The second annual Columbia Gorge Prescribed Fire Training Exchange is underway in Trout Lake.  The Columbia Gorge TREX is a collaborative interagency training program that aims to grow prescribed fire workforce capacity while reducing wildfire risk.  The event will bring over 30 fire practitioners and trainees from across the region to the Trout Lake area to engage in peer-to-peer learning and hands-on prescribed fire training.  It’s hosted by Mt. Adams Resource Stewards of Glenwood.  The first week of the event, from September 22 to 28, will largely include classroom training sessions on prescribed fire operations, smoke management, fire behavior and ecology, and other relevant topics.  Later in the week and throughout October, participants will perform prescribed fires on lands owned by the Forest Service, Mt. Adams Resource Stewards, Washington DNR and Columbia Land Trust, as conditions allow.  Program officials say they will be providing updates intermittently over the next few weeks, and will particularly focus our outreach on days that we intend to burn.