Conferences
The International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) is a non-profit, professional association representing members of the global wildland fire community. The purpose of the association is to facilitate communication and provide leadership for the wildland fire community.
For all available conference proceedings, click here.
Upcoming Conferences:
10th Wildland Fire Safety Summit
April 27-30, 2009, Phoenix, Arizona
The 10th Wildland Fire Safety Summit continues the tradition begun by the IAWF in 1997 to provide a forum for sharing the latest developments in wildland firefighting safety. In the mid-1990s, the interagency wildland fire community commissioned the groundbreaking Wildland Firefighter Safety Awareness Study. The final TriData report, released in 1998, made specific recommendations for implementing cultural changes for safety in the areas of culture, leadership, fire management, training, human factors, and organizational learning, to name a few. To revisit the impact of this landmark initiative, a major emphasis of the 10th Wildland Fire Safety Summit will be: "10 Years after the TriData Study: What is different?".
Click here for additional information
Other IAWF Conferences:
The '88 Fires: Yellowstone and Beyond
This conference officered a host of opportunities to celebrate and learn lessons from past and present fire management practices and scientific research which serve as a foundation for the future of fire management. CLICK HERE for detailed information about the conference.
Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire (October 23-25, 2007)
This conference, held in Ft. Collins, Colorado, advanced the knowledge and practice related to the human side of managing fire prone landscapes. Specifically, the conference was intended for researchers and professionals involved in the science or practice of the human dimensions of wildland fire, including suppression, fuels management, community preparedness, post-fire recovery, and rehabilitation. This conference was inspired by the report to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group titled "Burning Questions".
Click HERE to download the extended abstracts (2.8 MB).
Wildland Fire Safety Summit®
(click for proceedings)
Since 1997, the International Association of Wildland Fire has been putting on its International Wildland Fire Safety Summits. This conference, which has been held in Canada, Australia, Europe and the United States, brings together members of the wildland fire community. Through seminars, presentations and breakout sessions, the conference allows participants to exchange information about fireline safety, risk management, cultural changes, and wildland fire research. Click the above link to see more information about past Safety Summits, and to download proceedings from the conferences. Information about the 2006 Safety Summit can be found above in the 9th Wildland Fire Safety Summit section. The next, tenth, Wildland Fire Safety Summit is being planned.
Wildland Fire Policy Summit®
(click above for reports and more information)
In 2002 and 2006, the IAWF convened meetings of major U.S. wildland fire organizations in Washington, D.C. to discuss ways the organizations can work together more effectively to address the wildland fire problem.The meetings, entitled Wildland Fire Policy Summits,were attended by representatives from a wide variety of organizations, both governmental and non-governmental.
1st Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference
Fuels Management—How to Measure Success
(click above for reports and more information)
The 1st Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference: Fuels management—How to Measure Success was held in Portland, Oregon, March 27-30, 2006. The International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) initiated a conference on this timely topic primarily in response to the needs of the US National Interagency Fuels Coordinating Group.
The 500 conference participants represented a wide range of organizations, disciplines, and countries. The conference program included workshops, invited speakers, oral and poster presentations, panels, and vendor displays. Many of those who responded to the after-conference survey listed “networking” as one of the most valuable aspects of the conference. They noted the benefits of the mix of managers, researchers, academia, practitioners, and policy makers.
There were about 150 presentations (100 oral and 50 poster) covering a range of topics including decision support systems, treatment optimization tools, fuel characterization, fuel mapping, wildland urban interface, ecological considerations, prescribed fire, fire use, fire policy, fire modeling, fire risk assessments, fuel metrics and evaluation, fire weather, economics, sociology, communication, collaboration, and case studies. Papers submitted by presenters will be published in a proceedings, and about 12 of those papers will comprise a special issue of the International Journal of Wildland Fire.
2nd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference
The Fire Environment—Innovations, Management, and Policy
(click above for reports and more information)
The second Fire Behavior and Fuels
Conference sponsored by the International Association of Wildland Fire was held March 26-30, 2007 in Destin, Florida. Over 450 attendees participated in presentations on the latest innovations in wildland fire management, examples of successful and maybe not so successful management practices, current and potentially future wildland fire policy and recent advances in wildland fire science. Special sessions focused on smoke management, wildland urban interface, fire induced tree mortality, and live fuels. Integrated into this confeence was the Joint Fire Science Program Annual Primary Investigator meeting where cutting edge JFSP sponsored research was presented.
