Beneficial Fire summit

December 7-11, 2026 - San Diego, California

The Beneficial Fire Summit will be held December 7-11, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina in San Diego, California. This event aims to bring together practitioners, researchers, community members, Tribes, agencies, NGOs, PBAs, and others to celebrate recent progress, share insights and ideas, and advance our collective work in beneficial fire. The program will focus on all three components of beneficial fire—prescribed fire, cultural fire, and managed wildfire—in California and across the West. This won’t be a typical conference! We hope to create an engaging, productive space, with workshops, field tours, focused sessions, and plenty of time for networking and connection. 

This event is a collaboration with the Association for Fire Ecology, UC ANR Fire Network, California Fire Science Consortium, Northern California Prescribed Fire Council, Tall Timbers Research Station, and University of Nevada Extension/Living With Fire.

Call for Proposals

We invite your proposals for sessions and presentations for the Beneficial Fire Summit. We are accepting proposals for special sessions, poster and oral presentations, workshops, attached meetings, and related activities. The program will focus on all three components of beneficial fire: prescribed fire, cultural fire, and managed wildfire. Although the event’s geographic focus is California and nearby western states, we welcome participation from beneficial fire practitioners, researchers, community leaders, and partners across the United States and internationally.

The call for proposals closes September 1st - because sessions and presentation opportunities are limited, we highly recommend submitting your abstract as early as possible. Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Schedule

• Monday, December 7: Cooperator meetings, field trips, workshops, and welcome reception

• Tuesday, December 8 - Thursday, December 10: Keynote plenary sessions and concurrent sessions, with each day being centered around a theme

  • Tuesday: Cultural Fire and Local Connections

  • Wednesday: Managed Wildfire and Cross-Border Connections

  • Thursday: Policy and Moving Forward

• Friday, December 11: Field trips, workshops, and Statewide California PBA Meeting

Registration

Registration is now open! Registration rates include a discount for Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) members, one day only registrations, a sliding fee rate, and a volunteer rate. AFE is offering 15 registration scholarships intended to help those who need financial assistance to attend the event, and travel support for Indigenous participants may be available through the Indigenous Stewardship Network. Click here to learn more about registration!

Sponsors and Exhibitors

We are grateful for our event sponsors and exhibitors! We would like to give a special thank you to our Platinum Sponsor, CAL FIRE, our Gold Sponsor, UC ANR Fire Network, and our Silver Sponsors, California Fire Science Consortium, Indigenous Stewardship Network, and Tall Timbers. Click here to view the full list of Beneficial Fire Summit sponsors and exhibitors.

We welcome additional sponsors and exhibitors! Click here to learn more about supporting this event, and make the most out of this opportunity to network with the wildland fire community and showcase your agency, business, or organization by committing today.