The Southwest Fire Science Consortium (SWFSC) gets emerging science on the ground by connecting scientists, land managers, and the public. By facilitating these connections, the SWFSC helps to assure that scientists are addressing the most pressing questions and managers are applying cutting-edge science and diverse knowledge in their efforts to protect communities and critical natural resources.
Introduction
The consortium is a way for managers, scientists, and policy makers to interact and share science. Our goal is to see the best science used to make management decisions and scientists working on the questions managers need answered. The Southwest is one of the most fire-dominated regions of the US, and the Consortium is the only regional organization focused on fire research and information dissemination across agency, administrative, and state boundaries. We try to bring together localized efforts to develop scientific information and to disseminate that to practitioners on the ground through an inclusive and open process. Please join us by attending a field trip or workshop, reading and sharing the materials on this website, and/or contributing to the fire conversation by submitting a proposal for an event or product.
Guiding principles
- Be inclusive, making sure all relevant partners have the opportunity to be involved
- Serve as neutral science partners
- Be customer driven, both in how they are structured and how they function
- Operate collaboratively, fostering joint management and science communication
- Be innovative, pursuing new and creative ways to disseminate knowledge
- Facilitate the flow in fire science
Key objectives
- Disseminate current science and facilitate its use among scientists, practitioners, and managers
- Facilitate communication and collaboration among stakeholders
- Identify and develop knowledge relevant to practitioners, managers, and policy makers
- Develop methods to assess the quality and applicability of research
- Demonstrate research on the ground
- Build place-based adaptive management partnerships that promote adoption of fire science findings by fire, fuel, and land managers
- Develop mechanisms to assess new research, synthesis, or validation needs
Materials for our community
Original proposal for our consortium PDF
JFSP Fire Science Exchange Network Factsheet PDF
Joint Fire Science Program website