The Central Appalachians FLN engages federal, state and private land managers in a collaborative effort to enhance capacity to implement ecological fire management in the Central Appalachian Forest, Western Allegheny Plateau, and Cumberlands and Southern Ridge and Valley ecoregions. The landscapes include rolling and mountainous terrain, hardwood and mixed–pine hardwood forests, pine-oak-heath shrublands and woodlands, small-patch grasslands including hillside prairies and cedar glades and high levels of species endemism.
Within this biologically diverse region, the FLN seeks to:
- collaborate with stakeholders to strengthen the scientific basis for landscape-scale fire management, and develop landscape-scale desired future condition and fire management objectives;
- transfer knowledge and lessons learned to facilitate ecological objective setting, effective stakeholder engagement, efficient compliance with regulatory requirements, and funding of ecological fire management projects; and
- identify critical barriers to implementing restoration of fire adapted ecosystems, and develop strategies to overcome these barriers;
in order to achieve tangible and measurable progress in restoration of fire adapted ecosystems at demonstration sites throughout the network.
