PFTC, Tallahassee

Here we are, in a new stage of my american learning experience!

Last saturday Mike drove me (thank you very much again, you are a great guy) from Gainesville to Tallahassee (Florida State's capitol) for join the PFTC. The PFTC is the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center (http://www.fws.gov/fire/pftc/), where fire crew uses to get trained in prescribed burning. I am here to take the 20-day learning course, wich consists in having three teorical classes, sixteen practical classes and one debriefing class. So, you learn about fire, you "do" fire. We are going to be burning arround the southern states (mainly Georgia and Florida) with local collaboration crew (Forest Service, Prescibed burning Councils, Local Service Organizations,...). That's a perfect opportunity for learning how to do prescribed burns and also to improve my knowledge about how fire behaves (usefl for fire supression). Also I have met great people here, full of experience and very intelligent.

 The first day I got trained in fireshelter deployment and I met the teamleaders and some PFTC staff. For the next three days (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and today, Wednesday) I met the other students and we got started in teorical leassons. Many people come to teach us, from the Florida Patrol Office, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlive Service and other organizations. Great speakers! We also went into a field trip on Monday (half-day) and yesterday (full-day field trip).

The Monday field trip was to in the Apalichola National Forest, near Tallahassee, FL. There we learnt about the local vegetation and how it changes within different factors. Really interesting lesson. Hot and humid day!

Yesterday we went to the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, at Ichauway (http://www.jonesctr.org/) near Newton, GA. There we learn about the prescribed fire in southern USA, and how they use it in the Research Center for many things. As you know, prescribed fire has lots of benefits: maintains healthy forests, mitigates wildifre risks, maintains quality wildlife habitats, improves stand access and aesthetics, prepares sites for both natural and artificial reforestation, controls trees diseases, controls insects, effectively manages fuels in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), perpetuates fire dependent ecosystems and associated species, and many other things. So, as you have seen: it's great! Even though, obiously, it is needed an experienced crew, with high both, fire behavoir and ecosystem/ecological knowledge, experience level.

That woman should wear hardhat... Where is it? Please wear full PPE!

Today we have been doing a sandtable exercise and then we have travelled to our first burning destination. We are in two teams, mine has eight people, and we are now in Bainbridge, GA. We expected to start burns tomorrow, but here it is raining, so we have to wait. Tomorrow we will write the burn plan and take a look over the burn unit and other things. I am really excited.