FAC Net blogs include success stories, lessons learned, resources, tips and even failures related to community wildfire resilience. Please contact our blog manager if you have a story to share.
Credit: Esmé Cadiente, Forest Stewards Guilld
Sep 20, 2018
Don’t Reinvent the Prescribed Fire Wheel: Must-Have Liability, Timing and Outreach Resources
By: Allison JolleyAre you planning any controlled burns this fall? (Or winter? Or spring?) This blog offers a collection of resources… Read More
Editor's Note: All blog entries are reviewed and edited for length and clarity by Network staff before approval
for posting.
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True or false: Poison oak produces poisonous smoke when burned? Lenya Quinn-Davidson takes a dive into the research on a quest to find out. Credit: David Dennis shared via Flickr Creative Commons
Oct 11, 2018
I came out of last week looking like someone who’d just been released from a hard labor camp. My hands were covered in blisters from digging soil pits for a research… Read More
Topic: Fuels treatment / Prescribed fire
Type: Research Synthesis
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Wildfire smoke increasingly travels thousands of miles, sometimes across the entire country. Get a rundown of the latest wildfire-smoke science, opportunities to mitigate it, and tools to communicate about it in the blog post below. Photo: Smoke from 2017 California wildfires spanning the U.S. Credit: NASA
Oct 04, 2018
How Healthier Forests Can Mean Less Smoke: The Science, Tools and Strategies Related to Smoke Management in Fire-Adapted Forests
By: Dr. Leland Tarnay, USDA Forest Service Region 5 Remote Sensing LabThe Air Quality Problem With disconcerting regularity, smoke from large wildfires keeps saturating the skies of California (and other states) for days on end, over vast… Read More
Topic: Communications / Outreach Fuels treatment / Prescribed fire Wildfire
Type: Research Synthesis
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Replacing a home that was lost during the Carlton Complex of 2014. This family lost their primary home and business, and understanding their unique needs was essential to their holistic recovery. Credit: Okanogan County Long Term Recovery Group
Sep 27, 2018
Equity in Action: Long-Term Disaster Recovery in North-Central Washington
By: Maria Estrada, The Nature Conservancy“What is equity?” The answer to that question is both elusive and central when working toward fire adaptation. When I was in Washington State last May, I met the… Read More
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With their dependence on fire, American Indians are uniquely positioned to teach other communities throughout the country about how fire is medicine for both people and the environment. Photo: Lois Conner Bohna with acorns on a tree tended by her grandmother, Lilly Harris, at a ranch near North Fork, California. Credit: Frank K. Lake, USDA Forest Service
Sep 13, 2018
Fire as Medicine: Fire Dependent Cultures and Re-Empowering American Indian Tribes
By: Frank Kanawha Lake, Ph.D., USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research StationAcross North America, many communities seek to live more safely with wildland fire; some call that working to become a fire adapted community. Many American Indian tribes were… Read More
Topic: Fuels treatment / Prescribed fire Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Type: Essay
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Imil Ferrara, who has participated in a Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX), and Chris Baldo trade stories about using prescribed fire as Jana Carp listens. Credit: Mary Huffman, The Nature Conservancy
Sep 06, 2018
“We need to work together if we are going to meet the threat of wildfire in our community.” I heard this said time and time again — with either conviction or reluctance… Read More
Topic: Communications / Outreach Resilience Wildfire
Type: Tools / Resources
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Looking at this picture, you probably wouldn’t guess that a lack of supply is what ultimately led to the failure of the Watershed Research and Training Center's recent firewood business endeavor. Find out what we learned from this wood-products venture and where we're headed next. Credit: Marcus Kauffman, Oregon Department of Forestry
Aug 30, 2018
Fantastic Failure: Biomass Utilization and Surviving the Pursuit of a Bright Idea
By: Nick Goulette, Watershed Research and Training CenterCreating market demand and useful products from the woody material that we remove as a byproduct of community wildfire protection work seems like an obvious and elegant… Read More
Topic: Fuels treatment economics Local workforce capacity
Type: Fantastic Failure
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Stay up-to-date on emerging approaches to wildfire management. Credit: Mike Caggiano, Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, Colorado State University
Aug 23, 2018
Whether you’re working at incident command in fire camp or at your desk planning a workshop, I want to draw your attention to three amazing blogs related to wildfire… Read More
Topic: Collaboration Planning Wildfire
Type: Research Synthesis
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Ever feel like you need a dictionary just for wildfire terms? Here you go! Credit: Merriam Webster shared via Flickr Creative Commons
Aug 16, 2018
Your Wildfire Terminology Dictionary (Well, A Blog-Post Version of a Dictionary, at Least)
Allison Jolley“What did the IC say about the fuel models in the area where we’ll be performing burn out operations? I can’t wait to get my red card and work on my faller… Read More
Topic: Communications / Outreach Wildfire
Type: Tools / Resources
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Check out these recent examples of investments in wildfire mitigation paying big dividends. (Photo: Mitigation work completed by property owners facilitated the Vail Fire Department's safe and effective response to the Lake Christine Fire in Colorado earlier this summer. Credit: Eric Lovgren, Fire Adapted Colorado)
Aug 09, 2018
Extreme fire behavior, like what we’ve seen in California this summer and last fall, demonstrates that there are no guarantees when it comes to preparing homes and families… Read More
Topic: Defensible space / Firewise Fuels treatment / Prescribed fire Wildfire
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Dive into the research on the relationships between fire and grazing, or “pyric herbivory.” Credit: Kelly Best Bennett shared by "Land Between the Lakes KYTN" via Flickr Creative Commons
Aug 02, 2018
Science Thursday: An Argument for Heterogeneity, in the Kitchen Sink and in the Fields
By: Lenya Quinn-DavidsonI have a confession to make: I am obsessed with stinky sponges. You know the type — the sponge that, despite looking new and clean, leaves your hands reeking for hours. You… Read More
Topic: Fuels treatment / Prescribed fire
Type: Research Synthesis