LEARNING NETWORKS January 2015 FIELD GUIDE Fire Learning Network Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges Scaling-up to Promote Ecosystem Resiliency Copyright 2015 The Nature Conservancy The Fire Learning Network is part of the “Promoting Ecosystem Resilience and Fire Adapted Communities Together: Collaborative Engagement, Collective Action and Co- Ownership of Fire” cooperative agreement among The Nature Conservancy, USDA Forest Service and agencies of the Department of the Interior (Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Fish & Wildlife Service, National Park Service). In addition to the network of landscape collaboratives, it includes prescribed fire training exchanges and targeted treatments under Scaling-up to Promote Ecosystem Resiliency. For more information, please visit www.conservationgateway.org/fln Network Contacts FLN Director Lynn Decker [email protected] (801) 320-0524 USDA Forest Service Tim Melchert [email protected] (208) 387-5512 Dept. of the Interior Richard Bahr [email protected] (208) 334-1550 The Fire Learning Network Team The Nature Conservancy Fire Team: Jeremy Bailey, Lynn Decker, Guy Duffner, Wendy Fulks, Blane Heumann, Mary Huffman, Heather Montanye, Liz Rank and Chris Topik. The FLN Field Guide is compiled and produced by Liz Rank ([email protected]). Thanks to the numerous landscape and community leaders and partners who provided text, photos and review for this document, and for the valuable work they do in the field. Photo Credits Front cover (top to bottom): Riley Bergseng, Coalition for the Upper South Platte, Robert B. Clontz/TNC; (center) Jeffrey Kane. This page: Jeffrey Kane. Back cover (left to right): Liz Rank/TNC, Katherine Medlock/TNC, Chris Topik/TNC, Mary Huffman/TNC. Liz Rank/TNC (2), Guy Duffner/TNC. Contents Introduction & Overview A Brief Introduction to the Fire Learning Network 1 Dovetail Partners (Minnesota) 36 Where We Work 4 Mercer County Soil Conservation District (New Jersey) 37 A map of FLN landscapes, Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network pilot Chestatee-Chattahoochee RC&D Council (Georgia) 38 communities, prescribed fire training exchanges and Scaling-up to Promote Florida Forest Service 39 Ecosystem Resiliency projects Austin Travis County Wildfire Cooperative (Texas) 40 Fire Learning Network Regional Networks & Large Landscapes Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (2014) California Klamath-Siskiyou FLN 7 Niobrara River Valley (Spring Break TREX) (Nebraska) 42 Centennial Valley FLN 8 Lower Loup Valley TREX (Nebraska) 43 Central Appalachians FLN 9 Virginia TREX 44 FireScape Mendocino 10 Yurok TREX (California) 45 FireScape Monterey 11 International TREX (New Mexico) 46 Great Plains FLN 12 Black Lake TREX (New Mexico) 47 Northwest FLN 13 Klamath River TREX (California) 48 Pike’s Peak FLN 14 Northern California TREX 49 Rio Grande Water Fund 15 South Central FLN 16 Scaling-up to Promote Ecosystem Resiliency Southern Blue Ridge FLN 17 Overview of SPER II projects 52 Washington Dry Forests FLN 18 FLN Indexes Western Klamath Mountains FLN 19 Partner Types 55 Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network Hub Organizations FLNs cross-referenced with the agency or organization types of key partners Overview of the FAC Learning Network 22 Areas of Focus & Expertise 56 FLNs cross-referenced by habitats & human context factors worked with, and Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition (Washington) 24 by areas of expertise Project Wildfire (Oregon) 25 Managing in Landscapes with Threatened & Endangered Species 58 Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative (Oregon) 26 FLNs cross-referenced with T&E species Karuk Tribe (California) 27 Managing Invasive Species 61 North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District (Nevada/California) 28 FLNs cross-referenced with invasive species they manage for California Fire Safe Council 29 FAC Learning Network Indexes Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership (Arizona) 30 Actions Taken & Values at Risk 64 The Forest Guild (New Mexico) 31 FAC hubs cross-referenced with actions being taken to address values at risk FireWise of Southwest Colorado 32 Resources & Strategies 65 Coalition for the Upper South Platte (Colorado) 33 FAC hubs cross-referenced with resources, programs and strategies available Boise Fire Department (Idaho) 34 Public Outreach & Partnerships 66 Island Park Sustainable Fire Community (Idaho/Montana) 35 FAC hubs cross-referenced with outreach efforts and partnerships A Brief Introduction to the Fire Learning Network By the Numbers (2014) > 30 FLN landscapes private 9 regional networks landowners The Fire Learning Network & contractors > 250 partners state & local and its re- • prescribed fire training exchanges 66.4 million acres (includes fire departments) lated programs are part of “Promoting (TREX), experiential training 20 states Ecosystem Resilience and Fire Adapted opportunities that integrate a range 18 FAC Net hubs Communities Together” (PERFACT), a of people, places and aspects of fire; 50 communities university students cooperative agreement between The • targeted restoration action under 425 partners (Spring Break TREX) Nature Conservancy, USDA Forest Ser- Scaling-up to Promote Ecosystem 8 prescribed fire training vice and agencies of the Department of Resiliency (SPER); and exchanges the Interior. The partnership works in • communication and public outreach 345 participants particular places with individual peo- Prescribed Fire Training Exchange about fire, restoration, and the > 9,000 acres of prescribed fire ple, and also at regional and national Participant Affiliations—Spring 2014 collaborative work being done on scales; it also makes the connections 1,570 acres of thinning, fire & them. Dept. of the Interior Dept. of Defense between those scales. other treatments by Forest Service TNC state & local gov’ts other NGOs Key aspects of this work are: SPER landscape projects tribal members private All of these aspects are interconnected, (SPER: January-June total) university students international • the Fire Learning Network (FLN), making all parts more effective at fostering collaboration for restora- promoting healthy ecosystems and tion and integrated fire management fire-adapted human communities. than in landscapes across the country; they would be on their own. In many The Fire Learning Network • the Fire Adapted Communities (FAC) of the places where the FLN works, it Learning Network, which is doing is becoming difficult to tell where the the same with communities adapt- FLN leaves off and other programs More than thirty landscapes—most These include hosting workshops to ing to wildfire; begin—which is as it should be. working as part of regional networks share knowledge and develop local —are now active in the FLN. In addi- tools, as well as those that support the tion to long-established partnerships, work of landscape-scale projects and collaborative groups in the early stages statewide prescribed fire councils; of their FLN work are being developed they nurture the development of fire in California, Colorado and Idaho. The adapted communities, host prescribed FLNs under development generally fire training exchanges, monitor fire focus on a collaborative planning pro- effects on bird populations, develop cess that brings stakeholders together interpretive signage, and publish to work through where they want to go restoration resources. In doing so, they A crew works on the Tshanik and Nix units burns during the October 2014 Klamath River prescribed fire and how they can get there. The more engage hundreds of diverse partners, training exchange. More than 50 people took part in this TREX, which treated numerous parcels on private lands to support fire adapted communities goals along the river. Photo: Thomas Dunklin established FLNs, having done this from state and federal agencies to planning work, are now engaged in a private landowners and researchers, 1 diversity of place-specific activities. and from coast to coast. Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges it has almost simultaneously moved toward larger crew sizes, spread into new geographic areas (and habitats), Training events combining experiential become more closely tied to fire adapt- learning and principles of integrated ed communities efforts, and become fire management are now being held in more locally based. Numerous partici- numerous locations each spring and fall. pants have attended multiple events, The integration of professional wild- and are becoming sources of leader- The FLN’s planning methods are based on the Open Standards for land firefighters with less-traditional ship and support. Staff support is now Conservation. According to research training partners at these events shifting from running the events to conducted by Bruce Goldstein and expands both the capacity of the fire mentoring others. Efforts are shifting colleagues, the Network can best be conceived of as a multiscalar process community and its breadth of knowl- toward helping this model—and this of iterative adaptive management. edge. It strengthens the ability to con- integrated way of viewing fire manage- Diagram adapted from Butler, W. H. and B. E. Goldstein (2010). “The US duct controlled burning effectively and ment and doing prescribed fire— Fire Learning Network: Springing a Rigidity Trap through Multiscalar become adaptable, self-sustaining, Collaborative Networks.” Ecology and Society 15(3):21. with full social license, and develops connections that are helping wildfires and ever more widespread. The Fire Adapted Communities