Great Old Broads for Wilderness sponsor four wildfire education sessions

Fire is elemental, fire is powerful, and fire certainly can and does destroy homes. But does fire actually destroy our forests?

Please join Great Old Broads for Wilderness for a highly-informative, four-part virtual educational series—”Fire in Pacific Northwest Forests: Past, Present, and Future.”

These Zoom-based sessions—featuring expert forest and wildfire scientists and practitioners, and hosted by the Rogue Valley, Cascade Volcanoes, Willamette Valley, and Central Oregon Bitterbrush Broadbands—will take a closer look at the historical role of fire in the Pacific Northwest’s forested landscapes, and how that role has changed with human management.

The first session—“Fire in the Forest: A Natural Process and Unnatural Changes”—will be March 2 from 6–7:30 P.M. Pacific. Participants will learn about the natural role that fires play in forested landscapes and ecosystems in the region, and how climate change and human management has altered those roles—from the use of fire by indigenous people to modern systematic fire suppression.

The second session—”When the Smoke Clears: Natural Regeneration and Post-Fire Management in Our Forests”—will be on March 9 from 6–7:30 P.M. Pacific. Participants will explore how fires lead to natural regeneration of forests, how human management after a fire impacts this process, and what implications this has for biodiversity, natural ecosystems, and our climate.

These sessions are free and open to all, but space is limited. Broads kindly asks for a suggested $10 donation to support our continued on-the-ground grassroots advocacy work.