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Every quarter, Graduate Student Louisa Evers compiles the latest in Fire Ecology. You may view the list here

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AFE Welcomes new Administrative Co-Directors
AFE has acquired the services of Timothy Ingalsbee and Catia Juliana (husband and wife team) to manage membership services, lead fundraising and development efforts, and assist in events planning for AFE’s International Fire Congresses and regional Fire Conferences. Serving as Administrative Co-Directors for AFE, Tim and Catia bring years of experience in nonprofit management to the position, beginning with the Cascadia Fire Ecology Education Project they founded in 1992. Since then, Tim earned a graduate certificate in non-profit management and has founded and directed two other fire ecology-related nonprofits while Catia has worked professionally in public schools administration and social services agencies. Tim has been a charter member of AFE and served as secretary on its board of directors from 2003 to 2009, so he brings a knowledge of AFE’s history, mission, and membership to his work. Tim and Catia are both alumni of the University of Oregon (Ph.D and M.S., respectively), and have two kids who share a love for hiking through freshly-burned forests. Feel free to contact them for help with any of your membership needs at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 541-852-7903.

4th International Fire Ecology Congress Recap
by Bob Gray, Board Member
The 4th International Fire Congress, which took place in Savannah, GA this last December, had as its conference theme: “Global Fire.” We wove this theme through the conference primarily through the contributions of the daily plenary talks. Each day two regions of the globe were represented: Australasia and the Central Asian Steppe on Tuesday; Africa and Mediterranean Europe on Wednesday; Central and South America on Thursday; and Canada and the United States on Friday. The final plenary was a summary of all the previous talks. Plenary speakers were asked to develop their talks around two main themes: a) to compare and contrast their region’s indigenous and modern fire paradigms; and, b) discuss where the relationship between the two is headed– are they moving farther apart? Is the modern system incorporating indigenous knowledge in wildland fire management? etc. This request originated from the consensus amongst the program committee members that a discussion of global dichotomies between traditional/indigenous and modern use and understanding of fire is long overdue. We recognize that in many indigenous cultures, daily survival and a sophisticated knowledge of fire were closely related. Many modern societies worldwide still consider fire an enemy, and engage in its suppression regardless of the economic and environmental futility. Each of the plenary speakers have agreed to submit their presentations in journal article format that will comprise a special edition of the AFE online journal “The Journal of Fire Ecology” due to be released in the fall.

Our banquet presentation by Bruce Babbitt, former Secretary of the Interior under President Clinton, also addressed aspects of this theme as well as a general discussion of climate change. Lastly, we held a 2-hour workshop on Friday afternoon on the topic of indigenous burning and Traditional Ecological Knowledge that was attended by over 50 people. With input from the participants at the workshop a small committee of workshop organizers is preparing a position paper to be submitted for publication.

The Roots for Fire Ecology
by Kristen Allison, Board Member
Since the broad and emerging challenge of climate change, worldwide much more attention has been placed on our vegetation communities. International fire ecology has multiple faces and intricacies, including social and political aspects as drivers. Beginning with an overview….where is the world now?

There are many international organizations looking at forested areas. Groups like the Joint Research Centre-Natural Hazardous Project to Fire Globe, The Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), and The World Resources Institute. Many of these international groups start with the premise of understanding and examining world forest needs. Of those in fire-adapted and or fire-dependent ecosystems, what role does fire ecology play? Before addressing that question, let’s start at the beginning. This article will look at two reports at the ground level, the state of the world’s vegetation and a world fire assessment found on the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (www.fao.org) webpage. This article is about these two paper’s recommendations and conclusions.

The first, The State of the Forest 2009, concluded that “More concerted efforts are needed to address imbalances and deficiencies in scientific and technological capacity. Challenges include reducing barriers to the flow of technology among and within countries, ensuring that social and environmental issues are mainstreamed, and transcending traditional sectoral boundaries to take advantage of scientific and technological developments outside the forest sector.” (www.fao.org/forestry)

The second, the Fire Assessment 2006 (www.fao.org), was a “study [to] assess the fire situation in each region, including the extent of forest area affected, number and types of fires and the causes.” Importantly this study posited that “It recongi[zed] that not all fires are destructive and that fire management is an essential part of sustainable forest management…Some ecosystems require fire to induce regeneration and to maintain or enhance biodiversity, agricultural productivity and the carrying capacity of pastoral systems.” Additionally and more importantly “It is not only the biological and physiological effects of fire that must be understood in fire management strategies, but also the underlying socio-economic and cultural reasons for the use of fire, including poverty, food security and livelihood issues. One of this paper’s recommendations was that to get a better understanding of fire “Data on both destructive and beneficial fires are needed, including their overall economic and ecological impacts.”