Facilitating Technology Transfer in the Wildland Fire Community

Last month the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the USDA Forest Service published a report (White 2004) on the results of three workshops held in 2003 which focused on lessons learned and opportunities presented by the 2002 fire season in the western United. States. As White (2003) notes, “The need for technology transfer – namely the interpretation of science for managers and the communication of manager needs to researchers – was called for throughout the workshops as an essential need for bridging the worlds of fire managers and researchers”.

In this regard, the FERIC Wildland Fire Operations Research Group would like to draw your attention to the article “Technology Transfer and Wildland Fire Management/Research” (Alexander 2003) that appears as pages 41-42 in the spring 2003 issue of Fire Management Today [http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/fmt/index.html]. This article was authored by Dr. Marty Alexander, a Senior Researcher with the FERIC Wildland Fire Operations Research Group. The second page of this article offers a whole host of mechanisms for facilitating technology transfer applicable to wildland fire community. However, ultimately it comes down to people working together with a common purpose in mind – another example of the role that human factors play in wildland fire!

Rick Lanoville, Manager-Forest Science Services
Forest Management Division
Dept.of Resources, Wildlife & Economic Development
Fort Smith, Northwest Territories

Long-time supporter and co-operator  in wildland fire operations  research in Canada

 

 

Publications Cited

Alexander, M.E. 2003. Technology transfer and wildland fire management/research. Fire Management Today 63(2): 41-42. (http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/fmt/fmt_pdfs/fmt63-2.pdf)

White, S.M. 2003. Executive summary for the Wildland Fire Workshops, March – April 2003: Bridging the Worlds of Fire Managers and Applied Fire Researchers. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Focused Delivery Program, Portland, Oregon. Unpublished Report. 6 p.
(http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/about/programs/fsd/exec_summ072203.pdf)

White, S.M. 2004. Bridging the worlds of fire managers and researchers: Lessons and opportunities form the wildland fire workshops. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, Oregon. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-599. 41 p.
(http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/gtr599.pdf)