Fighting Fire With Fire Webinar Scheduled

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The Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service will be holding a free online wildfire/prescribed burning workshop from 9 a.m.-noon on July 27, followed by a 30-minute Q&A session.

The webinar will summarize the research findings from “Fighting Wildfire with Prescribed Burning in the Southern Great Plains: Social and Regulatory Barriers and Facilitators” project, funded by a Bureau of Land Management Joint Fire Science Program grant.

The webinar will be led by project leader Urs Kreuter, Ph.D., human dimensions of ecosystem management professor, Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station.

“This webinar will summarize recently completed graduate student research on a very unique and relevant topic in Texas, ‘Prescribed Fire Social and Regulatory Barriers’,” said Morgan Treadwell, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension rangeland specialist, San Angelo. “This topic resonates strongly with landowners throughout the Southern Great Plains because of many social and regulatory barriers that exist that may impede or inhibit a landowner’s ability to conduct a prescribed fire on private property.”

Treadwell said this research will closely examine the effects of burn bans, landowner perceptions and county official’s perception of a landowner’s ability and desire to apply prescribed fire effectively.

“Dr. Urs Kreuter has led this project as principal investigator and has brought together many collaborators such as Dr. Carissa Wonkka from the USDA-ARS, John Weir from Oklahoma State University, and many others,” she said.

Understanding how and why landowners and county officials view prescribed fire is the first step in delivering the correct type of information they need to make more informed decisions regarding prescribed fire implementation, Treadwell explained.

Interested stakeholders may preregister for the event, which will be held on the Zoom platform. For more information, visit the West Texas Rangelands website or contact Treadwell.

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