FUSEE's Monthly Newsletter
August 2026
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In this issue:
- Climate Change and Changing Fire
- Nominate FUSEE for Eugene Weekly's Best of Eugene
- Torchbearer for a New Paradigm: Welcoming Nick to the FUSEE Crew
- FUSEE in the News
- Upcoming Events
- pickAxe Director's Cut film screening
- *Sold Out* Living With Fire Film Festival
- Warner Creek 30th Anniversary Celebration
- The Fire Practitioners Virtual Film Screening
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FUSEE's Fall Fire Festival (Tickets on Sale Now)
- Recent Events
- Wildland Firefighter Wellness
- Why I Support FUSEE
- Give from a Donor Advised Fund (DAF)
| | Climate Change and Changing Fire | | |
The 2026 wildfire year is sending a message that firefighters and fire ecologists have been warning about for years: the fire environment is changing, and we cannot meet this new reality with last century's approach to wildfire.
Across the West, firefighters are confronting increasingly hot, dry, and volatile conditions. A warming climate, flash droughts, heat waves, reduced snowpack, and prolonged dry periods are creating landscapes that dry out faster, burn longer, and produce increasingly extreme fire behavior across millions of acres.
| | Source: Oregon Dept. of Forestry | | |
For FUSEE, this raises a fundamental question: Why are we asking firefighters to take greater risks in an increasingly dangerous fire environment while simultaneously reducing the workforce and resources available to them?
After the tragedies at the Knowles fire this June, we must take a hard look at how and why firefighters are deployed. Crew and community safety must come first. A one-size-fits-all “attack-all-fires” approach is not a safe or sustainable strategy for our changing climate.
We must rethink what it means to manage fire. Our firefighters cannot be expected to endlessly chase increasingly extreme fires across an increasingly flammable landscape. FUSEE has long argued that the escalating costs and risks of suppression are evidence that we need a different relationship with fire on the land.
It means using prescribed fire and, where conditions allow, managing naturally ignited fires for ecological benefits. It means protecting fire-adapted ecosystems rather than treating every acre of forest as a fuel problem. Fire exclusion and decades of aggressive suppression have disrupted many of those relationships with fire. At the same time, climate change is pushing fire regimes beyond the conditions under which conventional wildfire suppression was developed. We cannot aggressively "fight" our way out of a changing climate. We can and must change our fire policies and practices to adapt to changing fire.
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Help FUSEE be recognized as the "Best of" by readers of the Eugene Weekly. You don't need to live in Eugene to nominate or vote.
Go to the Weekly's voting website, review the basic rules, go to the civics category, and nominate us as the best environmental advocates! Thanks for your support ❤️🔥
| | | Torchbearer for a New Paradigm: Welcoming Nick to the FUSEE Crew | | |
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A senior at the University of Oregon in Planning, Public Policy, and Management with a minor in Nonprofit Administration, Nick works as a scholarship programs coordinator for a rural fire-recovery nonprofit, where he's built fundraising events, donor pathways, and preparedness campaigns from the ground up to support the people who lived through fire. He doesn't want to look back on his life and see a montage of chasing profit, but a history of uplifting the unseen and unsupported to build communities that are sustainable and equitable.
In his free time, you'll find him biking along the river, hiking around waterfall trails in the PNW, or just enjoying good company.
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Six ways advocates and organizations can practice solidarity for environmental justice
August 7, 2026
Resilience
"FUSEE, an organization promoting ecological fire management, has repeatedly announced that “Fire melts ICE” and “Fire and ICE don’t mix,” opposing the detention and deportation of wildland firefighters... They continue to amplify calls for Tribal sovereignty and support Indigenous cultural burning practices. This includes the impressive work of FireGeneration Collaborative, which aims to transform fire culture by centering Indigenous leadership and diverse young people."
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pickAxe Director's Cut film screening
August 22nd doors at 7pm
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*Sold Out* Living With Fire Film Festival
August 23rd at 7pm
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Warner Creek 30th Anniversary Celebration
August 24th 6:30-10pm
| We can't wait to celebrate 30 years with you! Find us tabling, speaking, and sharing stories from the past and visions for the future. | | |
The Fire Practitioners Virtual Film Screening
September 8th 5:30pm
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We will be hosting a virtual screening of the new film The Fire Practitioners.
Suggested donation $10-20 sliding scale. Members join free!
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FUSEE's Fall Fire Festival
October 16th 6pm-12am
| | Thank you Oakshire Commons for hosting FUSEE for their recent Oakshire Inspires Benefit! We got to connect with local supporters and enjoy Oakshire's always delicious offerings. | | | Fire Ecology Hike with Bark | We partnered with Bark for a Fire Ecology Hike in Mt. Hood National Forest. It was the most beautiful and educational experience. Thanks to those who joined! | | | Wildland Firefighter Wellness | | |
We are still accepting applications for all three retreats coming up this fall and winter. Go to fusee.org/retreats to learn more and apply.
| We recently shared this Wellness Resource list on our social media. Please feel free to download, print, or distribute to crewmates and friends as you see fit. Sending love to all the wildland firefighters this tough fire season! | | | |
“In a hotter and more combustible world, it is essential to support a paradigm of safe, ethical, and ecological relationships with fire. FUSEE does this, and more.
From local fire preparedness to policy advocacy, FUSEE educates, advocates, and agitates to situate fire within ecological conditions and cycles— not as an enemy to be vanquished, but as a force to wisely understand and engage. And beyond all the good reasons to support FUSEE, I deeply enjoy being part of its energized community, including the excellent excursions and fundraising events that bring people together.”
- Professor Michael Dreiling; University of Oregon, Sociology
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| | We gladly accept donations through Donor Advised Funds (DAFs). You will need to provide your DAF sponsor with our information: Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology (FUSEE), EIN 20-1094311, and address 2852 Willamette #125, Eugene, OR 97405. | |
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Learn more at fusee.org
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