[SEMCO] Fire Science Field Trip and SE Mass Regional Conservation Forum

[Sharl Heller]

Fire Science Field Trip and SE Mass Regional Conservation Forum

Join your conservation colleagues for two days of learning and sharing best practices for Pine Barrens management from an ecoregional perspective at the Fire Science Field Trip and SE Mass Regional Conservation Forum on February 5 and 6, 2015.

The Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens of southeastern Massachusetts contains over twenty natural community types, including pitch pine and oak forests, Atlantic white cedar swamps, and the only maritime grasslands in the Nation. For thousands of years, frequent fires swept this region resulting in special fire dependent ecosystems that support a wide variety of rare plants and animals.

Now, after decades of fire suppression, the region is transitioning into denser forest types, displacing species and reducing global biodiversity. In many areas, fuel loading could result in fires so intense that they threaten even the most fire tolerant plants and place us all in danger. 

To save the ecoregion, we need to work together. The Fire Science Field Trip and Regional Conservation Forum can help make it happen. Sign up for one or both days.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Mary Griffin, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game and Bill Labich, Highstead Regional Conservationist and Coordinator of the Regional Conservation Partnership Network.

Check out the excellent lineup of experts at http://www.pinebarrensalliance.org/2015forum/2015speakersandleaders.html

FIRE SCIENCE FIELD WORKSHOP

Thursday, February 5, 8:00 am to 3:30 pm.
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council Tribal Offices, 483 Great Neck Road, South Mashpee, MA 02649. The field trip is free. Lunch is optional. Space is limited to 60.

Led by the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange and Forest Guild Northeast Region, this field based workshop will focus on fire in land management, one of the unique features of the Pine Barrens ecosystem. We invite participation from the spectrum of land managers at work in the Pine Barrens, including municipal, state, federal, private, and non governmental organizations, as well as fire scientists and managers from further afield. Presentations and field tour stops will examine themes in restoration, habitat management, ecological goal setting, prescribed burning techniques, and the potential for fire planning in the future of the Pine Barrens. To register go to http://www.pinebarrensalliance.org/forum2015.html

THE 2ND ANNUAL SE MASS REGIONAL CONSERVATION FORUM

Friday, February 6, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Admirals Hall, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, 101 Academy Drive, Buzzards Bay, MA 02532. Registration is $5.00. Lunch is optional.

The 2015 Regional Conservation Forum (RCF) seeks to build collaborations among nonprofit conservation organizations, federal, state and municipal agencies and local businesses to preserve and restore the Southeastern Massachusetts Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens, a globally rare ecoregion, extending from Duxbury to Mattapoisett and Cape Cod, Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket Island. Presentations, breakout sessions and facilitated workshops will further the conservation priorities identified by the participants of the 2014 RCF. 

Share your expertise and explore practical solutions to cooperative land preservation and management, ecological data collection and sharing; habitat restoration and monitoring, environmental education, prescribed fire as a management tool, and get involved in forming a Regional Conservation Partnership!

The Forum is sponsored by the Southeastern Massachusetts Pine Barrens Alliance, Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife Natural Heritage Endangered Species Program, Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Mass Audubon.
To register go to http://www.pinebarrensalliance.org/forum2015.html

Sharl Heller
Southeastern Massachusetts 
Pine Barrens Alliance, Inc.
204 Long Pond Road
Plymouth, MA 02360
(774) 773-9982
www.pinebarrensalliance.org