The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

After nearly a century of excluding the vast majority of fires from the landscape, many communities in the United States are now at risk from a build-up of hazardous fuels. An estimated 80 percent of U.S. forests and rangelands are degraded as a result of altered fire dynamics.

The Nature Conservancy is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior to accelerate the pace of fuel treatments and ensure that ecological restoration goals are an integral component of the work.

The Promoting Ecosystem Resiliency through Collaboration project has three components:

• The Fire Learning Network (FLN) is accelerating ecosystem restoration on more than 56 million acres.
• The Fire Training Program offers a number of courses designed to help conservation practitioners, agency staff, and landowners use prescribed fire.
• The Wildland Fire Education Program fosters interagency cooperation and communications in order to garner support for effective fire policies and actions.

Selected Accomplishments

• The Fire Learning Network (FLN) has engaged 134 landscapes in 43 states working with more than 600 partner groups to overcome barriers to fire regime restoration.
• Since 2002, FLN projects have raised more than $15 million to support their landscape restoration activities, collectively treating more than 600,000 acres.
• From 2002–2010, we offered 109 courses and workshops and awarded more than 3,500 certificates. Courses include fire effects, fire ecology and fire operations.
• As part of the Partners in Fire Education project we spearheaded an effort to conduct public opinion research on fire and develop a blueprint for a national campaign about fire’s natural role.