Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (known as TREX) are experiential burning experiences that take place around the country and world. The TREX program, one of the four Fire Networks, represents a cooperative burning model that has flexibility to include fire practitioners from many backgrounds and levels of experience. Learn more about the TREX program on the Fire Networks website.
Many TREX events are recapped in the form of “Notes from the Field,” a frequent publication from the Fire Networks that gathers stories, photos, and metrics from cooperative burning work happening on the ground. Find the complete archive of Notes from the Field publications here. Below is a selection of five Notes from the Field articles from TREX events that have taken place between 2023 and 2024 in Portugal, South Carolina, California, Oregon, and Nebraska.
Alto Minho Traditional Fire TREX (Portugal)
“This TREX was led by a group of international fire professionals, and highlighted the essential role of traditional and pastoral fire, since Portugal has a culture closely linked to the use of fire and landscape management through it.
Forty-five participants from five countries
worked together over seven days, burning in different types of fuels, using different techniques for difference purposes and under different weather conditions.”
Southern Blue Ridge TREX (South Carolina)
“[Despite pivoting plans away from live fire] the 2023 iteration of the Southern Blue Ridge TREX was a resounding success—people came to the event for training and experience, and they got it. All 60 folks at TREX, all of them well-qualified fire practitioners, were extremely proud to provide Southern Blue Ridge partners with the support they needed. ‘We feel very confident that the results of our efforts will bear fruit that moves us closer to achieving our conservation outcomes,’ said Tom Dooley, [an organizer].”
Butte County Cal-TREX (California)
“The Butte County Cal-TREX team has provided an enormous amount of hands-on training hours in a safe, inclusive and healthy environment, maintaining and extending relationships among organizations, cooperators and stakeholders and
continuing building local capacity with a strong cultural and ecological component.”
“For spring 2023, partners changed the name
of this event from the Ashland TREX to the Rogue Basin TREX, reflecting the ongoing, larger geographic scope of training burns and partnership. The format was also shifted to an on-call model to sharpen the focus on building the local workforce, and to help overcome the problem of weather windows that don’t line up well.”
“The Loup TREX took advantage of weather windows to burn safely. Sometimes those windows presented themselves in the evening as temperature and humidity softened. This not only allowed us an opportunity to get more good work done, it also provided one of the most incredible light shows on the Great Plains [see photo, left].”
Several TREX events are planned for the fall 2024 season – check out the upcoming events list here, and follow the TREX program on Facebook. To stay up to date on the most recently published Notes from the Field, subscribe to the Networker newsletter.
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