7th International Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference Recap

FUEL, FIRE AND SMOKE: EVOLVING

BOISE: OUTLINING A PATH TO THE FUTURE

BY RICHARD MCCREA

The 7th IAWF Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference opened its first session on Monday, April 15, in Boise, Idaho, under the shadows of the snowcapped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. This conference was well attended by fire practitioners, researchers, managers, professors, and students. The Boise conference attendance included 385 folks from 10 countries, 26 states, and 23 exhibitors. Students comprised two per cent of the attendees with the rest of the group split between researchers and practitioners.

Kelly Martin, IAWF president, opened the session with a welcoming statement and gave recognition to the leadership role that IAWF provides that unites fire managers and Indigenous Peoples. Martin emphasized the importance of global communication, collaboration, support for local communities, science, and the need for more flexible and adaptive approaches. IAWF recognizes that the scale and impact of wildland fire is continuing to grow on a worldwide basis and that some current management approaches are not workable. The fire community needs to craft strategies to effectively manage fire in all ecosystems and promote the importance of prescribed and managed fire.

Dr. Lori Moore-Merrill, U.S. fire administrator, opened with the keynote presentation that was shown virtually in Canberra. Moore-Merrill discussed the roles of the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), which is to support and strengthen fire and emergency services and stakeholders to prepare for, prevent, mitigate, and respond to hazards. One of the current initiatives of USFA is the launch of the prototype version of the new, interoperable fire information and analytics platform, known as the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS) for U.S. fire and emergency services. The goal of NERIS is to empower the local fire and emergency services community by equipping it with near real-time information and analytic tools that support data informed decision making for enhanced preparedness and response to emergency incidents of all types.

Prior to the opening remarks participants had the choice of two workshops; one on gathering user inputs for long-term fire weather outlooks and the second on communicating practices for more effective wildland fire management. A tour of the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) was also available.

The Tuesday, April 16, morning keynote presentation, streamed from Ireland, was by Dr. Mark Parrington, senior scientist in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and Dr. Joseph Wilkens, assistant professor, Department of Atmospheric Science, Howard University. Parrington discussed the Copernicus Climate Change Service, one of the six thematic services provided by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts. This centre integrates fire models into weather forecasts and monitors smoke emissions, pollution, vegetation responses to climate and provides earth observation products for wildland monitoring and forecasting. Wilkens’ presentation focused on research into wildland fire smoke and its impacts.

The concurrent sessions on April 16 focused on fire behavior and fuels, technology and approaches, operations and management and extreme fire behavior. The presentations that day were followed by a poster session in the evening.

Nick Nauslar, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist, did a presentation that focused on long accumulation of woody fuels and duff in our forests from mortality and disease impacts. These fuel accumulations contribute to extreme fire behavior, spotting, pyrocumulus development, firestorms, and high severity impacts. High winds are not required for this type of firestorm development because of the intense indrafts, and large vortices created by column development. With these firestorms the flames can spread in multiple directions and 80 per cent of the fuel burns after the flaming front passes. With our current fire behavior models it is difficult to predict fire behavior in these situations. This research is focused on the study of burnout of “big” fuels under controlled environmental conditions of wind speed, temperature, and humidity. The burning experiments are conducted in a laboratory setting, and a large steel building was constructed for this purpose. During these experiments various arrangements of fuels are burned with close monitoring of fuel moistures, burnout times and weight reduction of woody fuels. Initial findings show that wind speed, fuel moistures, fuel arrangements/geometry and topography really matter. During experiments the large fuels burnout from the bottom up and wind speed has a big impact on consumption. The focus of the research is to build the ability to predict fire behavior transition from line spreading fire to area fire spread.

On April 18, the concurrent sessions focused on fire behavior and fuels, fuels mitigation in the WUI, fire behavior and technology, and weather and climate. Robyn Heffernan, NWS Meteorologist, did a presentation on NOAA improvements in the United States fire weather hazards program. NOAA programs include research, operational forecasting, incident meteorologists (IMET), and the storm prediction programs. Daily operations include forecasts for weather, smoke, air quality, extreme weather events, debris flows, and fire detections. Long-term climate conditions are forecasted for temperature and precipitation. There is an increasing need for IMETs on incidents, and additional support for prescribed fire operations and spot weather forecasts. NOAA is investing in improvements in climate and weather forecasts, smoke modeling and equipment for IMETs.

The final session on April 18 was a keynote panel concerning the 2003 wildfire season in Canada. The 2023 fire season in Canada was long and arduous with 17 million hectares burned (42 million acres), which was double the previous record. The country bore witness to a remarkable display of national and international solidarity, the undeniable impact of climate change, and the fortitude of its fire management community. There were 100 days of poor air quality in some areas and many events of extreme fire behavior. Canadian fire suppression resources were assisted by support from 13 countries. Fire suppression personnel who lived in the vicinity of the fires endured a long fire season, which had effects on their well-being. Some communities were directly impacted by large fires and smoke, with numerous evacuations, which had the biggest effects on First Nations communities. Many residents who were affected opted to stay behind, which was a struggle for fire suppression agencies to manage.

The IAWF program in Boise was a great success and well attended. The presentations covered a broad spectrum of fire management operations and research. The information presented will contribute to a better understanding of the challenges we face and the opportunities for future improvements in wildland fire management.

Rich McCrea worked 32 years in fire management and forestry with federal agencies in the United States. Outfitted with a degree in forestry, McCrea started his career as a seasonal employee with the forest service as a forestry technician and member of the Helena Interagency Hotshot Crew, then moved on to permanent positions with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a forester and fire management officer at three different field locations and at the National Interagency Fire Center. The last 12 years McCrea has worked as a fire management consultant and a freelance writer and historian.

FUEL, FIRE AND SMOKE: EVOLVING TO CANBERRA

PARTICIPANTS APPRECIATE DIVERSITY AND BREADTH OF SPEAKERS

BY JOANNA WOOD

The global fire science community gathered to discuss the latest research, practices and future themes at the 7th International Fire Behaviour and Fuels Conference held on Ngunnawal Country, Canberra, in April.

More than 300 people participated in five days of conference talks, workshops, and field trips in Canberra in a program put together with the support of Natural Hazards Research Australia and the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council with local Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and New South Wales (NSW) partner agencies.

Key themes were risk modelling, fuel management, emerging tech and approaches, cultural perspectives, human dimensions, and weather and climate.

After U.S. Fire Administrator Dr Lori Moore Morell opened the conference in a shared presentation with U.S. delegates in Boise, the first local keynote, Dr. Lachlan McCaw, Australian Fire Service Medal, drew on his extensive experience as a fire scientist in Western Australia and to celebrate fire management achievements over the past 40 years, and where to go from here. Nerilie Abram, professor in climate science at the Australian National University, spoke on the future of fires and fire ecology, highlighting the impact of climate variability on dangerous fire weather in south-east Australia.

Dr. Dean Yibarbuk, chair of Warddeken Land Management Ltd., presented a highly impactful keynote about the disconnection of First Nations peoples in West Arnhem Land from their cultural fire practices with colonisation, and their subsequent re-establishment in the last 20 years. Streamed to delegates in Boise, Yibarbuk shared his and the Warddeken Rangers’ mission to “share the gift of understanding of fire without fear” with fire managers around Australia and the world.

The subsequent panel, comprising Yibarbuk, Aidan Galpin (South Australian Country Fire Service), Dean Freeman (Riverina Local Land Services), Dr. Rowena Morris (Natural Hazards Research Australia), Kirsty Babington (ACT Parks and Conservation Service), and former IAWF president Dr. Mike DeGrosky visiting from the United States, and hosted by anthropologist and disaster psychologist Dr, Steve Sutton, unpacked culture, human nature and fire management. Panel members were challenged to think about identity, purpose, and their relationships with fire through the lens of “all human ecological endeavours and our collective cultural endeavours.”

Professor of wildlife conservation Sarah Legge from Charles Darwin University highlighted the value of small-patch burning on species biodiversity through the Pirra Jungku project alongside the Karajarri Rangers on their country in the Great Sandy Desert in the Western Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Legge shared the concept of right fire carried out in the correct cultural way by the correct people; the way these people interact with the fire, Legge said, is key to ensuring diversity of the short-, mid- and mature-growth vegetation crucial to biodiversity in the Great Sandy Desert, as well as reducing the impact of feral animals.

The final keynote speaker, Dr. Dan Pronk, brought a much needed – and welcome – change of pace, focusing on building resilience in people working in high stress, high consequence roles. A former Australian Special Air Service soldier and doctor with more than 100 active missions in Afghanistan, Pronk developed the resilience shield approach to building resilience in response to the high level of stress he experienced both while active and once discharged from active service.

Pronk’s personal insight into the sustained, ongoing stress and trauma associated with first response roles, as well as the overwhelming evidence that members of the emergency sector experience higher rates of mental and physical illness were a timely reminder that everyone in this space – from frontline staff, to planning and researchers – is at risk of the effects of high stress and burnout, and can train to build resilience and manage stress responses.

Pronk’s three points for resilience impact are:

1. Meditation for 10 minutes a day, most days of the week

2. Deep, inter-personal relationships and connection

3. Sleep and sleep hygiene

IAWF proudly acknowledged Alen Slijepcevic, Australian Fire Service Medal, Country Fire Authority, with the Distinguished Service Award, recognising his commitment and outstanding contribution to furthering the goals of the association, including his tenure as president in 20182019.

IAWF Vice-president Trevor Howard presented the award and noted that Slijepcevic is well known in the Australian

 

FUEL, FIRE AND SMOKE: EVOLVING TO MEET OUR CLIMATE CHALLENGE

TRALEE: DELEGATES COMMIT TO MORE GLOBAL COLLABORATION

BY LAURA KING, ERIC EVENSON, JENNIFER FAWCETT, JOE WILKINS, AND STEVE MILLER

It rains – a lot – in Tralee, Ireland, and there was no doubt it would pour during the 7th International Fire Behaviour and Fuels conference field trip on Wednesday, April 18.

More than 75 conference delegates from North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, South America, Iceland, Sweden, Germany and the Czech Republic listened to farmer Brigid O’Connor at her Gleann Na Gealt property explain that traditional practices have changed – there are fewer sheep farmers due to cost and commitment, resulting in more vegetation, or fuel, on the mountains: the vegetation feeds wildfires and challenges management and suppression efforts.

Brilliantly, the IAWF had provided association branded umbrellas to delegates, who, regardless, shivered in the sometimes-pelting precipitation as O’Connor simply tightened the hood of her windbreaker, raised her strong voice, and spoke with authority amassed over decades of farming in southwest Ireland.

A bit further up the mountainside, at Glenteenassig Forest Park, delegates were welcomed by Bernard Burke and his team who manage the site on behalf of Coillte Teoranta– the Irish state Forest Board. Coillte was also a supporting partner for the conference in Tralee.

 

Local Coillte fire teams, Kerry Fire and Rescue Service and the National Park Service explained their roles in wildland fire and land management, demonstrated their equipment, and answered myriad questions; they’d been on the mountain for hours, waiting for our delayed buses, but their enthusiasm, professionalism and humour was testament to their hardiness and agency collaboration.

The rain and fog persisted but our Irish hosts had trucked hot beverages and melt-in-your mouth cookies up the mountainside, to the delight of the damp delegates.

As equipment demos continued and the afternoon temperature dropped, some sopping North Americans (who were, admittedly, underdressed, and unprepared for the Irish weather!) stealthily slunk back to buses staged nearby, having wrongly assumed a planned Bambi-bucket demonstration at the mountainside lake would be called off. Perhaps in North America it would have been. But Tralee’s gregarious and indefatigable conference chair Ciaran Nugent, regional inspector with the Forest Service, sloughed off concerns about visibility (“It’s Ireland!”) and sure enough, the distant hum of the chopper encouraged everyone to slog back up the road to witness the precision with which the pilot executed multiple pick-ups and drops.

The final, and perhaps most-anticipated stop on the five-hour outdoor adventure was a thirst-suppression demonstration at the Railway Tavern, an ancient and tiny pub with gigantic character. Guinness flowed (after long awaited loo visits!), the fireplace crackled, and delegates warmed up to Irish tunes and plenty of banter.

Like its counterparts in Boise and Canberra, the Tralee conference was diverse in subject matter, presenters, and participants.

A particularly poignant session by the first keynote speaker, Edward Alexander, co-chair and head of delegation of Gwich’in Council International, inspired delegates to think about the people whose expertise in traditional or Indigenous fire came long before prescribed burning and suppression tactics.

Alexander noted that:

• Indigenous fires burned when the ground was frozen, and duff was protected. Wildfires burn and expose ground and yedoma, contributing dramatically to the release of methane.
• Fires are increasing in intensity, duration, and area across the circumpolar Arctic.

Trends include:

• Hotter summers and more warm nights.
• Shorter snow seasons.
• Longer fire seasons with more land burned.
• More evacuations.

Alexander asked participants how to:

• Engage with wildland fire in the Arctic;
• Spur more research on Indigenous use of fire;
• Inspire more people to research fire in the Arctic;
• Tackle the negative climate feedback loop of Arctic wildfire and permafrost melt;
• Work with IAWF on these issues.

IAWF board member Amy Cardinal Christianson and colleague Alex Zahara with the Canadian Forest Service reinforced Alexander’s position that more collaboration with Indigenous Peoples is critical for better outcomes.

Christianson noted that in Canada, a disproportionate percentage of Indigenous people are evacuated during wildland fires. Indigenous people represent 4.9 per cent of Canada’s population but 42 per cent of evacuees.

Christianson and Zaraha explained that Indigenous culture is land based, so if land is impacted by intense fire, it can obliterate the culture. There is a disconnect, they said, because in Canada, First Nations are managed federally but fires are managed at the provincial / territorial level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nuggets that delegates learned:

• The term traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK, was developed by white people and infers historical knowledge. In fact, Christianson said, the term Indigenous knowledge better represents current knowledge and is also based in science.

• There are differences between cultural fire and prescribed fire. Cultural fire is Indigenous led around cultural objectives and land stewardship and involves slow, cool burns – “fire we can walk beside,” along with spiritual and ceremonial aspects and traditional ignition methods. Cultural fire is “living with the land.”

• Prescribed fire is agency or organization driven; its objectives are usually hazard reduction or ecological, and involve “production burning” – as much in as little time possible. Prescribed or applied fire generally involves a paramilitary structure, a topdown bureaucratic approach and ignition using accelerants.

Keynote speaker Conceição Colaço, a forestry engineer and researcher with the school of agriculture in Portugal, ISA’s Centre for Applied Ecology, became known during the conference for her thoughtful questions and delightful disposition. Colaço’s session supported what Alexander and Christianson discussed; that there has been transmission of ancestral knowledge of fire from the 6th century BC; and that fire is empowerment of traditional communities.

The Day 1 conference workshops also focused on collaboration and lesson-sharing. Lindon Pronto, senior fire management expert with the European Forest Institute, Eric Evenson, science communications specialist with the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange (NAFSE), and Polly Weigand, workshop and field trip coordinator with NAFSE, led delegates in a brainstorming exercise related to funding opportunities to help lesson sharing.

Ideas included more IAWF scholarships for students, government funding and grants for universities, prescribed fire councils and coalitions, community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs), and sponsorships from IAWF and the private sector. It was noted that NASA’s wildfire initiative has federal and international funding opportunities, and that groups such as The Nature Conservancy and other private companies can help fund TREX and WTREX events. It was also stressed that building trust and ensuring collaboration efforts are meeting objectives may increase opportunities for funding. A summary, highlighting the topics, ideas and notes from the brainstorming exercise, was sent to all participants to continue lesson sharing efforts across the North Atlantic.

On Day 2, the European Forest Institute’s Alexander Held enlightened delegates about unexploded explosive ordinances, or UXOs – a problem that dates to the First World War. With conflicts in more areas globally, more fire-prone regions are subject to UXOs, creating danger for firefighters. (Watch for a Held’s story in an upcoming issue of Wildfire magazine.)

Joe Wilkins with Howard University moderated the fire behaviour and fuels track, comprising five sessions with speakers from Ukraine, Sweden, Ireland, Canada, and Brazil:

• Community directed wildfire fuel mapping; using aerial laser scanning data – Patrick Robinson
• Propagator for large wildfires: Brazilian case study –Nicolò Perello
• Prescribed fire – managing the taiga forests in Sweden – Anders Heurlin
• Midlands peat bog fires, past and future – Anthony Tynan
• Lessons learned from the large fires in Sweden of 2014 and 2018 – Jenny Sander

Heurlin’s Holy Grail of fire slide stuck a cord with delegates. Officials, Heurlin said, are monitoring to find the Holy Grail of fire, where fire has achieved the desired objectives. This, Heurlin said, is a generational question or challenge, because the return interval in Sweden is 30 years.

After dozens of sessions, traditional Irish food, music, and rain, former IAWF board member Steve Miller, director of fire and aviation management with the US Forest Service, eastern region, synthesized the information gleaned and next steps.

WHAT DID WE HEAR?

• The mayor of Tralee told us about 100 years of fire relationship between Tralee and North America.
• Information exchanges like the North American Fire Exchange can help build dialog that will help build bridges. In many cases, the information exists but the ability to find it does not.
• The critical role of Indigenous fire stewardship and past efforts to thwart that role now contributes to the wildfire problem, and how those wildfires disproportionately impact Indigenous populations.
• The first step toward dealing with UXOs is to recognize them.
• How fire in Boreal forests is a trans–national, transcontinental problem that may be bigger than any of us can imagine due to its impacts on yedoma and other carbon / methane sinks beneath Boreal forests, and these aspects are not accounted for in current climate models.
• Sharing circles = collaboration.
• Cultural fire is the empowerment of traditional communities no matter where they are and that we have three options: traditional use of fire; prescribed fire; wildfire. There is no “no fire” option.
• We should seek the Holy Grail of prescribed fire, but doing so requires the investment of multiple generations.
• Wildfires are changing; many regions are experiencing longer seasons, greater fire severity and some of increases are so dramatic they are initially discounted as unbelievable.
• There is a scale of war on the planet not seen since the Second World War, which will have multiple impact pathways on fire, for example, cropland left untended or converted, and a loss of trained personnel to serve in the military.
• Fire has been here for 420,002,024 years so why don’t we understand it yet?
• We should ask ourselves, Is the way we are doing things working?
• How do we live with fire? Do we save ourselves or the ecology?
• In Germany firefighting = water.

WHAT DIDN’T WE HEAR?

• About fire in developing countries.
• About fire in Africa.
• Local solutions.
• About promoting more native grazing.
• Administration and support for projects, especially funding management efforts.
• Data from the conference: participants’ countries of origin; gender; age; field; how many people attended an IAWF conference for the first time.
• Effectiveness of different firefighting techniques.
• About imperialism and the responsibility imperialist nations may have toward fixing the fire problems of their former colonies.
• Cost planning and economics.

WHAT WERE WE TOO AFRAID TO ASK?

• Reporting about failures or bad results in management.
• Air-quality impacts of prescribed fire on vulnerable communities.
• Fire response is big business; as it is privatized, money is shifted from preparedness and mitigation to suppression.
• The role of partisan politics in fire response.
• Power dynamics continue to exist in which vulnerable populations have no power / voice.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO DIFFERENTLY?

• Encourage the international exchange of knowledge.
• Step out beyond the scientific bubble.
• Ensure future events have a greater workshop component.
• Take action around UXOs, peatland fires, prescribed burn associations.
• Work harder to promote local connections.
• Collaborate with the people with whom we connected during the conference.
• Become active in IAWF.
• Have a more comprehensive view of the fire problem.