President’s Perspective
By Trevor Howard
It’s a busy year for IAWF conferences across the globe. The 4th International Smoke Symposium was held in March in Tallahassee, Florida, and the 8th Fire Behaviour and Fuels Conference was in Hobart, Australia, in April. Other events throughout the year include the Wildland Fire Canada Conference in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and the 19th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit in Coimbra, Portugal. The IAWF will also be a partner in other conferences and events in various parts of Europe as well as Australia.
The recent International Smoke Symposium, as a hybrid in-person and online event, was a great success made possible by a dedicated group of committee members as well as the staff at Tall Timbers, the research station and land conservancy. Held in the newly built Leigh Perkins Conservation and Education Center, the program covered smoke modelling, management and communications, human health, and emerging technologies and tools as well as several workshops and fieldtrips. There were opportunities for attendees to observe prescribed burning, a science-based craft that Tall Timbers has a proud history of supporting through fire ecology research, best practice in land stewardship, plus communication and education. It was also a difficult time for many people with strong connections there, with the sad loss of Beadel House in the days prior to the symposium due to a lightning strike and structure fire. Dating from 1895 and built by Edward Beadal, the original homestead was a significant part of regional history and heritage and contained many valuable artifacts, some of which were saved by firefighters.
While I couldn’t attend the Smoke Symposium in person, I was able to be online for some sessions and one of my most rewarding IAWF roles is presenting awards to outstanding members of our wildland fire community. Dr. Faraz Hedayati from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety received the IAWF Early Career Award in Fire Science for his excellent work in wildland urban interface research, fire engineering and building performance, extensive publications, major contributions to learning from disasters and informing policy, and advocacy for mitigation. Deputy Chief Drew Daily from Oklahoma Forestry Services received the IAWF International Wildland Fire Safety Award for his efforts and successes in applying meteorological information to emergency preparedness, public warnings, incident management, firefighting operations and training, with his leadership directly contributing to fire detection, rapid initial attack and the saving of countless lives and properties.
These awards not only recognize two outstanding individuals but also highlight the importance of science in evidence-based policy, actual fire operations and the safety of personnel, as well as the need to support our people at all careers stages to ensure continuous improvement and succession.
Change is inevitable and this edition of Wildfire magazine is the start of a new era. While many of us will always enjoy reading printed documents, the world is changing quickly with ever-increasing printing and distributions costs, the need to be more agile in scheduling and compiling editions, and younger generations being more adept at accessing information online. Many of you will have read our special edition of Wildfire in 2025 in partnership with the Arctic Council which was published in digital and PDF formats only. It covered topics of vital importance to global wildland fire management and was very well-received by members and other readers. From the start of 2026 we will no longer be printing and mailing Wildfire magazine. We will still be doing our utmost to ensure interesting and topical articles for our members and others as well as timely and international exposure for our advertisers and supporters. Wildfire continues to be an important component of IAWF communications, along with the peer-reviewed International Journal of Wildland Fire and our online platform, Wildfire Today, which provides regular news and other information on global fire and aviation and can be read in numerous languages.
For future editions of Wildfire, we also need your help to provide credible, relevant and interesting content on all aspects of wildland fire management and from all corners of the globe. With numerous IAWF and partner conferences across each year, there will be many presentations and posters that will never be written up and published in peer reviewed journals but will be of interest to members of the wildland fire community well beyond those present at the event. This also applies to workshops and field trips and we encourage organisers and facilitators to share the background, journey and outcomes with others. For fire practitioners, operational case studies and lesson learned on tactics, tools and safety are also keenly sought by our readership.
The IAWF was built on the belief that an understanding of fire is vital for natural and cultural resource management, for firefighter safety and community preparedness and protection, and for harmonious interaction between people and their environment. Our purpose includes connecting the global wildland fire community and facilitating the sharing of knowledge and lessons. We encourage and value your contributions.
Trevor Howard is the national manager, prescribed burning strategy, with the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC). Based at the Bushfire Centre of Excellence in Western Australia, Howard leads national capability development for prescribed burning and supports rural fire services, land management agencies and non-government organisations with continual improvement.
