jefferson National Forest), VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, VA Department of Conservation & Recreation and the VA Department of Forestry. The BCM will participate in prescribed burn implementation, preparing fire lines, maintaining equipment, post-burn monitoring and other tasks. As part of the BCM’s ongoing professional development, they will be responsible for keeping abreast of new burn techniques and equipment to enhance skills and maintain/grow professional fire certification credentials.  In addition, they shall work to build and maintain relationships in the professional fire community and in the local community where the Conservancy works. This may include participation in wild land fire suppression activities in partnership with other local, state and federal agencies, either as a TNC employee, or as a short-term employee of the partner entity (such as an administratively determined, short term federal employee).

Fire Technician will assist with prescribed fire at Nachusa Grasslands, a 4,000 acre preserve near Dixon, IL. The fire technician will work together on a crew to implement prescribed fire.  Must be FFT1 qualifications.  Full-time job, short term position. $15.50/hr. Includes nice clean on-site housing (one technician per room), high speed internet available at Headquarters; no pets.

The Field Steward (FS) provides technical leadership and support to a business unit plans and directs preserve management programs and stewardship within the PFBE ecoregion.  The FS addresses critical threats to natural systems and individual species, fosters cross-site learning among conservation community, and supplies conservation planning teams with site or landscape level information relevant to the planning process.  The FS assists with conservation strategies, land protection, and implements strategies to secure public and private support for TNC conservation priorities.  The FS coordinates community support, ensures the maintenance of preserve areas frequented by the visiting public and coordinates multiple projects, sets deadlines and manages completion.  The FS manages TNC staff, interns, volunteers, and contracts to accomplish land management goals throughout the work geography.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs, National Association of State Foresters, National Fire Protection Association, and USDA Forest Service are now accepting nominations for the 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Awards.    
 
The Wildfire Mitigation Awards (WMA) are the highest national honor one can receive for outstanding work and significant program impact in wildfire preparedness and mitigation.  The three award categories are:

•     National Wildfire Mitigation Award
•     National Mitigation Hero Award
•     Wildfire Mitigation Legacy Award

These awards are designed to recognize outstanding service in wildfire preparedness and safety across a broad spectrum of activities and among a variety of individuals and organizations. By honoring these achievements, the award sponsors also seek to increase public recognition and awareness of the value of wildfire mitigation efforts.

We encourage you to  gather your information to nominate some very deserving folks for these prestigious awards! The recipient does not need to be an IAWF member to receive an award. Awards will be announce and/or presented at one of our upcoming IAWF Conferences in 2020.

If you’ve nominated someone in the past and they were not selected as the recipient, please do not hesitate to re-nominate them. At times we have numerous deserving folks, however, at this time we are only able to select one person per award.

The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) are open through 5 pm MST, December 5, 2019.

The Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) announcement FA-FOA0020-001 has one task statement. Proposals must address one or more of the following topic areas:

• Fuels management and fire behavior
• Changing fire environment
• Emissions and air quality
• Fire effects and post-fire recovery
• Relative impacts of prescribed fire versus wildfire
• Human dimensions of fire

The primary announcement FA-FOA0020-002 has one task statement:

1. Performance of fuel breaks and fuel break systems  

The Regional Fire Science Exchange announcement FA-FOA0020-003 has one task statement focused on leading and executing a regional fire science exchange in the following four regions (see map and supporting information in the FOA):

1. Alaska
2. California
3. Great Basin
4. Pacific Islands

Text of the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) statement:

Climate change has already had significant consequences in the global wildfire reality, affecting citizens as well as the global wildland fire community. Many key issues of importance to the IAWF - including firefighter and civilian safety, fire management expenses, changing weather patterns, natural role of fire, fire regimes and ecosystem succession, as well as the wildland urban interface - all require recognition of the role of climate change.

Globally, we regularly see new reports about the “worst”, “largest”, “most expensive”, and “deadliest” fires and fire seasons. In 2019 and 2018, striking headlines read “Arctic on Fire” (Sweden, Russia, Greenland, Canada and Alaska), and the most expensive and largest fire years were recorded in 2018 in California and British Columbia, respectively, breaking the previous records set in 2017. The Camp Fire (CA, 2018), Attica Greece (2018), Black Saturday Australia (2009), and Portugal (2017) fires were all ranked amongst the top 11 deadliest fires in the last 100 years.

Under current climate change scenarios, fire regimes will change in terms of increases in burned area, severity, fire season length, frequency, and ignitions from lightning. Many parts of the world have already experienced an increase in record breaking temperatures and recurring droughts that have led to shifts in wildland fire. There is already evidence of climate-driven fire regime change in the Northern Hemisphere upper latitudes with fire risk increasing in non-traditional fire-prone countries. The consequences of human actions are here today, not in some distant future, and these are alarming and, most important, escalating.

The IAWF encourages all countries to emphasize increased international fire training and to implement easier cross-border sharing of professional fire management resources for suppression and prescribed fire opportunities. These will lessen the irrationally heavy burden any single country will have to carry to manage extreme fire seasons. Homes and communities must be better planned and built, so they are increasingly fire resistant and more adapted to natural disasters of all types. Health impacts of fires have long-term consequences, not only those that are immediate from the flames but also those from smoke and toxins, and these must be considered when planning and managing for future wildland fires. Wildfires and smoke do not recognize borders. As the global community tries to manage the new wildfire challenges, it is incumbent on everyone to prepare to support international neighbours in protecting lives and communities from fires and their impacts.

IAWF Vice-President Toddi Steelman recently said in Wildfire magazine (August 2019) that “Recent extreme weather events have catalysed public belief in, and concern about, climate change, and boosted public support for government actions to reduce its harmful impacts. This gives us a window of opportunity when conditions are right to make great strides on climate if we are strategic about it.” This window of opportunity requires people having the knowledge and political will to act now. Our global scientific community needs to publicly share knowledge learned about patterns of extreme wildland fire and weather, as well as how climate change is associated with these patterns. Our global fire management community needs to leverage its credibility to share its experiences about how climate change and its role in extreme weather is playing out in their day to day work environments. Connecting extreme weather events to real on-the-ground consequences can help more people understand how climate impacts are affecting us all.

The Lake States Fire Science Consortium (LSFSC) is committed to ensuring that the ‘best available science’ is available for planning and managing northern fire-dependent ecosystems of the Lake States. Where there are current gaps in the science, the goal of the LSFSC is to assist in filling those gaps so that science informs practice and vice-versa. Unfortunately, for many local fire management issues, there are few resources available to bring managers and scientists together to solve these important issues.

In an effort to enhance the opportunities for managers and scientists to work together, and to expose future professionals to opportunities of management and research collaborations, the LSFSC requests proposals to fund research internships that address relevant fire science and management issues associated with northern fire-dependent ecosystems of the Lake States region (See our Ecosystems page for a description of fire-dependent ecosystems that are the focus of the Lake States Fire Science Consortium). Proposals must be developed by joint manager-scientist teams (i.e. both must be listed as co-PIs and equally contribute to proposal development) and outline how the research internship will address a critical need that will help improve management of fire-dependent ecosystems locally. Preference will be given to partnerships that have not yet received funding from the program.

The LSFSC anticipates awarding several $4,000 research internship awards. It is expected that 100% of the funds should go to support the undergraduate internship experience (preferably for salary, though a limited amount of funds may be used to purchase materials and supplies needed to complete the project - funds should not be used as a supplement or summer salary for graduate students). All proposals must be submitted by 5:00 PM Eastern / 4:00 PM Central on Monday, December 9, 2019 by email to Jack McGowan-Stinski. There will be no exceptions to this closing date and time.

Project: The University of Vermont, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources is seeking a PhD-level graduate student to participate in research examining the effectiveness of restoration, adaptation, and transition management techniques at fostering forest health and productivity in the face of novel climate, insect, and disease threats. This research will assess silvicultural experiments co-developed with stakeholder input with application to both urban and rural forest settings. The student will join a team of collaborators from the University of Vermont, U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, and Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center in developing management options to promote diverse and productive rural and urban forests despite the stress of climate change and other disturbance agents. The position is available for Summer/Fall 2020 and includes four guaranteed years of funding (stipend, tuition waiver, and health insurance).

Qualifications: M.S. in forest ecology, forestry, silviculture, biology or a closely related field.  Applicants should be able to work independently, but also cooperatively with other researchers and managers on the larger project. Applicants should also have a strong work ethic, demonstrated writing and quantitative capabilities, and a record of leadership.

Application: Interested applicants should supply all application materials to the UVM Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (RSENR) Program (PhD in Natural Resources) by February 1, 2020 – when applying, please state your interest in this position in the “Statement of Purpose.”

We are looking for a capable student to join our Forest Ecology research team at the Masters or PhD level.  The student will use radio-labeling methods to explore seed dispersal and the spatial ecology of herbaceous species across a range of scales.  Demographic models will be paired with micro-environmental heterogeneity to compare the roles of disturbance history, animal behavior, physical gradients, and plant life history in shaping species distributions at the population and landscape scale.  In addition to research commitments, students take courses and serve as teaching assistants in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology.  The position is fully funded including tuition waivers.

Applicants should have a GPA of at least 3.2 and an average GRE score above the 60th percentile.  A strong work ethic, quantitative skills, and the ability work independently are essential.  Applicants should be physically fit and capable of field work under less-than-ideal conditions.  Previous field experience is desirable.