U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Wildland Fire Managers Mathew Smith, Carl Schmidt, Greg Titus, and Nathan Herron (left to right), work through BurnPro3D model runs for potential prescribed burns on USFWS refuge lands and provide feedback on the user-interface.
Climate change is driving several landscape transformations that create a complex environment for land managers to maintain. They often face this reality without adequate tools. For instance, although prescribed fire, the planned application of fire to vegetation to meet management objectives, is a cost-efficient and effective tool for managing fire-dependent ecosystems and reducing wildfire risk, the models currently used to plan prescribed fire have not been updated to account for climate change.
Developing Advanced Wildfire Tools
Fire-related threats and inadequate modeling techniques impact DoD mission readiness. Updated and enhanced fire behavior models are needed to help prevent prescribed fires from escaping control measures.
EILN is one of several regional landscapes focused on addressing these management needs, as part of ILN. EILN implements and evaluates tools created through the Department of Defense (DoD)’s Wildland Fire Science Initiative (WFSI). The DoD WFSI is a working collaborative that connects DoD wildland fire managers with researchers at DoD installations and federally owned lands. EILN’s current efforts help managers better understand changes in wildland fire fuels (live and dead vegetation) and fire behavior under current and future conditions. Building on the WFSI partnerships, EILN equips land managers with next generation tools that can adapt and account for ecosystem changes, vegetation structure, and fire-atmosphere interactions. Next generation tools show promise for improving burn safety and advancing land management objectives.
Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) QUIC-Fire Developer, David Robinson, guides Jacquelyn Shuman, NASA FireSense Project Scientist, through a prescribed fire virtual reality modeling experience with QUIC-Fire
The following fuels characterization tools and advanced fire behavior models are currently being co-developed with managers through EILN. Videos on these tools are available below or through the Southern Fire Exchange’s Next Generation Wildland Fire Planning Tools Workshop YouTube playlist .
- Terrestrial/Aerial Laser Scanning (TLS/ALS)
- QUIC-Fire Overview and Webinar
- BurnPro3D Overview and Demonstration
- FastFuels Overview
Our Approach
When researchers and land managers work together to develop management tools, this ensures the most pressing management challenges can be addressed with tools the managers can use effectively. This process is known as co-production. EILN prioritizes co-production by establishing communication pathways between fire managers, the research community, and decision-makers. This interdisciplinary approach will ensure that next generation fuel characterization, fire behavior modeling tools, and future research efforts will seamlessly address the needs of land and fire managers and be implemented efficiently. EILN operates through ‘innovation nodes,’ or local landscapes within the larger regional network that serve as focal points for co-production. In its maturity, this effort will scale application across the larger fire management community, including state, tribal, and NGO fire management agencies and organizations.
QUIC-Fire developer David Robinson from LANL (left) demos the virtual reality potential of QUIC-Fire with Ft. Stewart Forest technician Curtis Bryant (right).
Learn more by reviewing the EILN Progress Report.
Partners
Visit the USFS EILN website.
Meet the Coordinators
Brett Williams, FAM Fire Management Specialist, USFS Region
Email: brett.williams@usda.gov
Brett earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental science and master’s degree in forest science from Stephen F. Austin State University in East Texas in 2000. After college, he served in the US Peace Corps in Mongolia as a Parks Specialist. Upon his return stateside, he served as a Conservation Ecologist and led a partnership burn team for The Nature Conservancy of Florida. From 2007 – 2023, Brett served first as the Fire Ecologist, and then the Fire Management Officer, for Eglin AFB and a number of other AFBs in Florida and Georgia. He is currently a Technology Transfer Specialist and Liaison to the Southern Research Station for the Southern Region of the US Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management. In this role, he works to connect fire managers and researchers through co-production with the intent of producing research outcomes relevant to wildland fire management in the Eastern U.S.
James Furman, Fire Management Specialist, USFS
Phone: (571) 372-6401
Email: james.h.furman@usda.gov
James is a Fire Management Specialist currently serving as the U.S. Forest Service Liaison to DoD. After graduating from Auburn University in 1982 with a B.S. in Forest Management, he began his career with the Florida Division of Forestry where he spent 15 years managing prescribed fires, fighting wildfires, and providing fire training across the State. In 1998 he began his federal career at Eglin AFB where he served as the Wildland Fire Program Manager for 15 years, followed by a one-year stint as the Air Force Wildland Fire Chief. Under his watch the Eglin program tripled its productivity, becoming a national leader with an average of approximately 125 prescribed fires and more than 100,000 acres/year of prescribed fire. He currently serves as Wildland Fire Subject Matter Expert for DoD’s environmental research programs and leads an “Integrated Research Management Team” (IRMT) to facilitate DoD-funded wildland fire research. He and the IRMT play key supporting roles for the Eastern Innovation Landscape Network. Through his support of fire research, he has become something of a “poster child” for co-production of science between researchers and fire managers.
