prescribed fire training center

Wildfires can negatively impact communities, as the past few years illustrate. However, many communities are surrounded by ecosystems where fire has always been a natural part of the landscape. These negative impacts can be reduced by returning fire to its natural role on the landscape, and the Forest Service uses prescribed fire to protect communities and improve landscape resilience.

Fire experts from the Ocala National Forest and instructors from the Prescribed Fire Training Center in Tallahassee, Fla., recently hosted a delegation of natural resource specialists from the Moroccan Government.

The three-day long program in Florida focused on fire management techniques and observing actual prescribed burns.

“We’ve been cooperating with a Moroccan government agency called the High Commission, an agency akin to the Forest Service as they manage forests and watersheds across their country,” said Natasha Marwah, Middle East and North African Program Specialist with the U.S. Forest Service. “For the past five years, we’ve been providing technical assistance on forest conservation and health, rangeland and watershed management, and most recently, fire management.”