8:30-11:30 am

Pre-conference Workshop:

Native Oaks for Native Places; Jack Phillips, The New Tree School

11:00 am-12:50 pm

Registration

1-2:15 pm

Welcome and introduction:

TPOS Principal Investigator Paul Zedler and Coordinator Craig Maier

Fire Ecology Plenary Presentation:

"Seeing Savanna and Preserving Prairie; A Framework of Fire and Water"

Pauline Drobney, US Fish and Wildlife Service Prairie and Savanna Zone Biologist

2:40-3:50 pm

Concurrent Oral Sessions

Fire and Oak Track, Session 1 (Silviculture)

The Silviculture of Oak Woodland Restoration; Daniel C. Dey, Research Forester, U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station

Fire Effects and Fuel Moisture Monitoring: The importance of using monitoring and data collection to solve unknowns in grassland and forest ecosystems; Lindsey Barney, District Forester, Iowa DNR

Historic role of fire and effects of fire suppression,

Part I

Fire histories and 60 years of change in Wisconsin savanna plant communities; Laura M. Ladwig, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Fire suppression and intensive deer browsing changes forest tree species composition and abundance; Roger C. Anderson, Illinois State University

Fire Tools

Fire Weather Forecasts; Casey Sullivan, Fire Weather Program Manager, National Weather Service Chicago/Romeoville

An Hourly Operational Fire Danger Monitoring Tool; Beth Hall, Illinois State Water Survey / University of Illinois

Training

Advantages of National wildfire assignments to your Rx fire program; Jason Gooder, Director, Franklin County Conservation (Iowa)

The Value of Training Exchanges to Build Your Fire Program; Scott Moats, Fire Manager Iowa/Nebraska, The Nature Conservancy

Patch-Burn Grazing

Implications for restoring fire-grazing interaction on northern and eastern grasslands of the prairie peninsula; Ryan N. Harr, Private Lands Wildlife Biologist Iowa DNR

Patch-burn grazing at the Grand River Wildlife Unit; using a combination of fire, grazing, and herbicides to manage native grasslands and tall fescue; Joshua Rusk, Natural Resource Technician II, Iowa DNR

4-5:10 pm

Concurrent Oral Sessions

Fire and Oak Track, Session 2 (Oak Woodlands and Forests)

Oak woodland restoration using annual prescribed fire and understory thinning – Indian Cave State Park, Nebraska; Krista Lang, Woodland Ecologist, Northern Prairies Land Trust

Where Fire Isn’t Enough: Developing Strategies for Restoration of Dry-mesic Oak Hickory Woodland Communities Using Five Canopy Thinning Regimes; Debbie Maurer, Assistant Manager of Natural Resources and Ecologist, Lake County Forest Preserve District (IL)

Historic role of fire and present day restoration,

Part II

Fire interacts with landscape structure to determine plant diversity of Wisconsin prairie remnants; Amy Alstad, UW-Madison

Setting Priorities – Management Implications in Canopy and Ground-Layer Interactions from Woodland to Prairie; John Taft, Plant Ecologist/Botanist, Illinois Natural History Survey

Fire effects on Vertebrates

Crawfish Frog Behavioral Differences in Post-burned and Vegetated Grasslands; Nathan J. Engbrecht, Indiana State University

Bluff Prairies of the Driftless Area: Ecosystems and Wildlife; Peter Hartman, Natural Resources Conservation Service (retired)

Fire Effects on Insects

A Synthesis on Insect Responses to Fire: Questions, Concerns, Implications, and Future Research Needs; John T. Delaney, Iowa State University 

Regal fritillary response to fire: Preliminary results of Citizen Based Monitoring; Rich Henderson, Wisconsin DNR

Barriers and Climate Change

Understanding Potential Barriers to Prescribed Burning in Southern Wisconsin; Jed Meunier, Wisconsin DNR

Increasing ecological resilience in southern Indiana forests as adaptation for climate change regimes; Chad Bladow, Indiana Chapter, The Nature Conservancy

5:10-6 pm

Social Hour 

Light refreshments will be served; cash bar.

8-8:30 am

Breakfast 

Coffee, tea, fruit and baked goods included in the cost of registration

8:30-9:20 am

Fire Implementation Plenary Presentation

"Twenty-five years of fire at Nachusa Grasslands"

Bill Kleiman and Cody Considine of The Nature Conservancy Illinois Chapter

9:50-11:30 am

Concurrent Oral Sessions

Fire and Oak Track, Session 3 (Prairie-Oak Savanna)

Using Fire, Mechanical Tree Removal, and Selective Herbicide to Tease Out Remnant Vegetation From Exotic Competition in North Missouri; John Murphy,  Private Land Conservationist, Missouri Department of Conservation

Restoring and Managing Oak Savannas in Northwest Iowa’s Prairie Pothole Region and Associated River Valley; Brian Hellyer, Wildlife Biologist, Iowa DNR

Oak Savanna Management: A Case Study at Pine Island State Wildlife Area; Sara Kehrli, Wildlife Biologist, Wisconsin DNR

Fire and Invasive Species

More bitter than sweet: the effects of prescribed burning on the spread of Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum; Timothy Kuhman, Edgewood College 

The Role of Fire in Managing Invasive Species; Doug Chafa, Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Prescribed Fire and Invasive Plants: Effects and Use of an Imperfect Tool; Jack McGowan-Stinski, Lake States Fire Science Consortium 

Private landowners and Social Impacts

Measuring Success: An Assessment of The Nature Conservancy’s Influence on Grassland Management in Nebraska; Eliza Perry, The Nature Conservancy, Nebraska

Case Study on Building a Resilient, Community-Based Prescribed Burn Initiative; Kevin Lair, Indiana University

Landowner perceptions of eastern redcedar; Ryan N. Harr, Iowa DNR

Site Factors and Fire History

Castle Mound Pine Forest SNA: Fire History and Ecology; Marty Green, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Seventy-five years of prescribed fire on Curtis Prairie at the UW-Madison Arboretum; Michael Hansen, UW-Madison Arboretum

Ecological Site Factors Across the Prairie-Forest Continuum; Kyle Steele, Ecologist, Natural Resource Conservation Service

Landscape Scale Fire Planning 

Implementing the Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy in the Northeast/Midwest; James Loach, Associate Regional Director, Midwest Region, National Park Service

Using GIS and LANDFIRE to Assess Large Scale Fire Needs; Sarah Hagen, The Nature Conservancy, Illinois

Where should we burn? Techniques for identifying priority areas at landscape scale; Tracy  Hmielowski, Fire Information Specialist, Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium

11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Lunch

12:40-2 pm

Concurrent Interactive Session 1

Stewardship Monitoring with Walkabouts and Saunters

Jack Phillips, The New Tree School, and Chad Graeve, Natural Resource Specialist, Pottawattamie County Conservation (Iowa)

Demonstration: Low Cost Geospatial Information System (GIS) Data Creation and Sharing Methods for Fire Management

Jerry Szymaniak, US Fish and Wildlife Service

Prescribed Fire Program Assessment

John Peters and Brad Woodson, McHenry County Conservation District (Illinois)

Fire and Oak Track:

Oak Roundtable—Identifying Priorities for Information Sharing and Research Needs for Fire and Oak Systems (Option 1)

Tricia Knoot, Research Scientist, Wisconsin DNR; Craig Maier, Coordinator, TPOS Fire Science Consortium; Ann Calhoun, Baraboo Hills Project Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy

 Break

2:20-3:50 pm

Concurrent Interactive Session 2

Fire Equipment: what people are using and how it works

Rob Littiken, Kankakee Sands Project Manager, The Nature Conservancy

Workshop: It’s all about the Planning! – Tips & Tricks of Scouting & Developing a Burn Plan to Meet Objectives and Provide Safety for All   

Pete Hildreth, Southwest District Wildlife Supervisor, Iowa DNR

Creating Patchy Habitats with Fire-Assumptions and Methods for Land Managers (Panel Discussion and Q and A) 

Scott Moats, Fire Manager Iowa/Nebraska, The Nature Conservancy; Matt Zine, Natural Area Conservation Biologist, Wisconsin DNR; Ryan Gauger, Oak Openings Restoration Crew Leader, The Nature Conservancy; moderator - Emily Hohman, Western Iowa Land Steward, The Nature Conservancy

Midwest Prescribed Fire Community Forum

Paul Charland, Fire Managment Specialist, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and co-Principal Investigator, Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium

Fire and Oak Track:

Oak Roundtable—Identifying Priorities for Information Sharing and Research Needs for Fire and Oak Systems (Option 2)

Tricia Knoot, Research Scientist, Wisconsin DNR; Craig Maier, Coordinator, TPOS Fire Science Consortium; Ann Calhoun, Baraboo Hills Project Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy

4:30-5:30 pm

Rapid Fire Idea Exchange

This fast-paced session will provide opportunities to connect with others and learn about their challenges and innovations - meet up to 21 new people in under 60 minutes while sharing your answers to questions about key challenges in keeping fire working for the land.

5-6 pm

Official Poster Session and Social Hour

Light refreshments will be served. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Prescribed Fire Council

6-7 pm

Dinner

7-7:30 pm

Keynote Presentation:

"The Personal Prairie"

John T. Price, editor of The Tallgrass Prairie Reader

8:30-9 am

Breakfast

Coffee, tea, fruit and baked goods included in the cost of registration

9-10:10 am

Concurrent Interactive Session 3

Fire and Oak Track:

Thinning the Thicket of Unknowns - Accelerating Learning Through a Fire and Oak Working Group for the Upper Midwest

Craig Maier, Coordinator, TPOS Fire Science Consortium

No such thing as a free lunch? Using volunteers to achieve prescribed fire goals

Yari Johnson, University of Wisconsin-Platteville and Amy Delyea-Petska, Platteville Community Arboretum

Key Insights from the 2015 Burning Issues Symposium – Synthesis from Discussions and Lessons Learned

Jack McGowan-Stinski, Program Manager, Lake States Fire Science Consortium

Workshop: Burn Preparation and Fireline Placement

Erik Acker, Fire Management Specialist, US Fish and Wildlife Service

10:20-11:30

Concurrent Discussion Session 4

Workshop: Planning Ignitions for Prescribed Burns with Topography, Woodland Fuels, and other Complexities

Nate Fayram, Conservation Biologist, Wisconsin DNR

Jumps, Escapes, Mishaps, and Close Calls

Brad Woodson, McHenry County Conservation District (IL)

Smoke Management and Public Awareness - Communicating with Neighbors and Others Impacted by Prescribed Fire Management (Panel Discussion and Q and A)

Lee Osterland, Fire Management Specialist, Michigan DNR; Shawn Kelley, Environmental Scientist, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community; Troy Showerman, Resource Project Manager, Cook County Forest Preserve District

The coming use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in Prescribed Burning and Wildfire Suppression

Mark Masters, Chloeta Fire 

11:40 am – Noon

Closing Plenary

Reflecting and Plans for Reconnecting; Craig Maier, Coordinator, TPOS Fire Science Consortium