Southern Fire Portal

Every two years, the Southern Fire Exchange collects information in an online survey in order to understand whether we are meeting the needs of the Southeast fire community and to help us shape the future of our programming. Please take a few minutes to participate in the survey and help us continue to offer the best in wildland fire science communication.

The Prescribed Fire Specialist may be asked to serve a leadership role on prescribed burns throughout Southern Blue Ridge from November 13, 2019 through May 13, 2019. The Conservancy supports Southern Blue Ridge Fire Learning Network partners on multiple controlled burns each year. The Prescribed Fire Specialist helps the stewardship manager write burn plans, design burn units, ArcGIS mapping, and lead burns for single or multi-day prescribed fire operations and routinely has supervisory responsibility of crew during burns and frequently serves as Firing Boss. Staffing needs for this position could average 40-50 hours per operational period (bi-weekly) at the discretion of the Stewardship Manager. Operational periods are generally sporadic and clustered by opportune weather conditions, and no guarantee of a minimum number of opportunities is given or implied. The Prescribed Fire Specialist will participate on opportunities only as their own schedules will allow, and thus participation on any given opportunity is not required.

CPAW works with communities to reduce wildfire risk through improved land use planning. Selected communities receive free, customized technical consulting services and training over the course of one year from CPAW’s team of professional land use planners, foresters, risk analysts, and researchers. Specific services may include detailed land use planning recommendations, hazard assessments, custom research, and training. Read more about what we do and the communities we’ve worked with to date.

CPAW assistance is voluntary and provided at the request of the local government. Local jurisdictions retain sole authority for implementation of land use planning recommendations provided through CPAW. CPAW services are provided at no cost to the community.

Applicant Eligibility:

Any community in the United States can apply. Eligible jurisdictions include towns, cities, tribal communities, and counties with authority over local land use and zoning decisions. (Unincorporated communities require county application.) Only applications demonstrating support from both the community’s planning and fire departments will be considered. Communities should be willing to commit staff time and sign a Memorandum of Understanding, but communities are not responsible for any direct costs associated with CPAW.

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.

NAFRI partners with the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) and Course Development Sub Committees, comprised of subject matter experts, to manage and deliver graduate school level curriculums.  A total of 17 courses are supported by NAFRI staff and are delivered on an annual, biannual and biennial basis.

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 U.S. Forest Service-TNC Interagency Burn Crew Manager serves as a part of a seasonal crew of four. The crew will focus on fire-related activities, including prescribed fire implementation, in and around the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests.  When not committed to the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests, the crew will work with The Nature Conservancy and other partner agencies in South Carolina.  The Crew Manager is responsible for leading the crew during non-fire activities including fire line preparation, staging, transportation, and equipment maintenance.  The work schedule is weather dependent and may be highly irregular at times.  Routine management activities such as fencing, boundary posting, removal of invasive species, forest management, ecological monitoring and other related stewardship activities may be performed during periods when the weather is unsuitable to conduct burns.  The Conservancy provides the crew members with vehicles and lodging.  Lodging includes hotels, rustic lodges and often camping.

The Chattahoochee Fall Line Burn Fire Management Technician (CFL-FMT) participates in wild land fire operations which include ignition, control, mop-up, suppression, monitoring, and other tasks as assigned focused on the ecological management and restoration of habitat for rare fire adapted species such as red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, and carnivorous pitcherplants.

The Chattahoochee Fall Line (CFL) Fire Management Crew Manager oversees a squad (3-8 Fire Management Technicians) in wild land fire operations which include ignition, control, mop-up, suppression, monitoring, and other tasks as assigned focused on the ecological management and restoration of habitat for rare fire adapted species such as red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, and carnivorous pitcherplants.

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

The Kentucky fire management program is a seeking highly motivated, dedicated, hard-working individuals as Burn Crew Members (BCM) for our spring 2020 prescribed fire teams. BCMs will join other wildland fire management personnel working primarily in Kentucky and Tennessee towards implementing prescribed burning and other land management practices in concert with federal and state partners. These positions located in Southeast Kentucky will require much travel during the employment term of up to 90 days. Typical date ranges are early February through mid-April.

The Nature Conservancy’s Kentucky Business Unit is seeking a full-time/seasonal Burn Crew Manager for the upcoming spring 2020 burn season.  This position will begin late January and end in April unless other arrangements are agreed upon. The Burn Crew Manager oversees a squad (4-8 Burn Crew Members) in wildland fire activities, as directed by the Kentucky Fire Manager, Burn Boss or other command position. This position will spend most of the time in SE Kentucky with frequent overnight travel. Lodging is provided.

The U.S. Forest Service-TNC Interagency Burn Crew consists of three Crew Technicians and one Crew Supervisor. The crew will focus on fire-related activities, including prescribed fire implementation, in and around the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests.  When not committed to the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests, the crew will work with The Nature Conservancy and other partner agencies in South Carolina.  The work schedule is weather dependent and may be highly irregular at times.  Routine management activities such as fencing, boundary posting, removal of invasive species, forest management, ecological monitoring and other related stewardship activities may be performed during periods when the weather is unsuitable to conduct burns.

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.