The May Driptorch Digest is Now Available!

Bringing Back Fire: How Burning Can Help Restore Eastern Lands

" A growing movement of scientists, land management agencies, conservation organizations, and Indigenous groups is working to return fire to marshes like this one and to fire-adapted forests and grasslands throughout the United States. In the eastern U.S., where wildfires burn far less land than in the West, fire’s century-long absence has upended ecosystems. Forests once dominated by fire-adapted trees like oaks, hickories, and pines have been taken over by species that support far less wildlife. And overcrowded trees growing in woods without regular fire have stifled understory biodiversity, while raising the risk of damaging blazes. "

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A Surprising Solution to Our Wildfire Problem:

More Fire! - Camille Stevens

This TedTalk by former wildland firefighter Camille Stevens-Rumann discusses the notion of introducing more fire to combat wildfires, a notion counterintuitive to people outside the prescribed fire community. As a fire ecologist at Colorado State University and the Assistant Director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, she now conducts research on post-fire recovery. She relays her expertise in a short TedTalk meant to open conversation with people unfamiliar with fire, people who may be hesitant to support prescribed fire. Check out her points and see if you can incorporate them into your discussions with the public! Click Here to Watch the Video!

USDA to Invest $1 Billion in Climate Smart Commodities, Expanding Markets, Strengthening Rural America, Funding is now available for the second funding pool (proposals from $250,000 to $4,999,999). Applicants must submit their applications via Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. May 27, 2022.

EPA Pollution Prevention Grants includes forestry practices. "In keeping with the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, EPA is encouraging P2 because implementing these approaches can result in reductions in toxic pollutants, the use of water, energy and other raw materials, while also lowering business costs. P2 grants are awarded to states, state entities (colleges and universities recognized as instrumentalities of the state), the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, any territory or possession of the U.S., and federally recognized tribes and intertribal consortia."