Our Mission

The purpose of the North Florida Prescribed Burn Association (NFPBA) is to facilitate the safe and effective use of prescribed fire by promoting landowner cooperation and providing the resources, education, and training necessary to return fire to its place as a tool for ecosystem maintenance.

Our History

On February 18, 2016 Joe Prenger, FWC Landowner Assistance Program Administrator, responded to an email sent out suggesting among other things that some sort of help from the FWC in setting up "a list of landowners (and others) who join.......a co-op with the understanding that they will help one-another" in accomplishing prescribed burns would be a good use of FWC resources. The payoff offered as reasoning for this help from the FWC's perspective being that their goal of improving habitat would be furthered. Mr. Prenger's response included the following: "As a matter of fact, we are actively looking into developing one or more Prescribed Burn Associations”. His email ended with this: “We will do our best to implement your suggestion!“ Implicit in his response of course was the idea that the FWC would be helping landowners help themselves and thereby acting as a force multiplier, basically getting more for the State’s dollars that are spent enhancing wildlife habitat. The series of communications was hopeful, though a path was unclear. Fast forward to the present, and what we have is proof that Mr. Prenger, and all the FWC folks who have been so instrumental in nurturing this along, were true to their word. What we also have proof of is, that the old American idea of helping one's neighbor is alive and well, even if that neighbor is over in the next county.

NFPBA was formally created on 1/28/18 with a meeting at Austin Cary Memorial Forest with the adoption of a Charter, election of a Board and Officers, and forming several committees. Since then we have been moving forward educating NFPBA members about the many aspects of safely planning for and conducting prescribed fire, managing habitat for wildlife, actually helping each other conduct prescribed burns, and helping members obtain Certified Prescribed Burn Manager certification by the State of Florida. We are a 501c3 non-profit corporation.