When it’s raining or too windy, the group meets in the mess hall where presenters cover wide-ranging topics, from tree ring science to using emotional intelligence to build stronger, more diverse fire teams. “When there are rainy days here, we’re still learning,” says Katherine Reed, a 17-year fire veteran and fuels technician with the U.S. Forest Service in western Oregon. “I want to learn.” A strength of TREX is that it pulls in people from all levels of experience and backgrounds. Comprised half of women and half of men, participants in the Ozarks come from as close as an hour or two drive and as far away as Germany. There are independent wildland firefighters as well as staers from the Missouri Department of Conservation, firefighters from municipal departments and employees of the U.S. Forest Service, National Parks Service and Bureau of Land Management. TNC employees from multiple states are part of the mix, too. Casey Bartlett drove in from western Colorado with a colleague from the Durango Fire Protection District. They are part of Durango’s four-person full-time wildland team, a position that involves everything from creating fire breaks around the mountain town to assisting federal firefighters in the neighboring San Juan National Forest.
Her district had never sent anyone to a TREX, so she is on something of a scouting mission. On the first day of burning, she tries out new roles and tests techniques she’d never used in Colorado. “Just the opportunity to meet people from dierent entities I think is important and to network and to see how other people are doing things and what’s out there,” she says. “It just opens up the whole wildland fire world.” Evan Fantin is an independent firefighter who often works for government fire crews in Canada. He paid his own way to travel to Missouri for his third TREX. He typically works on suppression crews, battling wildfires, but hopes to continue developing proactive prescribed fire skills. Ultimately, he’d like to support the eorts of
First Nations—Indigenous peoples in Canada—to reclaim a culture of stewarding the land with fire. “I’m trying to position myself where I can help,” he says. He’s seen the destruction of wildfires, including the sprawling blazes of 2023 that drove Canadians from their homes and sent smoke throughout much of the United States. TREX is an opportunity to embrace the ability of fire to restore the landscape and protect people. “To come down here helps me see fire in a positive way,” he says. “It’s a very profound healing process for me.”
LISTEN TO a podcast episode with Kelly Martin, TNC prescribed fire specialist at nature.org/mopodcast
Why I Do This Work “ I spent most of my childhood in a concrete jungle. When I moved to southern Illinois for the university, I found myself immersed in nature and loving it. Humans have seriously impacted the landscape, and with it, the habitat of our flora and fauna. This is what made me want to work for The Nature Conservancy, where I spend most of my days working on forest stand improvement projects and assisting with prescribed fire operations for habitat rehabilitation. It is hard work, but it is equally rewarding, often punctuated by the increase or return of a conservative species that needs conditions to be just right to persist. Putting in a hard day of work outside to maintain and restore ecosystems feels as close to our natural world as one can get and is my favorite part of the job. ” —Megan Alkazo, fire and stewardship coordinator for TNC in Missouri
THIS PAGE TOP TNC’s Ryan Gauger, fire and stewardship manager in Missouri, and Caleb Grantham, restoration specialist in Illinois help out on a controlled burn at Camp Arrowhead. © Doyle Murphy/TNC THIS PAGE BOTTOM Megan Alkazo, fire and stewardship coordinator for TNC in Missouri © Kristy Stoyer/TNC
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