Shared Stewardship Approach Expands Prescribed Fire Program

A shared stewardship approach has aided the Shawnee National Forest prescribed fire program to increase capacity and be more efficient with resources. In a regional approach to effect change on a landscape scale, public agencies, conservation groups, and private landowners have been working together to improve prairie and forest ecosystem health.

Through the Let the Sun Shine In project and other efforts, the Shawnee National Forest (forest) and its partners come together to address multiple needs (forest health, insects/disease, invasive plant treatments, fuels & fire risk, and prescribed burning) in priority areas. In fiscal year 2021 this collaboration led to a historic prescribed fire season with over 23,000 acres burned across 11 counties in southern Illinois.

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Purposeful communication such as field trips with partners and weekly conference calls led to deeper engagement between partners, which in turn, led to improvements in vegetation management project design, and better coordination of prescribed burns and other projects on the ground. The collaboration also included using mobile technology to collect real time spatial data, such as fireline locations and data on invasive species, that can then be shared across the partnership. Together multiple agencies, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), support a habitat and fuels management team who in turn meet the needs of restoration treatment on state, federal and private lands.

The forest has learned to engage stakeholders much earlier in the process, which has ensured shared stewardship from the start of project planning. Reaching out earlier helps with sharing issues and needs and incorporates stakeholder feedback in project planning. When projects are planned from the beginning to meet the common objectives and respond to individual organizations’ needs and strengths, more can be achieved, and various pitfalls can be avoided.

The Forest Service’s Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program and Pacific Northwest Research Station’s AirFire Team provided data of smoke concentrations, COVID transmission rates and demographics. With this data the forest incorporated smoke  concentration modeling, COVID transmission rates, and local knowledge of smoke sensitive people to minimize the negative impacts from the smoke. During this historic burn year there was only one smoke complaint whereas five years ago they received multiple complaints each year with fewer acres burned. They are also working with partners to incorporate this data into planning of non-federal prescribed burns.

The forest’s GIS specialist created an AGOL dashboard containing the shared stewardship fuel accomplishments that provides interactive capabilities to zero in on individual stats for acres, funding, location, land ownership, and type of fire activity. It’s anticipated that the dashboard will become a helpful tool to share information and accomplishment reporting amongst partners.

“We now have a strong foundation of holistic planning, cross-boundary collaboration and on-the-ground conservation success from which we can build,” says Scott Crist, Shawnee Fire Mgmt. Officer. “Our increased collaboration and communication with other agencies, NGOs and surrounding landowners, has led to increased public support and even advocacy for the Forest Service and its prescribed fire program.”