2024 Loess Hills Cooperative Burn Week

This event is primarily for local practitioners. If you are from outside the area, please contact Kody Wohlers before registering.

The Loess Hills Cooperative Burn Week is rapidly approaching, and the planning team continues to fine tune things for the 9th annual event! The objectives for the event have not changed over the years. The purpose for the event is to focus on interagency partnering relationships, collaborative training (both mentoring and being a mentee), to gain invaluable fireline experience while being a part of an expanded incident command structure, build personal leadership and decision making skills, and implement prescribed fire safely on the landscape on a wide variety of burn units. As in the past, you are not required to participate for all 5 days of the event. However, it is highly recommended to maximize the learning, training, and fireline experience opportunities.

This year’s focus area will be in the northern portion of the Loess Hills (Plymouth and Woodbury Counties, with potential to expand out a little further depending on weather and participant numbers). The incident command post will be at the Hillview Recreation Area in Hinton, Iowa. As we have done in the past, breakfast and evening hot meals will be provided for all participants if desired. We have a limited number of housing and camping facilities, as well as plenty of space to tent camp if desired. This year’s event will have a training focus, as in year’s past, including the NWCG qualification system and new IFIRE qualification system for the Iowa DNR. We will continue to promote NWCG qualifications and provide opportunities to the best of our ability to assist those working on position taskbooks and personal skillsets. As always, we are at the mercy of the weather. We hope to burn all 5 days. We have some quality burn units planned that will require ample personnel and equipment. We also have burn units planned for suppression and initial attack exercises to promote accurate size-up, safer tactics, and communication skills. In the event we are not able to burn for any given day, we have plenty of opportunities planned to continue to facilitate high-level training. All experience levels are welcomed, and urged to attend. Thank you in advance, and we hope to see many of you in April!