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Fire Program

Photo: Amy Markus (Cropped from original)
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The Fire Program uses outreach, education, and engagement to foster fire-adapted communities and resilient landscapes to wildfire through place-based partnerships. A team of six wildland fire specialists help seek regionally relevant solutions that make sense in the diverse ecological and social contexts of their areas.

Broad program goals:

  • Resilient Communities and Effective Organizations: where whole communities have the capacity, resources, and tools they need to cope with and adapt to stress and disturbance while maintaining key functions and values.
  • Cultures of Adaptation: where locally adapted solutions support people’s values and ecosystem health and ongoing engagement, learning, and relationships among people, place, and fire support desired fire cultures.
  • Fire-adapted ecosystems: where appropriate patterns of wildfire occur and support key functions and processes in a diversity of ecosystems.
Photo: Casey Davis

Fire-adapted communities

Wildfires make a profound impact on people, land, animals, the environment and the economy. As the population continues to increase, homes and communities expand to new rural boundaries and fires become more a part of the changing landscape. Oregonians are faced with the challenges of preparing, preventing, and recovering from wildfires.

A fire-adapted community is a human community consisting of informed and prepared people (including homeowners, landowners, land managers, fire departments, businesses, and more!) collaboratively planning and taking action to safely coexist with wildland fire.

The Forestry & Natural Resources Extension's Fire Program works to foster fire-adapted communities through outreach, education and engagement.

Photo: Ariel Cowan (Cropped from original)

Resilient landscapes

Resilient landscapes are crucial for both people and wildlife. Here’s why:

Biodiversity and Habitats: Resilient landscapes host healthy, diverse habitats, and migratory corridors for wildlife. They provide essential resources like clean air, clean water, and recreational opportunities.

Climate Change Adaptation: These landscapes can adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change. As our climate shifts, resilient areas help species persist and maintain ecological balance.

Community Protection: Natural lands in resilient landscapes absorb floodwaters, buffer homes from wildfires, and protect communities. They play a vital role in safeguarding our environment and well-being.

Identity and Sense of Place: Understanding a landscape’s resilience helps maintain its character and diversity, which are essential for national and local identity and a sense of place.

Fostering resilient landscapes is critical for ecological health, human well-being, and a sustainable future.

  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis
  • Photo: Institute for Natural Resources (INR)
  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis
  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis
  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis
  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis
  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis
  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis
  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis
  • Photo: Emily Jane Davis

We acknowledge that Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, is located within the traditional homelands of the Mary's River or Ampinefu Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855, Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. All Extension programming throughout the state of Oregon happens on traditional homelands. To learn more, visit OSU's Land Acknowledgement webpage.

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