Want to Co-Create a Guidebook for Prescribed Fire for Your Region?
By Leslie Boby
Southern Regional Extension Forestry
Could your state or region benefit from a comprehensive, user-friendly Guidebook for Prescribed Burning? Over six years, a team of us in the South wrote and rewrote and rewrote… the Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in the Southern Region. There is great potential to adapt this book for other regions. The Guidebook was designed with four action chapters that are focused on taking landowners, natural resource professionals, and more step-by-step through the burning process- from pre-planning to evaluation. An additional four informational chapters contain all of the extra details on weather, smoke management, fuel and fire behavior. While the information for each state/region would need to be changed, the book’s structure can be the same across the country, similar to Field Guides from Audubon.
Would you be interested in helping to adapt it? Or do you know someone who would be?
Right now, there are huge opportunities to find funding for projects like this! National attention to wildfires and prescribed fire is at an all-time high and in many places nothing like this Guidebook exists for prescribed fire, or if it does, it may be limited in scope or state. This Guidebook is officially an Extension product, and available for sale through the University of Georgia Extension. Other groups or organizations may be interested in adapting the Guidebook; however, I think that Cooperative Extension is the best organization for the job. Extension personnel have the knowledge, the experts, the skill set, and the infrastructure to not only produce regional versions but adhere to high-quality adult education standards and ensure that the product is peer-reviewed, available for anyone, and updated as needed.
How would the adaptation Process work?
The current Guidebook provides the scaffolding, but the content needs to be updated for each region. We wrote our Guidebook over six years and spent considerable time deciding how it should be ordered, along the way, we had multiple rounds of reviews of chapters and the entire Guidebook, etc., which informed its development and ensured buy-in from our wildland fire stakeholders. However, adapting the Guidebook could start with identifying a lead for the project, identifying a lead writing committee, and then inviting other stakeholders to provide early input on what they would include/not include, etc. It would be important to host a meeting of all of these stakeholders to discuss different perspectives and nuances around what will be included. However, ultimately, the goal would be for the Extension person to be the lead.
Who would pay for this project?
While there is no specific identified funding source, or funding request for proposals, for a project of this scope, federal agencies have been overwhelmed with funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, BIL, and more. Therefore, I envision that multiple regions could define scopes of work and budgets in tandem, and then search for funds at a state, regional or national level. Regional/State proposals would be strengthened by being part of a national scope of work, if we can find personnel in each region to lead these adaptations.
What next? Help of all Types & Commitment Levels Are Needed
If you are interested at all in this type of project or want to find out more, please fill out this google form. Beyond project leads, we would also need people to provide feedback along the way, help us recruit other stakeholders, and more. Please forward this information to other Extension colleagues who may be interested too. The first step in the process would be to host a meeting with all interested Extension people and define regions, level of interest, level of capacity, etc., before we move forward. Ultimately, once regions or groups are defined by the states involved, then those leadership teams would decide on who else they want to invite into the process as fellow contributors, writers, etc. Ideally, we would have our first Zoom meeting in September, and then work in tandem, meeting as needed.
Find the pdf of the Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in the Southern Region, and a link to purchase the Extension publication here.
