JACKSON, Wyo. — The Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) and the Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) have partnered together for the first time in Wyoming to address wildfires and forest restoration.
A joint press release indicates that there are widespread shortages of trained fire specialists in the labor force and vast areas of the national forest system in need of restoration. Because of this, the USFS has sought to partner with fire specialists from non-profit organizations, in addition to state and local crews, to advance through a backlog of fire work needed.
The press release also confirms that BTNF and TNC will join forces by expanding current forest restoration, accelerating the use of prescribed fire in the state and increasing the number of acres treated by the USFS. This past fall, fire specialists from TNC’s national-level prescribed fire crew were deployed to add capacity to BTNF’s already existing fuels program to focus on reducing the risk of severe wildfires and improving overall forest health.
Those crews are expected to return in spring 2025 to continue work on forest restoration, including prescribed burning as weather permits, restorative forest thinning projects and fire practitioner job training and workforce development.
“Working collaboratively with The Nature Conservancy, the Bridger-Teton hopes to be able to increase the pace and scale of wildfire risk reduction work in the communities where it’s needed most.”
Mary Cernicek, a spokesperson for the BTNF
“Partners have been, and remain, an essential part of implementing the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, and are a welcomed asset to completing prescribed fire projects on the forest,” Mary Cernicek, a spokesperson for the BTNF, said in the release. “Working collaboratively with The Nature Conservancy, the Bridger-Teton hopes to be able to increase the pace and scale of wildfire risk reduction work in the communities where it’s needed most.”
“The collaboration with BTNF…is the first of its kind in Wyoming,” the press release states.
All TNC crew members are qualified under National Wildfire Coordinating Group standards. The crew’s activities include prescribed fire prep work such as thinning undesirable trees and brush, prescribed fire implementation work including burning slash piles and broadcast burning and data collection/monitoring the effects of prescribed fire.
