As of November 24, all field trips are sold out. Waitlists for each field trip are linked below. The NASA field trip does not have a waitlist due to requirements regarding submitting attendee lists ahead of time.
Waitlist for North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain field trip
Waitlist for Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge and De Soto National Forest field trip
Waitlist for Honey Island Swamp Tour field trip
Our field trips provide congress attendees with an opportunity to visit nearby natural areas and to learn about ecosystems and fire management in the Southeast. The times given below are estimates, and we do not advise planning flights based on the return time (in case unforeseen situations cause a later than expected return).
- To add a field trip during registration: After confirming your registration type, click Select Ticket Options and check the box for the workshop you wish to attend. If you are already registered, please log in to the AFE portal, go to Events, My Event Registrations, Click Withdraw/Modify, Click Select Ticket Options, Make selections and save. View image of this step.
- Refunds and transfers: You can transfer field trip registration to another person with no charge. You can cancel your field trip registration for a refund until October 31. After that time, refunds will not be issued.
1. NASA Stennis Space Center
This tour will take place on Tuesday, December 2 to visit NASA’s largest largest rocket propulsion test site and learn about the management of ecologically important natural areas serving as a buffer zone.
Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Departure Time: 8:00am
Estimated Return Time: 2:00pm
Cost: $40 (lunch not included)
The Stennis Space Center (SSC) in south Mississippi is focused on the mission of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) while managing large ecologically important natural areas serving as a buffer zone. The center is NASA’s largest (and primary) rocket propulsion test site. The test site covers 13,800 acres but has a 125,000 acre buffer zone that was historically dominated by longleaf pine and slash pine flatwoods savanna and swamps along the Pearl River. It is currently managed with fire to varying degrees. SSC was formed in 1961 in response to a need for a more isolated site for rocket testing, and it was named after John C. Stennis, a Mississippi senator. There are numerous rocket test stands at SSC, as well as a visitor center, facilities of over 30 government agencies (including agencies within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Geological Survey, the Navy, and the Coast Guard), facilities of 2 universities (Mississippi State University and The University of Southern Mississippi), and 3 commercial facilities. On this field trip, you will interact with staff and visit one of the rocket test stands, as well as a tour of the Wetlands Mitigation Bank created in anticipation of future construction activities impacting wetlands in the buffer zone. This mitigation bank is being restored to longleaf/slash pine savanna and cypress/pine savanna. The tour is limited to U.S. citizens able to provide a Real ID for entry. Field clothes, including long pants and closed-toe shoes are required.
2. North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain
This field trip will take you on a tour of pine communities and marshes north of New Orleans with an emphasis on plant community composition and fire management.
Date: Saturday, December 6, 2025
Departure Time: 8:00am
Estimated Return Time: 5:00pm
Cost: $60 (lunch not included)
This field trip will take you on a tour of pine communities and marshes north of New Orleans from the highest to lowest points on the topographic gradient with an emphasis on plant community composition and fire management. The tour will be led in part by life-long Louisiana naturalists and conservation leaders Nelwyn McGuinness and Latimore Smith. The tour will start with upland longleaf pine savanna at the Money Hill private property northeast of Abita Springs, Louisiana. The natural longleaf pine communities are managed with fire by The Nature Conservancy. Then we will visit the adjacent Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve, which is owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy. The preserve contains bayhead swamps, longleaf and slash pine flatwood savanna, and slash pine-pond cypress woodlands, supporting many rare and insectivorous plant species and a rare crawfish species and two rare grassland bird species. The site was long-fire-excluded when purchased and continues to be restored with prescribed fire, restoration timbering, planting longleaf pine, controlling non-native invasive species, and use of herbicide as needed. Information on lunch has been sent to field trip participants. Next on the field trip is a canoe/kayak tour through the Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The refuge has over 18,000 acres including freshwater and brackish marsh that are managed with prescribed fire by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, who will be present to meet with us. The site also has hardwood forest hammocks, pine savannas, freshwater and brackish marsh, bald cypress-tupelo forest, and bayous. Shorebirds and waterfowl are found in the marshes, and the marshes help buffer local communities from storm surges.
3. Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge and De Soto National Forest
This tour will include visits to two federal agency lands using prescribed fire in the face of significant wildland-urban interface (WUI) challenges.
Date: Saturday, December 6, 2025
Departure Time: 8:00am
Estimated Return Time: 5:00pm
Cost: $60 (lunch not included)
This tour will include visits to two federal agency lands using prescribed fire in the face of significant wildland-urban interface (WUI) challenges. The Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge in southern Mississippi covers 19,300 acres dominated by wet pine savannas providing critical habitat for many wildlife species including migratory songbirds and waterfowl and endangered Mississippi sandhill cranes. Fire management staff will talk about the challenge of maintaining a frequent prescribed fire regime despite being adjacent to Interstate 10. They are using cutting edge drone technology for ecological monitoring. The refuge has the largest contiguous area of high-diversity pitcher plant-hatpin savanna in the southeastern U.S. and provides habitat to rare wildlife species such as the sandhill crane and gopher frog. De Soto National Forest in southern Mississippi covers over 500,000 acres of which much is dominated by longleaf pine forests and savannas, both upland and flatwoods. Forest Service staff will discuss the challenges of burning with extensive WUI from inholdings throughout the area. We will either stop for lunch at a local restaurant or have boxed lunches available for purchase; this information will be shared soon.
4. Honey Island Swamp Tour
This fun trip will get you out of the water to visit the beautiful Honey Island Cypress Swamp.
Date: Saturday, December 6, 2025
Departure Time from hotel: 11:00am (boat tour begins at 12:15pm)
Estimated Return Time: 3:30pm
Cost: $60
The boat tour is operated by a local company Dr. Wagner’s Honey Island Swamp Tours, which has been in operation for more than 40 years and uses small boats to allow deep access into the swamp. Honey Island earned its name because of the honeybees once seen on a nearby island. A tract of bottomland timber lying between the East Pearl and West Pearl rivers, Honey Island is between three and seven miles wide and 15 to 20 miles long. IA guide will share information about the local information along the boat tour and during transport to and from the swamp. Wildlife in the swamp that may be seen include alligators, bald eagles, waterfowl, herons, egrets, ibis, owls, osprey, deer, feral hogs, nutria, raccoon, otter, beaver, mink, turtles, frogs. The boat tour is about 2 hours long.