Duff in the Coastal Plain Fire Science Workshop

Southern Fire Exchange and Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists

April 15, 2026 - 8:30am-4:30pm - Carolina Beach, NC

This workshop, hosted by Southern Fire Exchange and the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists, will provide landowners and fire professionals with scientific presentations, field demonstrations, and planning tools to help assess duff conditions, plan effective burns, and protect legacy and economically important trees. This workshop will facilitate an increased understanding of duff fire management and mitigation practices.

Reintroducing fire into long-unburned forests has led to unexpected tree mortality. In many cases, valuable overstory trees, important for wildlife habitat and cultural history, have died following prescribed burns due to large accumulations of soil organic horizons, often referred to as duff. Sites with heavy duff loads continue to present persistent and pressing challenges for prescribed fire managers in the montane region of North Carolina. Research funded by the Joint Fire Science Program has revealed that thick layers of dry duff around tree bases ignite and burn slowly, damaging roots, causing stress, and resulting in tree death. These findings shifted fire management strategies toward gradually reducing duff layers rather than immediately restoring open forest structure. This workshop, hosted by Southern Fire Exchange and the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists, will support this approach by providing scientific presentations, field demonstrations, and planning tools to help land managers assess duff conditions, plan effective burns, and protect legacy and economically important trees. Emphasis will be placed on practical, low-cost techniques, like duff moisture testing and multi-stage burns, making fire science accessible and actionable for a wide range of landowners and fire practitioners.

Snacks and lunch will be provided. Lodging will not be provided nor will there be discounted rates offered.

We anticipate participants will be eligible for Society of American Foresters CFE credit.

Learn more about the workshop curriculum by reading the official agenda.

Sarah Cain (sacain2@ncsu.edu), Lindsey Hosier (lindsey@cafms.org), David Godwin (drg2814@ufl.edu), and Adam Coates (acoates4@vt.edu) are the project management team for this workshop. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact any member of the project management team.