Join the International Association of Wildland Fire Board of Directors!
Help shape the future of wildland fire management and contribute to the IAWF mission as a communicator and a leader in this vital field.
As a global network for learning and knowledge for 36 years the IAWF thrives on uniting like-minded individuals in all aspects of the management of wildland fire.
If you are a current IAWF member and can contribute your time, energy and expertise, you are encouraged to apply. Applications close on September 25, 2026.
Tell us why you would be a great addition to the team.
For all the details on what this commitment includes and how to apply go to www.iawfonline.org
The International Association of Wildland Fire is pleased to welcome three new members to its Board of Directors for 2026. Their diverse skills and expertise will help guide the organization into the future.
Joining the Board from 1 January 2026 are:
Mika Peace
Dr Mika Peace is a fire weather researcher in the High Impact Weather team at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. She joined the Bureau in 2002 as an operational meteorologist and has worked in a range of roles in forecasting operations, training and commercial services and research as well as embedded in fire agencies.
She completed her PhD using coupled modelling to explore fire-atmosphere interactions at the University of Adelaide (2010-2014) through scholarships with the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and the Bureau.
Mika’s research expertise focuses on bushfire case studies and running high resolution fire-atmosphere coupled simulations using ACCESS-Fire. She partners with fire agencies and land management groups to investigate and document fire and atmosphere interactions during major bushfires, to develop understanding of how the atmosphere in three dimensions drives fire behaviour.
She was a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ after Black Summer preparing submissions for the Royal Commission and the State Inquiries. She has a publication record as lead author in international meteorological science journals.
Mika regularly presents nationally and internationally at conferences and workshops, media interviews, STEM events in schools, Women in STEM and Women in Maths and science events in the community.
Shawn Bethel
Shawn Bethel has over 40 years of wildfire management experience combining 20 plus years in operational wildfire management agency roles and 20 years working in private sector wildfire mitigation technology.
During his wildfire operations career in British Columbia, Canada, Shawn was a wildland firefighter, senior trainer, helicopter operations specialist including rappel crew and helicopter hoist rescue, air tactical group supervisor, Type 1 Incident Management Team member and Senior Provincial Wildfire Protection Officer.
Shawn served on the BC Wildfire Service wildfire protection leadership team responsible for monitoring wildfire risk, prevention, preparedness, suppression, response, and recovery providing emergency services on 2000 plus wildfires annually.
For 10 years, Shawn led the Province of British Columbia’s International Cooperation Program to provide training and consulting services globally. In this role, he developed multiple resource sharing agreements with wildfire agencies around the world. Shawn helped manage the USA/Canada cross border agreements and the Northwest Compact.
Shawn has project leadership experience with operational teams conducting international training and consulting projects in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Ecuador, Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Ghana, and South Africa. Shawn managed two separate wildfire management technology transfer projects, funded by the Canadian Government 1998-2004 in Malaysia and Argentina. He served on the Canadian Fire Management Team’s Post Wildfire Evaluation Project, for the devastating Peloponnese and Olympia fires, at the request of the Government of Greece in 2007.
Shawn continues to have direct involvement in the international wildfire community, leveraging industry knowledge and experience in the development, promotion and application of wildfire technologies that support wildfire management and mitigation efforts globally. Shawn lives with his wife and two sons on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where they live on a hobby farm in the beautiful Cowichan Valley.
Bob Bale
Bob Bale is the Nature Conservancy-Minnesota Fire in the Forest Program Manager and Indigenous Peoples Burning Network staff member.
Bob manages a prescribed burn program in Northern Minnesota focused on agency and tribal partners cooperative training, planning, funding, operations and public outreach. Bob is an active staff member of the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network, fostering partnerships rooted in respect and trust with Indigenous practitioners.
As a TNC Coda Fellow, Bob was a guest of Tanzania National Parks to facilitate the completion of Serengeti National Parks fire management plan Bob was also asked to modify Tanzania National Parks fire management planning process that was subsequently adopted and applied to their remaining savanna national parks.
Bob founded a conservation non-profit operating across 12 US states and The Bahamas. He led fundraising, donor cultivation, grant writing and partnership building. He sought to cultivate an organizational culture emphasizing equity, diversity, and High Reliability Organizing (HRO) principles.
Bob serves on the steering committee of the Minnesota Prescribed Fire Council and has served as co-lead of the Minnesota Forests Fire Learning Network. His professional education includes an MA in Geography and Planning from West Chester University and a BA in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University .
At the same time, the IAWF extends its heartfelt gratitude to departing Directors, whose terms have concluded. Their dedication and contributions over the years have been invaluable to the IAWF’s mission.
With appreciation, we recognize the contributions of Joaquin Ramirez and Naomi Stephens to the IAWF Board over many years.
In 2017 the first Cohesive Strategy Workshop in Reno, Nevada featured the theme of “All Hands All Lands: Implementation Rooted in Science.” It focused on the Cohesive Strategy — what it meant then and what early success looked like. Presentations and discussions emphasized the role of science in supporting the Cohesive Strategy and identified processes to ensure the integration of science in all planning for wildland fire management.
The Cohesive Strategy stands as the framework by which all stakeholders can address barriers and identify solutions for complex wildland fire issues.
The Cohesive Strategy Addendum Update [PDF] was released earlier this year and examines critical emphasis areas and implementation challenges that either were not addressed then or have surfaced in the 10 years since the original Cohesive Strategy framework.
This workshop will gather the collective voice of attendees to identify solutions and the issues that keep us from implementing the Cohesive Strategy at scale. The Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) will pursue these actions after the Workshop to help overcome identified barriers and support implementation of the Cohesive Strategy.
Registration for the 2024 Workshop in Atlantic City includes:
All on-site presentations and discussion, plus refreshments. There will be no virtual presentations.
Access to all workshop sessions (for full registration) or the session(s) you attend (for 1 or 2 days of registration).
Field Tour: New Jersey Pine Barrens
Wednesday, September 18 from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Field tour, transportation, and lunch included in your registration fee.
The New Jersey Pine Barrens field tour will highlight the cooperation of multiple agencies in New Jersey to support goals and themes of the Cohesive Strategy. The tour includes stops at Batsto Historic Village, the U.S. Forest Service Silas Little Experimental Forest, New Jersey Forest Fire Service Coyle Field Airbase, and the Roosevelt City Fire-Adapted Community and firebreak project.
Special IAWF Member and Student rates are available.
Early-bird discounts for full workshop registrations before August 15.
IAWF offers need-based travel and registration scholarships to attend the workshop, to provide opportunity for those who may not be able to attend because of the cost. We hope to increase participation of underrepresented communities and geographic areas for networking and peer learning.
Applications will be accepted continuously until the workshop; we will begin reviewing applications and making awards on June 15. It includes free registration and/or $500 USD for travel expenses. ⏩ Submit a scholarship application ⏪
If you are selected, we will email your instructions on registering for the workshop, and you will receive travel reimbursement when you arrive at the workshop.
Questions about the workshop or
about registration? CONTACT MIKEL:
The IAWF will hold its annual national Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop in Atlantic City, New Jersey from September 16 – 19. Before that, the IAWF (in partnership with the Wildland Fire Leadership Council — WFLC) is asking people to submit recipes for the upcoming “Cohesive Strategy Cookbook” that will be ready in time for the workshop.
But hurry up! Deadline is June 7 and those who submit recipes should provide the following:
Name of recipe
Ingredients with measurements
Step-by-step directions
Prep time, cook time, and total time
Number of servings
Photo of the prepared dish
The association also asks contributors to share the source of recipes if they aren’t original, e.g. Betty Crocker recipes.
Anyone who has been in a fire camp knows firefighters don’t have the privilege of gourmet-level meals. On the contrary, the USFS has received numerous requests to update and elevate firefighters’ food supply. University of Idaho researchers, for example, analyzed standard USFS food vendor menus for fire camps and found that most did not meet firefighters’ nutritional needs, including deficits of micro-nutrients, meals lacking electrolyte balances, and only minimal variety.
“We expect vendors to provide a variety of healthy options during fire season, but along with that firefighters need to understand that making healthier choices can have an impact on their performance,” researcher Heidi Holubetz said.
The USFS is expected to pass along the requests to their contract caterers with the hope of making menu modifications for the 2025 contracts. Down the road, researchers hope they can work directly with vendors for future menu updates.
Call for Workshops at Boise — deadline is November 15
SEND YOUR PROPOSALS NOW: Conference workshops will be scheduled for Monday, April 15 and Wednesday, April 17 at the 7th International Fire Behavior + Fuels Conference in Boise, Idaho.
Workshops provide a forum for researchers and other professionals working in wildland fire to discuss and exchange interests in fire. Conference workshops are an opportunity for technology transfer, ensuring that scientific and technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users who can use and develop them.
Conference organizers are particularly interested in hosting technology-related workshops if you or your organization are working with new technology used in wildland fire, or using technology in new ways in fire. Workshops that were particularly well-received at previous conferences included one focused on Soil Moisture and Wildfire Prediction and another on Fire and Fuels Management Tools.
There will be a nominal registration fee for conference participants who attend workshops in April; this fee will cover the cost of meeting rooms, refreshments, and audio-visual equipment. Instructors will not be required to pay a fee.
The IAWF is now encouraging proposals for workshops. Please include in your proposal:
Workshop title
Names, affiliations, and emails of instructors
Short bio for each instructor, including qualifications related to the topic
Proposed duration (2, 4, 6 or 8 hours)
One-paragraph description of workshop
Minimum/maximum number of participants (if applicable)
Any special facility needs (e.g. LCD projector, computer lab, wifi)
Evaluation criteria include overall quality and the fit with respect to the conference topic: Fuel, fire and smoke: evolving to meet our climate challenge.
The IAWF is interested in workshops that connect research and management. The workshops can also be used to discuss administrative techniques, challenges, and strategies, and may include roundtable brainstorming.
Deadline for proposals is November 15. Previous conferences are listed [HERE].
The 7th Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference is scheduled for April 15–19, 2024 and will be held simultaneously in Boise, Canberra, and Tralee, Ireland. Conference organizers are now calling for presentations, and each location is inviting presentation proposals.
The IAWF Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference provides a forum at which fire management experience and lessons learned are documented, and current work is showcased. Emerging research, innovation, and management techniques are shared, to develop integrated solutions to wildfire challenges.
This conference on three continents will showcase several countries’ development and integration of fire management policies and frameworks at national, regional, and local levels to address fire risks and build resilience. The conference brings together policy makers, scientists, fire managers, and indigenous land stewards for a shared purpose and a different future living with fire.
The International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) professional association committed to a non-partisan approach for uniting the global wildland fire community. We were formed in 1990 as a global professional membership association. For 30 years IAWF has grown from a fledgling organization to the foremost global wildfire-focused association spanning 26+ countries. The IAWF was built on the belief that an understanding of this dynamic natural force is vital for natural resource management, for protecting the health, safety, and welfare of firefighters and the public, and for harmonious interactions between people and their environment. IAWF is dedicated to communicating with the entire wildland fire community and providing a global link for people with shared interest in wildland fire and associated topics of this multifaceted community. To accomplish these goals, we create networks across sectors, fields, and disciplines to connect the wildfire community through multiple platforms including conferences, our website, the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Wildfire Magazine, and social media outlets.
Meriwether William “Bill” Gabbert II of Senatobia, Mississippi died peacefully on January 14, 2023 at age 75 from cancer.
Nobody that I know ever called him Meriwether. He shared that name with Meriwether Lewis, half of the renowned Lewis & Clark Expedition, and Meriwether is the name of the canyon mouth adjacent to Mann Gulch above the Gates of the Mountain Wilderness on Montana’s Missouri River.
Bill and his siblings grew up in the same small rural town south of Memphis where he was born in 1947. After high school he went on to Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science (commonly called Mississippi State University) in the central Mississippi community of Starkville. I can imagine that the change from Senatobia, population about 3200 persons, to the much larger community of Starkville (about 11,400 people at the time) and entering into studies at the university must have been a major eye-opening change for Bill.
After navigating university life, Bill graduated with his B.S. degree in Forestry. As we all do upon graduating, it was time for him to make decisions on which direction to head next with a budding career. Bill decided to join up with the U.S. Forest Service to further his forestry interests and education, so he headed West to California and soon added wildland fire to his forestry toolbox. In actuality he probably didn’t have much of a choice about entering into wildland fire; at that time during the 1970s all USFS employees were “firefighters” in some capacity. It was a requirement that everyone understood; this was an organization that had been born into fire. Bill obviously took quickly to the challenge, joining up with his first fire crew, the El Cariso Hotshots, in California. This crew was one of the very first hotshot crews, established just after World War II on the Trabuco District of the Cleveland National Forest.
Bill truly enjoyed his seasons with the hotshots and he frequently mentioned in later years his memories from these days. Those memories weren’t all fun – they included the fatalities the crew suffered during the 1959 Decker Fire and the 1966 Loop Fire – the latter was still a fresh and sore memory when Bill joined the crew.
Fire crews of all types are wonderful places to develop lifelong friendships as people move through the fire seasons. This was also a time during which Bill quickly learned the ins and outs of the structure and politics within the wildland fire community, knowledge that would serve him well later in life. He ended up with 20 years of service in the U.S. Forest Service, and then transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) for another 13 years. He eventually retired as the Fire Management Officer for the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota; he was responsible for fire management on seven National Parks in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska. But he wasn’t even close to being finished with his fire career — he was just changing direction.
It was while Bill was with the NPS that I first got to know him. Bill was the Planning Section Chief on Rick Gale’s Type 1 Team based out of West Yellowstone, Montana during the 1988 Yellowstone Campaign. Our paths crossed whenever I would visit the fire camp there where I had established a USFS Northern Region (R1) satellite “Fire Behavior Service Center.” Yellowstone for that fire season was part of the R1 fire suppression responsibilities – what we all thought would be a “once-in-a-career” fire season.
Bill was obviously a very detail-oriented individual, a necessary and valued trait in that key position.
He and I met up again when he joined the IAWF as a new Board Member in 2004. He remained in that position for a year before assuming responsibilities as the IAWF’s brand new Executive Director (ED). Bill was a firm believer in the mission of IAWF– to promote communication within the global wildland fire community. He was the ideal detail-focused person to take on the director role, quickly organizing all of the disparate directions the association was growing into. Bill made it clear from the beginning that the ED role was not going to be a long-term job for him, and after a year under my term as IAWF President in 2008 he submitted his resignation.
At this time social media and blogging for many of us were still relatively new internet experiences. Bill had the idea of using these newish technologies in communication to further his ideas (and ours) regarding wildland fire communications. He quickly had Wildfire Today up and running – an online news site of wildland fire – with news stories spanning the globe but definitely U.S.-centric. His news updates and features and images and opinion pieces spread, and in 2012 he spun off a companion website which he called Fire Aviation, because this was a topic in wildland fire news that was growing in breadth and importance.
From the beginning these sites were a labor of love for Bill Gabbert, and a few of his passions quickly came to the forefront in his journalism, including what he called “students of fire.” He also focused on smoke impacts on firefighter health, political considerations of the jobs in fire, and perhaps most important, firefighter safety. He developed a wide-ranging global audience relatively quickly, and now and then he’d add on other expert authors and editors to round out and support both sites. He befriended and kept up with fire photographers and writers and editors — and agency leaders — not only in our relatively close wildland fire community, but internationally. He also made many friends in the fire-interested peripheral “public” – the tens of thousands out there who are interested in and connected with fire, such as family members, media, researchers, international fire personnel, and the large group of people who are just curious about the topic and how it influences our lives.
Bill Gabbert wrote on these topics almost daily, in a style that was easily understandable for readers who commonly get lost in or don’t care to digest the typical U.S. bureaucratic fire news.
Bill knew where to go and who to talk with to find the details he wanted, the core of the issue no matter the issue – he understood what was being said and could interpret or translate (without pulling any punches) for his readers. He had no qualms about writing on controversial fire topics, such as when Donald Trump and other politicians wanted to launch 4th of July fireworks from the heads of the Presidential sculptures at Mount Rushmore. This was just one of the Parks that had been Bill’s responsibility, and it’s a location with loads of highly flammable vegetation, at risk for trash and debris from fireworks with a history of both.
Bill Gabbert and the poster for ONLY THE BRAVE.
I wouldn’t call these efforts “work” for Bill. He loved doing it and being busy and involved “in the thick” of the wildland fire business, long after his official career retirement. These pursuits and activities of his also afforded him the opportunity to indulge in some of his other passions – including photography, motorcycle riding, and meeting up now and then with fire friends, which occasionally included a dark beer or two. His knowledge and networking skills also opened doors for him as a “retired” fire guy to occasionally work on short teams for hurricanes and other disaster response assignments, as well as traveling to international wildland fire events.
A few years after he had his sites up and running he and I had a discussion about the future of the successful work he had accomplished. It was a light conversation on succession, a topic that all organizations must have. I thought Wildfire Today would eventually be an excellent addition to the collection of communication organs that IAWF had developed. Bill had all sorts of new ideas he wanted to try out with the site, so he wasn’t at that point yet really interested, and truthfully IAWF wasn’t really ready yet either.
But the idea stuck in the back of our minds over the years. When Bill learned last year that he was terminally ill, he and IAWF began some talks about how a merger might be managed. I’m pleased to say Bill was happy that the IAWF Board agreed to take on the responsibility of moving Wildfire Today and Fire Aviation into the future — and it is an honor for IAWF to serve in this role. I’m sure he will be whispering in our ears as we advance the work he began and passionately served, as wildland fire news and communications become more vital around the world.
09. December, 2022 — Readers of FireAviation and WildfireToday have probably noticed that we have lately featured fewer-than-usual posts here by Bill Gabbert.
“That’s because I have developed an incurable disease,” says Mr. Gabbert. “I have pancreatic cancer. The symptoms started about September, and the diagnosis came in October. Basically there will be no major changes to either of these websites, but there will be a bit of a transition period that may take us a little while.”
Bill Gabbert and the poster for ONLY THE BRAVE, photo by Wendee Pettis
The WildfireToday site was launched in January 2008 and FireAviation followed four years later in 2012. “I have long had a passion for wildland fire,” says Mr. Gabbert, “and it requires continuous learning. I’ve always been a student of wildfire, and I wanted to create a venue for the fire community that encouraged students of wildfire. I am certain that I don’t want that venue squandered. I therefore have decided to give all rights to both websites to the International Association of Wildland Fire. The IAWF shares my values, and my commitment to preserving these two websites and 15 years of collected data, knowledge, and experience gathered from thousands of people who share our passion for wildland fire.”
REGARDING ADVERTISERS: Bill Gabbert wants you to know that we all appreciate your support for the last 15 years. “We couldn’t have done this without the advertisers,” he says. “We value your support over the years and someone with IAWF will be in touch in the near future about our upcoming plans. The intention is that both websites will continue on mostly without interruption. Our goal is that the knowledge accumulated over the years on these two sites will not be abandoned.”
“Things progressed a lot faster medically here than what was projected,” added Bill, “but we’re doing the best we can.”
REGARDING OUR READERS: Bill Gabbert and the IAWF are committed to maintaining the continuity and quality of both sites and the news and commentary that have made both WildfireToday and FireAviation trusted sources of wildland fire journalism for years.
Bill is interviewed about the Washington DC weather after he had interviewed retiring F&AM director Tom Harbour.
FROM THE IAWF:
Since 2008 Bill Gabbert has developed and published WildfireToday; his journalism and commentary expanded in 2012 to include the FireAviation site.
In these publications we have learned of changes in wildland fire operations and policy and have tracked how wildland fires affect our lives and communities.
Bill was often the first to tell us of fire tragedies and new developments in the field. It is the community he gathered — the experts and sources he knew and depended on and the readers and businesses who supported both sites — that makes these sites what they are.
Bill Gabbert enjoyed the photo exhibit at the Continuum Conference at Missoula in the spring of 2018 and Kari Greer made this portrait of Bill in the gallery.
Today the IAWF honors Bill as a key to both the history and the future of wildland fire in the U.S. and beyond.
As Bill moves on here, he has asked us to manage the future of these publications; it’s an honor and a challenge to steward his legacy.
Evaluation criteria include overall quality and the fit with respect to the conference topic: 
