The Nature Conservancy Hires New Prescribed Fire Program Manager for Georgia and Alabama

ATLANTA — February 2, 2006 — The Nature Conservancy recently hired Matthew Snider to manage the prescribed fire program for its Georgia and Alabama chapters. Under Snider’s leadership, The Nature Conservancy will continue to work with private and public landowners to restore native forests and other natural areas by conducting seasonal prescribed burns.

An alumnus of the University of Oregon, Snider comes to The Nature Con Matthew Snider servancy following a 12-year career with the National Park Service. During that time, he honed his skills as a prescribed fire professional by participating on prescribed fire crews, developing burn plans and leading prescribed fire efforts at locations such as Lassen Volcanic National Park, Bandelier National Monument, and Zion National Park.

“We are fortunate to have someone of Matthew’s caliber and experience leading our prescribed burn program,” said Tavia McCuean, vice president and state director of The Nature Conservancy in Georgia. “Prescribed fire is an essential component of our conservation work, and, now with Matthew on board, we anticipate building an even stronger prescribed fire program that will have lasting conservation results.”

Among his many responsibilities, Snider will collaborate with partnering agencies, including the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Georgia Forestry Commission, to safely and strategically apply prescribed fire to ecologically significant lands throughout Georgia and Alabama.

“As a long-time member of The Nature Conservancy, I feel fortunate to join such a well-established and effective conservation organization,” said Snider, who is based in the Conservancy’s Savannah, Ga., office. “I’ve been fortunate to inherit an exceptional fire program and look forward to doing my part to expand the program and its conservation value.”

About Prescribed Fire
Historically, Native Americans, farmers and Mother Nature herself – in the form of frequent lightning strikes – burned the land to keep it fertile and healthy. However, today the role of fire in many fire-dependent ecosystems, such as the longleaf pine forest, is drastically out of balance, threatening the loss of valuable forest land and plant and animal life. Many forces have contributed to the changing dynamics of fire, including fragmentation of natural habitats, escaped agricultural fires, suppression of natural fires, grazing and forestry practice and especially the increasing effects of climate change. Proposed burn bans to address air quality issues also threaten to hinder the use of prescribed fire to manage forestlands. However, the long-term benefits of prescribed fire to the ecological health of natural communities far outweigh the contribution of burns to the air quality problem.

“From the coastal marshes to the native longleaf pine forests, prescribed fire is vital to the persistent health of these ecosystems. Without fire, we lose the species that depend on these habitats for survival,” said Snider.

The Nature Conservancy’s Georgia burn crew consists of 12 staff members, each certified through federally approved courses in fire fighting and fire behavior. During 2006, the Conservancy’s Georgia burn crew, in collaboration with partner agencies, burned more than 10,000 acres on Conservancy-own land, private lands, and land owned by partners such as the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). With funding and support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Conservancy is working with the Georgia DNR and the Georgia Forestry Commission as part of the Interagency Burn Team, which formed nearly six years ago.

Prescribed fire is an essential land management tool that not only promotes a healthy environment but also protects human communities by reducing the unnatural buildup of dense stands of flammable trees and thick carpets of dead wood and leaves that lead to intense wildfires.

Through The Nature Conservancy’s Global Fire Initiative and the prescribed burn efforts of The Nature Conservancy’s state programs, strategies are being developed and implemented to safely return fire to the ground in ways that balance the needs of both the human and natural communities.

The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.