People attending Sundayโs presentation on the history of wildland fire in Florida walked away with a simple message: Fire is not the enemy.
โOf the 42 community types in Florida, 16 are considered fire-dependent,โ said Raelene Crandall, a fire ecologist and associate professor at the University of Florida, who led the talk, โKeep on Burninโ: The History of Wildland Fire in Florida,โ at the Hogtown Creek Headwaters Nature Center. โIf we donโt burn it, we lose it.โ
The talk, part of Gainesvilleโs Perspectives in the Park series, delved into the often misunderstood role of fire in Floridaโs natural landscapes, blending Indigenous knowledge with modern science to reframe how the public views wildfire and prescribed burns.
One of the biggest messages that Crandall reiterated throughout the talk was that prescribed fire is not the same as wildfire.
โWe use the word โprescribedโ on purpose because that implies that weโre actually writing down what weโre going to do and planning it out,โ said Crandall.
