2024 Klamath River Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (KTREX)

The Western Klamath Restoration Partnership (WKRP), which includes the Mid Klamath Watershed Council (MKWC), Karuk Tribe, Salmon River Restoration Council (SRRC), and regional partners, conducted multiple prescribed burns on private lands again last fall, for the eleventh year in a row. Since 2014, WKRP partners have hosted the Klamath River Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (KTREX), in this fire-prone landscape, and from the beginning the event has brought dozens of organizations and hundreds of participants together to “learn and burn together” on some of the most complex, steep, and rugged terrain that makes up the ecologically diverse Klamath Mountains. Effectively, KTREX has built expertise in the community to conduct controlled burning without federal and state agencies, entities that have long held the sole authority to do so. Creating this capacity for prescribed fire has supported the growth of local fire programs to safeguard homes and neighborhoods so they can be better prepared for the next wildfire, whenever it comes. In 2023 and 2024, KTREX downsized from an average of 90 participants, including some from outside the community, to a locally focused event that prioritized advancing the skills of people in the area.

After hosting the event for many years, we realized our goal of setting up a local Type III Incident Management Team (IMT). KTREX adheres to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group standards and qualifications, which provides national leadership for wildland fire operations which made this possible. Having community members with these qualifications enables local managers to take control of less severe, complex wildfires in the area at any given time. This gives us the tools to engage with “beneficial fire” on a scale that cannot be reached on the landscape otherwise. This ability empowers local people to take action to counteract severe, megafire impacts that we have seen cause increasing devastation. In recent years, state and federal policy has shifted, acknowledging the critical importance of this work, and that’s been backed by funding to support efforts reaching meaningful scales. 

KTREX has not only developed expertise in fire management locally but it’s grown a community interested in fire. It’s helped change the fear of fire into an appreciation of the positive and beneficial effects it can have. Fire and forestry programs within the Karuk Tribe and MKWC have grown substantially since KTREX began. Between these organizations and SRRC, despite many restrictions on implementing prescribed fire, we were able to take advantage of all but six possible burn days in 2024, which was a significant accomplishment. We look forward to continuing to grow this great work in the near and long-term, together.

Learn more at wkrp.network