Large Wildland Fires: Social, Political and Ecological Effects

Wildfires are news these days, most everywhere you live. The scale, intensity and impacts of wildfires make "living with wildfire" a modern reality for a growing number of communities and land managers. Fire seasons in Australia and Chile have set records this year and in the United States fires are burning from California to Oklahoma to New Jersey as we enter another drought season.

Hundreds of wildfire experts will be gathering from May 19-23, 2014 in Missoula, Montana at an innovative interdisciplinary conference, "Large Wildland Fires: Social, Political and Ecological Effects," co-sponsored by the Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) and the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF). 

Conference events feature training workshops, more than 300 talks and events, and post-conference field trips that examine post-fire restoration, fire in wilderness, the impacts of large-scale fire events on the ecology of landscapes and the affected communities.

A call-in question-and-answer news tele-conference will offer a brief summary of the fire conference and an opportunity to connect fire science to fire news. The call-in is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, from 1:30-2:30 pm MDT, and will gather experts to discuss key issues raised by the conference. Scheduled speakers at the news conference include Robert Keane, conference organizer and Research Ecologist with the USDA Forest Service at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory; Tom Zimmerman, president of IAWF and retired Program Manager of Wildland Fire Management Research, Development, and Application Program; and Alan Goodwin, Chief Fire Officer of Victoria, Australia.

At the conference, keynote speakers and fire experts include representatives from more than a dozen countries and include Tom Tidwell, Chief of the US Forest Service, fire historian Stephen Pyne, journalist Michael Kodas, retired USFS fire director Jerry Williams, and panelists and experts who will discuss the political and scientific impacts of changing fire regimes.

To attend the conference, we request that reporters confirm their credentials with either of the media liaisons and to register with a waived fee. The liaisons can also arrange for on-site or phone interviews with selected experts.

Conference Contacts / Media Liaisons

Timothy Ingalsbee. (541) 338-7671. fire@efn.org.

Ron Steffens. (541) 404-8884. steffensr@greenmtn.edu.