Editor’s note: As we publish this blog today, several wildfires are impacting communities in Southern California. Our hearts and energies go out to these communities. We believe more than ever in our work to improve the relationship between people, places, and fire. In today’s post, the Fire Networks (Fire Learning Network [FLN], Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges [TREX], Women-in-Fire Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges [WTREX], Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network [FAC Net], and Indigenous Peoples Burning Network [IPBN]) are proud to share the work we focused on in 2024 to help create viable fire cultures.
Fire Networks
2024 was a busy and exciting year for the Fire Networks as we expanded our impact and continued to invest in people and place-based efforts to change our relationship with fire. Since the beginning of our 22-year partnership, our vision remains clear: to foster viable fire cultures across the country. We envision a future where fire once again plays its fundamental role as an ecological and cultural process. Where communities are empowered and prepared for wildfire. Where the workforce welcomes diverse viewpoints, skills and life experiences to address the complexity of the challenge. And where people who live within and depend on fire-adapted ecosystems have a role and voice, shared ownership, and where power and responsibility are distributed equitably.
Guided by this vision of viable fire cultures, the Fire Networks dedicated 2024 to:
- supporting the local partnerships that underlie collective action and can be sustained over time;
- increasing the number and range of people and institutions involved in, and responsible for, fire management and community adaptation to wildfire;
- providing resources, connections, and mentorship for people leading this sector; and
- sharing stories and solutions from place-based efforts to expand the movement for better fire outcomes.
Support partnerships and collaborative approaches
Viable fire cultures require people working together in place toward a shared vision for their fire future. The Fire Networks support community members, including those who work directly with fire, as they develop and expand partnerships for wildfire resilience. We support collaborative planning efforts that lead to shared visions, decision-making, and action, and we work with people as they reach beyond the local level to improve knowledge, understanding, and alignment across the wildfire resilience sector.
For example, our Fire Learning Network (FLN) members have led burns, taught workshops and supported trainings (including TREX events), addressed policy and insurance issues, and worked on countless projects dedicated to building a fire future where land, people, and fire are in balance, not opposition. At the national level, FLN staff hosted virtual trainings on working with the media and prescribed fire liability that reached over 1,000 people while coaching members through a self-assessment process, administering funding for projects on the ground, participating in policy workgroups, and more.
This is all important work of which we are incredibly proud. But while lists of projects and attendance numbers matter, the impact of the FLN can best be understood from stories.
Fueling the fire
The first comes from Ben Wheeler in Nebraska. Ben has been deeply engaged in building Prescribed Burn Associations and burning on private lands for years, and earlier this year his local saw shop began a trial run of selling drip torches, an unusual item for a saw shop to carry. Within 3 weeks, the shop had sold 7 torches to private landowners. For an independent shop in a small Nebraska town to see that level of business speaks to the culture of fire that Ben and his partners are building.
Partnering under pressure
The second story comes from Northern California, where the Karuk Tribe released a video about the management of the 2023 SRF Lightning Complex. The video highlights how the Tribe successfully worked with Incident Command to manage that fire according to the desires of the community, particularly the Tribe. Western Klamath Restoration Partnership FLN lead Will Harling while speaking about the video, said this achievement represented everything he has spent the last two decades working toward.
We face many challenges, both in fire and the world at large. In the midst of those challenges, it is imperative to see the good and the progress. We get to see that every day working with our members.
Build leadership capacity and expand opportunities for practitioners
People who work with fire need specialized knowledge, experience, and qualifications to support a wildfire resilience movement in the places they care about. The Fire Networks offer training opportunities and coaching, as well as invaluable connections to peers and resources. Our trainings offer on-the-ground experience and skill-building—including leadership skills—for practitioners at all levels. And we create and broaden access to jobs that support better fire futures.
All of our networks provide training, but two of our most popular programs are TREX (Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges) and WTREX (Women-in-Fire Training Exchanges). TREX/WTREX—and the staff and partners who organize and manage them—facilitate experiential training, treatment implementation, information sharing, and cross-boundary relationship building for people who want to work with fire. TREX/WTREX serve those looking to advance their formal qualifications at any point in their careers and connect place-based prescribed burners with training, burning opportunities, and each other.
Prescribed fire practitioner training
In 2024, 19 TREX/WTREX events were hosted across 8 states (California, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington). Internationally, 7 events were held in 3 countries (Canada, Mexico and Portugal). Hear about some of those experiences:
- “We can’t find the people to do the jobs. So programs like WTREX provide a critical linkage to workforce capacity and not only inspiring people to get involved in this work but then providing them the training opportunities so they can be competent.” – Lenya Quinn-Davidson, This Training Program is Helping Get Women Into Firefighting (NPR, All Things Considered)
- “Through the diverse and passionate voices of those who understand and respect this natural phenomenon, we explore how we can reconcile our relationship with fire to protect and preserve our planet Earth.” – Antonella Carrasco, “Voces del Fuego” (Fire Networks Blog)
- Loup River TREX was mentioned on “Lighting Fires for Wildlife and the New Book ‘Ignition'” (On the Wing podcast)
In addition to hands-on prescribed fire trainings, the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network (FAC Net) also developed several new community fire adaptation resources and training opportunities.
Training opportunities and resource development
This year, FAC Net hosted several opportunities for fire practitioners to gain skills and experience, including a series on volunteer program development, and a learning group focused on practitioner mental health and wellbeing. FAC Net staff launched a new resource, “Community Mapping for Wildfire Resilience,” as a tool for increasing community engagement with fire adaptation activities. Coming in early 2025, FAC Net will support the launch of the California Community Wildfire Protection Plan Toolkit from CAL FIRE.
Clean Air Program
In 2024, FAC Net hosted another cohort of the “Community Clean Air” program, which supports communities and their efforts to increase access to clean air during smoke events. Projects from cohort members varied, including providing air filters for clean air centers during wildfire smoke events, air filter programs to address prescribed fire smoke, and providing filters for home-based use to vulnerable members of the participating communities.
This year, FAC Net facilitated 28 trainings or learning exchanges. Participants say it best when describing the impact of these workshops:
- “I am definitely going to be using this in my work.”
- “It will help us build a community advisory board and keep them engaged with fire mitigation work”
- “I really appreciate that this organization is providing this excellent training!!”
- “I highly appreciate the workshop, it’s what I need.”
2024 brought FAC Net staff another year of fire adaptation success stories and meaningful community engagement from our membership. We celebrate the work happening on local and national levels to support community fire adaptation and living better with fire.
Facilitate and support learning networks
Connecting wildfire management and community adaptation practitioners lets us learn from and influence each other. Together, we also develop programs, curricula, training materials, and other resources to shape the field and maximize impact.
While all of our networks and programs can illustrate that impact, the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network (IPBN) provides a useful example this past year as members connected both intertribally and with agencies and NGOs to advance cultural burning practices and ensure that tribal perspectives remain central to fire management conversations.
Tribal Forest & Fire Summit
Network members in NM engaged with the NM Tribal Fire Working Group through meetings and a workshop and took part in the first Tribal Forest & Fire Summit (January 30-February 1) which was held in collaboration with the Forest Stewards Guild, Trees, Water People, and The Nature Conservancy. The 186 attendees came from 25 Tribes and Pueblos across the Southwest, and from 9 federal and 3 state agencies, 13 NGOs, and numerous educational institutions.
Panel on Indigenous cultural burning
At the request of the Intertribal Timber Council, IPBN staff facilitated a panel on Indigenous cultural burning for the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC). WFLC is a high level, intergovernmental group that guides wildland fire policies, goals, and management activities. The panel provided examples of where cultural burning is being done successfully (Northern California tribes), where tribes are taking steps toward more cultural burning (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), and identifying barriers.
Annual gathering
People from 26 tribes and tribal organizations gathered for the IPBN’s annual workshop in the homelands of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas during the first week of November. In field visits, discussions, and interactive exercises, they updated one another on co-management of public lands with tribes, the nexus of Indigenous cultural burning with liability and insurance, longleaf restoration, and youth engagement in land stewardship.
The stories and connections built this year remind us of the critical role Indigenous knowledge plays in creating a resilient fire future.
Inform the policy and funding environments at state and federal levels
Fire Networks staff and members participate in coalitions and committees to share lessons and solutions from our decades of work, help align programs and take collective action. We also collaborate with philanthropic partners to advise their investment strategies and connect them with place-based leaders. At the national level, our team contributes to coalitions and workgroups advising on beneficial fire, rural community issues, the wildfire management system and national capacity-building programs. In 2024, our team advised several state-level strategies, programs and policies including the New Mexico Prescribed Fire Burn Certification working group, the California Forest and Fire Management Task Force, and Oregon State University’s fire program, and we partnered with research and philanthropic leaders to advance practice and investments in wildfire resilience.
Inspiring others across the globe
The influence of the Fire Networks extends globally as communities worldwide face increasing extreme wildfire events. Inspired by our work, eleven TNC staff members from Latin America traveled to California to explore local partnerships focused on community wildfire resilience. During their visit, they engaged with partners who shared insights on creating partnerships to steward fire-adapted landscapes and organize community action, building a diverse and equitable workforce, and the vital role of Indigenous cultures in shaping the continent’s fire history. By exchanging experiences and knowledge, the group seeks to apply these lessons to enhance wildfire resilience in their home countries and iconic places.
Looking ahead
As our good friend and retired social scientist from the USDA Forest Service, Sarah McCaffrey says, “fire is a biophysical process, but fire management is a social one.” We know that how we frame a challenge shapes the solutions we develop to address it. If we too narrowly define our fire challenges around vegetation issues, that leads us to focus solely on fuels management solutions – important, but insufficient on their own. If we broaden the challenge and acknowledge our relationship with fire is broken, that leads us to include people-centered solutions and ones that welcome all members of society. As we venture into 2025, we celebrate all the hard work you, our partners, have accomplished and hope we can continue walking beside you on the path to a better future with fire.
Read more about the Fire Networks’ 2024 work here.
****