Prescribed Fire Education & Training

Prescribed Fire Education & Training

Prescribed Fire Education & Training

from the Extension Fire Program at Oregon State University

By: Carrie A. Berger Photo provided by: Amy Markus, USFS

A T T R I B U T I ON

Prescribed Fire Education & Training from the Extension Program at Oregon State University

Copyright © Carrie A. Berger. 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Published by Extension Foundation.

e-pub: ISBN: 978-1-955687-02-7

Publish Date: August 25, 2021

Citations for this publication may be made using the following:

Berger, C. (2021). Prescribed Fire Education & Training from the Extension Program at Oregon State University (1 st ed). Kansas City: Extension Foundation. ISBN: 978-1-955687-02-7

Producer: Ashley S. Griffin

Peer Review Coordinator & Editorial Consultant: Heather Martin

Technical Implementer: Heather Martin

Welcome to Prescribed Fire Education & Training from the Extension Program at Oregon State University, a resource created for the Cooperative Extension Service and published by the Extension Foundation. We welcome feedback and suggested resources for this publication, which could be included in any subsequent versions. This work is supported by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2020-41595-30123 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For more information please contact:

Extension Foundation c/o Bryan Cave LLP One Kansas City Place

1200 Main Street, Suite 3800 Kansas City, MO 64105-2122 https://impact.extension.org/

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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Attribution .............................................................................................................................................. 2

Meet the Author...................................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5

Part 1: The Need For & Barriers to Prescribed Fire ........................................................................... 7 The Gross Negligence Standard.......................................................................................................................................... 7 Other Barriers ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Part 2: Origins of the FNR Fire Program & Its Prescribed Fire Education & Training .......................... 9

Part 3: Building the Fire Program Team & Education & Training Content ....................................... 11 The Fire Program Team .................................................................................................................................................... 11 Education & Training Content .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Part 4: Other Resources for Prescribed Fire Management and How to Leverage Them................... 16 PFCs................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 PBAs .................................................................................................................................................................................. 17 Agreements, Authorities, and MOUs .................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Part 5: Measuring Success ............................................................................................................ 19

Part 6: References ........................................................................................................................ 20

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M E E T TH E AU THO R

Carrie A. Berger

Carrie A. Berger is the Fire Program Manager for the Forestry & Natural Resources Extension ’s Fire Program at Oregon State University. As manager, Carrie leads the fire team towards accomplishing the goals and objectives of the program put forth to the state legislation in 2019, including: identifying landscapes in highest need of a strategic focus of resources to reduce wildfire and landscape health risks on a statewide scale; assisting with the implementation of projects on the ground in priority landscapes; and providing education and outreach throughout the process for all Oregonians. Prior to this position, Carrie was the coordinator for the Northwest Fire Science Consortium. The NWFSC is one of 15 fire science exchange networks funded by the Joint Fire Science Program, tasked to accelerate the awareness, understanding, and adoption of wildland fire science. Carrie has over twenty years of forestry related experience and has been in her Extension role for seven years. She earned her master’s degree in forest science from the University of Minnesota and her bachelor’s degree in forestry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Carrie A. Berger Fire Program Manager Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Fire Program Oregon State University College of Forestry [email protected]

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I N T RO D U C T I ON

Devastating wildfires are scarring our Western landscapes and jeopardizing the health, safety, and social and economic vitality of our communities. And they’re on the rise. T he 2020 wildfire season in Oregon was one of the most destructive in state history, with fires killing at least nine people, destroying thousands of homes, and burning more than one million acres. In the 2021 wildfire season, the Bootleg Fire alone had burned over 400,000 acres in July, making it the largest fire burning across the nation at that point. Such seasons can cost our state millions of dollars, while costs on a national level can reach the billions. The wildfire problem is a culmination of various factors, including past management practices, human- caused wildfires, and climate changes. Landscapes are stressed due to high tree densities, drought, invasive grasses, insects, and disease. Part of the wildfire solution is prescribed fire. Prescribed fire is the intentional application of fire that minimizes the risk of wildfires, ensuring that landscapes and watersheds are resilient, healthy, and productive by

removing dead vegetation;

releasing nutrients into the soil;

helping native species out-compete invasive species; and

improving the land’s natural defenses against disease and infestations.

Prescribed fire is not a new tool. Indigenous People have been using it for thousands of years, yet, “indigenous perspectives and fire knowledge are too often downplayed or ignored” (Adla m & Martinez, 2021). To understand these perspectives further, listen to the fire episode of Oregon State University’s (OSU ’s ) Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR) Extension Program podcast “In the Woods.” In it, David G. Lewis, an instructor at OSU in anthropology and ethnic studies and a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and Amanda Rau, OSU Extension’s regional fire specialist, share historical and current perspectives on fire use, benefits of fire, and changes to our present-day landscapes since colonization and the beginning of an era of fire suppression. You can read more about the decolonization of prescribed fire on the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network blog. SURVEY We Want to Hear From You Does the Extension Service or another agency in your state provide prescribed education and training? If so, which service do you work with?

Yet, only a few states offer prescribed fire education and training for landowners or non-fire agency professionals.

OSU’s Extension decided to do something about this critical lack of knowledge and skill in Oregon by developing a prescribed fire education and training opportunity to benefit public and private landowners across Oregon. This type of education and training is one of several opportunities offered by OSU’s FNR Extension Fire Program, established in 2019. The Fire Program also is involved in such programming and

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outreach efforts as fire awareness and preparedness, fire-adapted and smoke ready communities, and post-fire recovery. This eFieldbook focuses primarily on the history of the Fire Program and the creation of its education and training material for prescribed fire. It documents the following:

the need for and barriers to prescribed fire

origins of the FNR Extension Fire Program and its prescribed fire education and training

building the Fire Program team and education and training content

other resources for prescribed fire management and how to leverage them

measuring success

Place-based fire management education and training is more important than ever. We hope our journey and this book inspire and empower you and other Extension professionals to develop a prescribed fire education program that meets the needs of the diverse landscapes and communities in your state.

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Part 1: The Need For & Barriers to Prescribed Fire

There is no time to waste in the race to ensure that our lands and watersheds are resilient, healthy, and productive and to mitigate the increasing risk that wildfires pose to many communities. In 2015, a joint study by the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy found that 9.4 million acres of forestland in Oregon and Washington were in

Prescribed Fire Perspectives

immediate need of thinning, followed by prescribed burning in forests that were historically maintained by frequent low- or mixed-severity fires. Unfortunately, there are significant barriers to using prescribed fire in Oregon and other states — from a shortage of people with “ecological knowledge and operational expertise to implement prescribed fire across multijurisdictional landscape s” (Spencer et al., 2015) to a lack of insurance options for qualified burners.

The Extension Foundation and OSU’s Extension Service partnered with “Trust In Food” (a Farm Journal Initiative) to conduct research that provided qualitative and quantitative insights into three goals:

G ain insight into the community’s perceptions of fire and prescribed burning.

U nderstand the community’s knowledge related to fire and prescribed burning.

Conduct a needs assessment to improve the delivery of events, courses, and resources.

RESEARCH

The geographic focus of the survey was the entire state of Oregon. The audience was identified using contacts within the Farm Journal >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20

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