The January Driptorch Digest is Now Available!

Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy has been tapped as the inaugural director of the newly established United States Wildland Fire Service (USWFS). A veteran with nearly 50 years of experience, Fennessy’s appointment signals a major restructuring of federal wildland fire management.

According to the USWFS mission, the agency is designed to unify federal wildland fire operations, modernize capabilities, and strengthen interagency coordination across the country. As the Southeast leads the nation in total prescribed fire acreage, the region falls under the service’s new oversight for federal fire professionalization and resource standardization.

As January arrives and we prepare for the winter burn season, it’s time to move through your pre-burn checklists. Detailed planning is the most effective way to meet your goals while ensuring a safe, professional operation.

Here are some tips for your January planning:

Establish Clear Objectives: Define what you want to achieve (e.g., fuel reduction or habitat improvement) to determine the best firing technique.
Map Units and Firebreaks: Identify boundaries and ensure firelines are cleared to mineral soil to prevent unwanted spread.
Verify Weather Parameters: Set your "prescription" by establishing acceptable ranges for temperature, humidity, and wind speed.
Service Your Gear: Inspect drip torches, hand tools, and water systems now so everything is field-ready.
Coordinate Personnel: Identify your crew, assign specific roles, and create a notification list for neighbors and local authorities.

By incorporating these practices, you can ensure a safer and more effective prescribed fire. To learn more, view the full Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in the Southern Region.

Come Join the Pack!

We are excited to announce that we are hiring for an Extension Associate in Wildland Fire at NC State University! This role is a key part of the College of Natural Resources and the Extension Forestry team, with a primary focus on prescribed fire training and education. We are seeking a candidate with existing fire experience to provide essential operational leadership during burns and deliver expert instruction, including NWCG training and coordinating the student “FirePack” crew. You will work closely with a varied audience of students, landowners, and partners to bridge the gap between research and practice. If you are a dynamic educator with a passion for forestry and the field-based leadership skills to advance prescribed fire in North Carolina, we encourage you to apply and join our Wolfpack!

Application deadline: January 9 or until the position is filled.
Application link can be found here.

NC State University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive equal opportunities for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, and veteran status. The University encourages all qualified applicants, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities, to apply. Individuals with disabilities requiring disability-related accommodations in the application and interview process are welcome to contact 919-513-0574 to speak with a representative of the Office of Equal Opportunity.

The new Ransom Road Fire WFSTAR case study released from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group examines a tragic 1981 Florida wildfire that led to the creation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s professional fire program, highlighting the extreme risks of rapid fire spread in volatile coastal fuels. By revisiting these lessons, fire managers can better balance "can-do" attitudes with the situational awareness required to safely navigate the Southeast’s unique and fast-moving fire environments.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently filed a motion with the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asking to vacate the agency’s 2024 revision of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), arguing the agency failed to conduct the "thorough review" required by the Clean Air Act before lowering the annual standard from 12.0 to 9.0 µg/m³. This move potentially halts the implementation of stricter air quality rules that were slated for 2026, shifting the focus back to the less-stringent 2020 standards. Since PM2.5 is is a primary component of both prescribed fire and wildfire smoke, fire managers should monitor this development as it impacts long-term smoke management and nonattainment planning.

Watch Duty has expanded its real-time wildfire alerting service nationwide, providing citizens across the U.S. with access to up-to-the-minute information and perimeter mapping vetted by fire professionals. This expansion offers a valuable tool for tracking how prescribed fires and wildfires interact across the landscape, helping practitioners and the public distinguish between planned management burns and emerging threats. By increasing local situational awareness, the app supports fire management by keeping communities informed and safe during both active burn seasons and wildfire events.

Wildland Fire Research Scientists at the University of Florida are conducting exciting research to better understand how prescribed fire practitioners across the Southeast view tradeoffs between smoke impacts and preferences for wildfire risk reduction strategies. Responses will help inform how prescribed fire is used to reduce wildfire risk while minimizing smoke impacts on nearby communities.
Please only take the survey one time. If you already completed this survey at a Florida Prescribed Fire Council meeting, please do not take it again. Otherwise, you can take the short 5–7 minute survey below.

The Fire-Up Career Pathways Toolkit has officially launched, providing a comprehensive resource to guide individuals through the various stages of a career in fire management, from entry-level positions to leadership roles. This toolkit is a timely asset for workforce development, offering clear roadmaps for those looking to specialize in prescribed fire and traditional land management. By standardizing training pathways and highlighting diverse opportunities, the toolkit helps regional partners recruit and retain the skilled personnel necessary to meet the growing demand for prescribed burning across the landscape.

A new report from the Alabama Office of the State Climatologist, the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH), and the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) on the Southeast's 2023 fall flash drought reveals how rapid-onset dry conditions and record heat caused a swift transition to severe drought, highlighting the need for sub-monthly monitoring to catch these fast-moving events. For fire managers, the report underscores the critical impact of flash droughts on prescribed fire planning, as sudden drops in fuel moisture and early burn bans in states like Mississippi and Alabama forced rapid adjustments to mitigation strategies to avoid the heightened wildfire risks seen in previous years.

Multiple NRCS Funding Programs

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service offers several funding programs that may be used to support prescribed burning. Many private landowners in the South have already taken advantage of these programs but this year there may be more funding available than in previous years. Programs vary by area, so check out the information pages listed below:
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP)

Longleaf Landscape Stewardship Fund

NFWF is accepting proposals through its Longleaf Landscape Stewardship Fund to restore, enhance, and conserve longleaf pine and bottomland hardwood ecosystems.

Funding available for:

On-the-ground restoration (planting, site prep)
Prescribed burning and stand improvement
Understory habitate restoration
Technical assistance, outreach, and capacity building
Species recovery, monitoring, and planning
Conservation easements / land protection (limited)

Award amounts: $250,000-$2,000,000
Application deadline: January 29, 2026

Fire Science Innovations through Research and Education (FIRE)

The U.S. National Science Foundation is accepting proposals through its FIRE program to support convergent research, education, and networking activities to improve understanding, prediction, and resilience to wildland fire and its interactions with communities, infrastructure, and the natural environment.

Funding available for:

Focus area 1: Next Generation Coupled Fire Models (FIRE-MODEL)
Focus area 2: Enhancing Capacity for Fire Resilience in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Focus area 3: Fire Science Innovations through Research and Education (FIRE) Networks (FIRE-NET)

Application deadline: February 10, 2026

The Driptorch Digest is distributed by NC State University as a project of the Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability (SERPPAS) Prescribed Fire Working Group.

NC State University promotes equal opportunity and prohibits discrimination and harassment based upon one’s race; color; religion (including belief and non-belief); sex, including but not limited to pregnancy, childbirth, or other related medical condition, parenting, and sexual harassment; sexual orientation; actual or perceived gender identity; age; national origin; disability; veteran status; or genetic information.

This newsletter is made possible through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with support from the USDA Forest Service and the Department of Defense.