USDA grant: New Training on Fire + Forest Carbon

With funding from USDA NIFA, FCCP and partners are developing educational content on the interactions between wildland fire and forest carbon as climate change drastically alters fire regimes away from historical norms and baselines. There is a lack of educational programs to help managers and landowners navigate the complex and dynamic interactions between fire, carbon, climate, and forests. FCCP plans to address this gap by integrating fire into existing curricula on forest carbon management, further strengthening the applicability of course content and empowering forest managers and landowners with practical knowledge for a changing climate.

An expert panel, assembled from personnel at 12 extension institutions and 11 additional organizations, will outline content and identify gaps in manager and landowner understanding. This will inform the creation of a nationally focused and interactive e-module on forest carbon and fire management in a changing climate. Fire will also be integrated into regional modules on forest carbon and climate currently in development; a “menu” of climate adaptation strategies and approaches to carbon management in the context of changing fire regimes will be develop by region and beta tested by the assembled panel. A short video targeting forest landowners will be produced and made freely available along with all graphic content created for e-modules. Feedback from our regional expert panel will be used to revise all created content. Summative syntheses and created educational resources will be presented and promoted at two national webinars and two national symposiums. Our work will foster an applied understanding of carbon, climate, and fire relationships to equip managers and landowners with the information they need to sustainably manage US forests.