In it's 10th anniversary, the 2005 Wildland Fire Safety Summit will focus on how far the wildland firefighting community has come — and where it needs to go — to improve human factors.

The International Association of Wildland Fire sponsors the conference, scheduled April 26-28, at the University of Montana in Missoula, with support from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group's Safety and Health Working Team, the National Center for Landscape Fire Analysis, and U.S. Forest Service Wildland Fire Research.

The summit will provide attendees with the opportunity to review the impact of the Human Factors Workshop and to develop recommendations for the future. Bob Mutch, USFS (ret.) will present the keynote address.

Breakout groups will identify relevant issues and develop recommendations for remedial actions at the local, regional, national and international levels. The IAWF will present the results to wildland firefighting agencies for their consideration.

Presentations will cover topics such as the wildland firefighting culture, liability issues, the role of leadership, the physiological and sociological aspects of wildland firefighting, and new tools and technology. The poster sessions range from protection of firefighting vehicle crews to identifying why firefighters make unsafe decisions to building group cohesion in Type 2 fire crews.

For more details on the program and travel, lodging and registration, see www.iawfonline.org/summit/index.shtml.