Fire Is Central Webinars
Connect with your grassland fire management community across the central U.S.
Fire is a key process in the grasslands and savannas that span the center of North America. "Fire Is Central" is an online discussion series designed to facilitate discussions about widely-relevant topics, connecting across many jurisdictions to share research and lessons learned from practitioners. The Great Plains Fire Science Exchange and Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium co-host the series.
Coming Up
Working with Private Landowners to Increase Prescribed Fire Capacity
Thursday, Nov. 7, 9:30 - 11 AM Central
We share lessons learned by experts who work closely with a key subset of “students of fire” – private landowners. Like any other group of people working in wildland fire, private landowners range from people who are totally new to fire to those who need advanced training. We will cover communications, training methods, certification programs, and some common misconceptions about private lands burning.
Panelists
Jennifer Fawcett, North Carolina State Extension
Brian Teeter, Nebraska Prescribed Fire Coordinating Wildlife Biologist, Pheasants Forever, Inc. and Quail Forever
Morgan Treadwell, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
Expanding Training to Build the Prescribed Fire Workforce
Wednesday, Dec. 11, 11 AM - 12:30 PM Central
With an issue as large as increasing the prescribed fire work force, a range of approaches have emerged to provide training for different audiences over time. Panelists will share their experience with adapting NWCG trainings to college courses, bringing the TREX model to the Canadian prairies, and using multiple formats in collaboration with partners in the eastern US, including state prescribed fire councils and NGOs.
Panelists
Jack McGowan-Stinski, Lake States Fire Science Consortium
Dinyar Minocher, Interagency Prescribed Fire Coordinator, Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange
Zach Prusak, Wildland Fire Training Specialist, Tall Timbers Research Station
ABOUT Fire is Central
There are many common issues across the grasslands of the central United States, but sharing fire management knowledge is complicated due to numerous boundaries – notably state boundaries and administrative regions.
We are facilitating these conversations to improve information flows and help connect people to colleagues and relevant experts outside of their usual circles.
The sessions are co-hosted by the Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium and Great Plains Fire Science Exchange.
ARCHIVED
Increasing Prescribed Fire Capacity in the Central US
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024
View the recording on the TPOS YouTube channel
Communities across the central United States gain a wide range of benefits from prescribed fire, including improving forage quality, reducing the intensity of wildfires, restoring habitat for game species and rare species, and renewing a positive relationship with fire.
The panelists addressed barriers to prescribed fire, from state liability laws to agency policies, with an emphasis on ways that barriers to prescribed fire have been reduced for private landowners and those providing technical assistance to landowners.
Panelists
Charles Stanley, Rangeland Management Specialist, Central National Technology Support Center, Natural Resources Conservation Service
Carissa Wonkka, Assistant Professor, University of Florida
Wes Bucheit, Missouri Prescribed Fire Coordinating Wildlife Biologist, Pheasants Forever, Inc. and Quail Forever
Oct. 30, 2023: Fire in the Last Grassland Regions of the Great Plains
View the recording on the TPOS YouTube channel
Abstract
Humanity’s relationship with fire continues to rapidly change and influence the distribution of grassland ecosystems. In this paper, I discuss the progression of four distinct fire eras that have epitomized people’s relationship with wildland fire in the Great Plains since the last glacial maxima. These cultural fire eras include the now-extinct coexistence era (indigenous fire use), the suppression era (extermination of wildland fire occurrence), the shadow era (localized prescribed burning groups), and the current wildfire era. I draw connections between these eras and how competition among the cultures that identify with suppression, prescribed burning, or wildfire management are likely to further influence the distribution of grassland ecosystems into the future.
Presenter
Dirac Twidwell is a Professor and Rangeland Ecologist in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at the University of Nebraska and a Science Advisor for the USDA NRCS in the Great Plains.
January 11, 2023: Fire Across the Grasslands – What Are We Managing For?
The recording is available on the TPOS Youtube Channel
Grasslands in the Great Plains and Midwest are at constant risk from invasion by woody species. Conversion to deciduous woodlands and forests is already widespread in the Midwest and the southern Great Plains. This discussion focuses on the many ways that fire is essential to grasslands and the people who live there. Panel members will address:
- the role of fire in resisting invasion by woody species;
- managing reconstructed prairies;
- promoting diverse plant communities and healthy wildlife populations; and
- and relevance to people from ranching communities to urban areas.
Amy Symstad - Research Ecologist and Chief of the Climate and Land-use Branch for the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
