Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists (CAFMS) sticky icon

In April 2010, the Southern Research Station (U.S. Forest Service) and The Nature Conservancy received funding from the Joint Fire Science Program to create the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists (CAFMS). The consortium facilitates communication between fire managers and scientists in a number of formats by building on their existing ties within the Fire Learning Network. CAFMS includes fire managers along with government and university scientists throughout the Appalachian region which stretches from Pennsylvania to Alabama.

Workshop: Fire and Forest Management Impacts on Timber Rattlesnakes and Their Surrogates

2012-03-08
America/New York

March 8, 2012 – The Museum of Biodiversity, The Ohio State University

Registration and Agenda will be available in January 2012

Workshop: Smoke in the Mountains

2012-02-28 9:00 pm
America/New York

When: February 28, 2012 - 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Where: Bent Creek Training Facility, Asheville, NC

Registration and Agenda will be available in January 2012.

Successful Fall Burning in High Elevation Forests

Dean Simon, N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission

The N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) were successful in 2011 with expanding their traditional mountain burning seasons from winter and spring to incorporate a fall burn window and complete burning projects in high elevation red oak forests on a 98-acre site at NCWRC’s Three Top Mountain Game Land and on a 87-acre area at TNC’s Bluff Mountain Preserve. Multiple attempts to conduct these projects during winter and spring burning seasons over the past several years have been thwarted by persistent gusty winds on these high elevation sites in Ashe County, NC, which average 4,600 to 4,800 feet in elevation. Additionally, the heavy snows during the last two winters compressed the leaf litter, making it slow to dry out and difficult to burn. Snow remained in patches in these higher elevation forests until mid-April. By mid-May, spring wildflowers and grasses appeared, trees were leafing out, and shading kept leaf litter too moist for desirable fire behavior.