JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Want to use prescribed fire to manage property? Want to gain experience using prescribed fire? A Prescribed Burn Association (PBA) may be the answer. Through their neighbor-helping-neighbor function, PBAs can help provide equipment, experience, training, and people power for prescribed burns. 

Prescribed fire is an affordable and effective tool for accomplishing land-management goals. It can reduce fuel loads to lessen the intensity and chance of wildfire, help restore native plant communities, enhance wildlife habitat, improve livestock forage production, regenerate merchantable trees, and control invasive species. 

The responsible use of fire can benefit both people and land resources, especially when community members join forces through a Prescribed Burn Association (PBA). A PBA is a group of landowners and other community members who come together to conduct prescribed burns more effectively and safely. The members pool their knowledge, experience, equipment, and peoplepower to help others in their association conduct prescribed burns.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is partnering with the Missouri Prescribed Fire Council, Quail Forever, and other conservation partners to host a PBA Interest Meetings for landowners and others in Pike and Lincoln counties on Aug. 15 at 6 p.m. at the Pike-Lincoln Technical Center Community Room, 342 Vo Tech Road in Eolia. Participants must register in advance at bit.ly/Pike-Lincoln_PBA. 

For more information about the meeting, contact Wesley Hanks at whanks@quailforever.org.

For more information about prescribed fire, visit moprescribedfire.org/pba-faqs.