P UD B LI VI C E RPSO I TLYI C Y
PARTNERSHIP AFE, IAWF SHARE COMMON GOALS FOR DIVERSITY, EDUCATION, CO-OPERATION BY CHRISTOPHER DICUS
I
will soon step down as president of the Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) after serving for four wonderful years, handing the reins over to US Forest Service research landscape ecologist Paul Hessburg. As I consider the 15 years I spent on AFE’s board, I am incredibly pleased that AFE and the IAWF have maintain a mutually beneficial relationship through the years. Indeed, many on the AFE board of directors are also members of IAWF and regularly attend its conferences. Both associations work tirelessly to support the wildland fire community, and because each has had unique initiatives and focuses, wildland fire professionals across the globe have been rewarded with a larger breadth of knowledge to best manage undeveloped lands than could have been provided by a single organization.
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wildfire
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OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2021
Like IAWF, AFE has long understood that we must cultivate a continuous pipeline of passionate, well-informed students because the world will continue to be confronted by increasingly complex wildland fire problems. These future fire managers and scientists must have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to change the unfortunate course that we as a society seem to be on at present. Given the large global wildfire challenges, both organizations have key contributions to make to supporting the fire community and it continues to be imperative that both associations work together toward the collective good of both memberships.
