Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREX) assist in promoting the spread of effective and beneficial burning while presenting hands-on experience for diverse identities such as state and federal agencies, private landowners, non-profit organizations, and academic partners. In May 2024, the Ember Alliance, Michigan Prescribed Fire Council, and many other partners hosted the first TREX in Michigan out of Fort Custer Training Center. The Southern Michigan TREX was managed and organized as a Type III incident under the National Incident Management System, including 20 individuals with a range of wildfire and prescribed fire backgrounds from across the country serving in the cadre. Thank you to all of those who volunteered your time or made time in your work schedule to make this event happen!
Participants served in NWCG trainee and qualified positions while implementing controlled burns on private and federal lands while focusing on fire effects, ignition patterns, holding strategies, mop-up and patrolling to meet desired objectives. Burns were conducted in restored tallgrass prairies, savannas, shortgrass prairies and oak woodlands at Fort Custer Training Center, Kalamazoo Nature Center, Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, and Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy’s Chipman Preserve.
When participants weren’t burning, the Incident Management Team provided opportunities for additional training such as leadership skills, local fire ecology, fire monitoring, equipment use, strategic planning, and suppression tactics. Overall, Southern Michigan TREX provided an opportunity for 19 local fire practitioners to develop their skills and to expand their knowledge of prescribed fire while successfully burning over 400 acres in southern Michigan across ten days.
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