Join Us in Beautiful San Diego for the Beneficial Fire Summit!

The Beneficial Fire Summit will be held December 7-11, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina in San Diego, California. This event aims to bring together practitioners, researchers, community members, Tribes, agencies, NGOs, PBAs, and others to celebrate recent progress, share insights and ideas, and advance our collective work in beneficial fire. The program will focus on all three components of beneficial fire—prescribed fire, cultural fire, and managed wildfire—in California and across the West. This won’t be a typical conference! We hope to create an engaging, productive space, with workshops, field tours, focused sessions, and plenty of time for networking and connection. 

Schedule

  • Monday, December 7: Cooperator meetings, field trips, workshops, and welcome reception
  • Tuesday, December 8 – Thursday, December 10: Keynote plenary sessions and concurrent sessions, with each day being centered around a theme
    • Tuesday: Cultural Fire and Local Connections
    • Wednesday: Managed Wildfire and Cross-Border Connections
    • Thursday: Policy and Moving Forward
  • Friday, December 11: Field trips, workshops, and cooperator meetings

Registration

Registration is now open! Registration rates include a discount for Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) members, one day only registrations, a sliding fee rate, and a volunteer rate. AFE is offering 15 registration scholarships intended to help those who need financial assistance to attend the event, and travel support for Indigenous participants may be available through the Indigenous Stewardship Network. Click here to learn more about registration!

Sponsors and Exhibitors

We are grateful for our event sponsors and exhibitors! We would like to give a special thank you to our Platinum Sponsor, CAL FIRE, our Gold Sponsor, UC ANR Fire Network, and our Silver Sponsors, California Fire Science Consortium, Indigenous Stewardship Network, and Tall Timbers. Click here to view the full list of Beneficial Fire Summit sponsors and exhibitors.

We welcome additional sponsors and exhibitors! Click here to learn more about supporting this event, and make the most out of this opportunity to network with the wildland fire community and showcase your agency, business, or organization by committing today.

Poster Proposals

The Call for Special Sessions, Workshops, and Oral Presentations is now closed. We will continue to accept poster presentations as space allows. 

Book Your Room

Reserve your room at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina at the group rate. The group rate is available until November 23 and is based on room availability, so book today!  

Sponsor and Exhibit

Support the event through a sponsorship, or sign up to be an exhibitor and network throughout the week with conference attendees.  

Who should attend?

All are invited to join us in San Diego! However, the Summit will focus on California and the West, with a special emphasis on southern California and Baja California, given our unique setting near the border. Even if you’re from other parts of the country and world, there will be many opportunities for you to contribute, share, and celebrate! We are also inviting posters, presentations, and special sessions in Spanish, as you’ll see in the Call for Proposals.
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