K-12 Education

Join John Weir, Senior Extension Specialist in the Natural Resource Ecology and Management Department at Oklahoma State University, for an engaging discussion on prescribed burn associations (PBAs) in the Great Plains. Drawing on his extensive experience in prescribed fire training and PBA development, John will share examples from across the Great Plains that demonstrate how PBAs reduce barriers to burning, build local capacity, and make prescribed fire a practical and effective land management tool.

John’s bio: John Weir is a senior extension specialist in the Natural Resource Ecology and Management Department at Oklahoma State University. He has teaching, research, and extension responsibilities. John teaches two prescribed fire courses and conducts fire ecology research across the Great Plains, focusing primarily on burning timing, fire effects, and patch-burn grazing. His extension responsibilities relate to prescribed fire training and prescribed burn associations. He teaches national and state NRCS prescribed fire courses, trains the US Army Corps of Engineers, and conducts numerous training programs for private landowners. His main passion is working with and forming prescribed burn associations. He has assisted in the formation of over 70 PBAs in OK, TX, CO, KS, NE, CA, NC, FL, SD, and MS. In the past 35 years, John has conducted over 1,500 prescribed burns in ten states and Canada.

Different fires in the same place can look, feel and behave differently. They can both be successful in different ways, ecologically and culturally. They can be received differently by practitioners and the larger community alike, and they can persist differently, giving hope to land productivity, conservation initiatives, and cultural practices. Ben will compare fire programs in the Great Plains, and share insights on how Nebraska PBAs build capacity, community support, and sustainability over the years. Embers of Insight is a webinar series jointly hosted by the Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange in Canada and Great Plains Fire Science Exchange in the United States. This series is dedicated to delivering high-quality fire science education to fire practitioners around the world.