Since 2014, the FAC Net blog has been a consistent source of fire adaptation stories from people all over the world working to increase resilience, awareness, and inspiration in their communities. Over the years, we’ve heard from practitioners on how to effectively build local capacity, reinvent our relationship and cultural approach to fire, and weave compassion into community recovery. And that’s just a few examples – over the past near decade, FAC Net has published over 500 stories!
When I joined the FAC Net staff as the Communications Coordinator in January 2022, my teammates passed me the torch of stewarding the blog – and I was definitely a bit intimidated. This blog has long been a place for high quality, impactful stories from such a rich variety of authors. Coming into this role, I was somewhat “green” to fire. I caught the fire bug in 2020, after experiencing the impacts of wildfires in and around the Bay Area and deciding to jump right in through volunteering and self-study. Since then, learning about fire has thrown me through cycles of inspiration, discouragement from injustice, motivation for change, and more. There are many layers to the stories we have in relationship to fire. I can only hope this platform provides a place for readers, both new and experienced in fire, to expand their understanding of changing fire cultures and adaptation approaches – whatever emotions may come up in the process.
Opening Doors for More Stories Across Partnerships
For the past decade, the blog has been a place for anyone interested in fire adaptation to share their story – with a special emphasis on posts specifically from FAC Net members. Starting this week, we’re expanding the meaning and representation of the blog by reinventing it as a shared platform between all of the Fire Networks – the Fire Learning Network (FLN), the Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) program, the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network (FAC Net), and the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network (IPBN). Through this merger, we hope to invite an even broader range of perspectives and experiences in the stories we provide to our readers.
The Fire Networks represent a longstanding partnership between FLN, TREX, FAC Net, and IPBN, and are supported by a cooperative agreement between The Nature Conservancy, the USDA Forest Service, and agencies of the Department of the Interior. As a unit, the Fire Networks create an interconnected system of support and guidance for practitioners and communities across the country. I’m excited to welcome authors from across this partnership and beyond to have their voices on this shared blog. Coming later this fall, we’ll also announce a brand new Fire Networks website.
The Fire Networks have active membership bases representing practitioners across the country. Click image to go to the “Our Networks” page of our site.
Not much is going to change structurally – if you’re a subscriber, you’ll still see our posts in your inbox each week. You’ll still receive the high quality content from practitioners around the world that have lessons, successes, and reflections to share. And of course, we are always happy to receive blog post ideas from anyone with fire resilience or adaptation stories – pitch us a blog post here!
Here’s to another decade of fire resilience stories that bring real change to communities, and better understanding to us all. I look forward to learning alongside our readers as we continue to share impactful stories and bring resources to practitioners through the Fire Networks Blog.
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