Changing Roles: WUI Professional Development Program

Natural resource agencies are being called upon to provide solutions to increasingly complex challenges at the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Communities are growing rapidly, landowners’ management goals often conflict, residents may not understand the benefits of resource management, and the resulting risks to environmental quality and human quality of life are becoming more apparent. To help meet these needs, the Southern Group of State Foresters led a partnership with the USDA Forest Service, InterfaceSouth, the University of Florida, School of Forest Resources and Conservation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop this WUI professional development program. This program provides state and federal natural resource agencies with a set of flexible resources to conduct their own training programs, aimed toward building skills and tools to successfully tackle WUI issues.