Wildland fire conferences

Three major wildland fire conferences organized by the International Association of Wildland fire and others are on the horizon.

The '88 Fires: Yellowstone and Beyond, September 22-27, 2008, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The IAWF in association with the 9th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem will be sponsoring a major Conference to remember the events of the Yellowstone area fires of 1988. The last day for reduced registration rates is July 25.

Aerial Firefighting Conference, October 21-22, Athens, Greece. This is the first conference to focus its attention on technologies and operations of aerial fire fighting, fixed and rotary-winged.

Tenth Wildland Fire Safety Summit, April 28-30, 2009, Phoenix, Arizona. This conference continues the tradition begun by the IAWF in 1997 to provide a forum for sharing the latest developments in wildland firefighting safety. A call for papers has been issued.

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 organizational 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?" Other topics will be covered also.

These conferences, historical wildland fire events, and other notable dates of interest are on the Wildland Fire Event Calendar. If you have not seen it, it's worth a visit.