Meet the Founder

Mason Hyland (he/him) is the founder of Tender Fire and currently the sole facilitator of all services and programs offered.

Mason has always had a deep connection with the Land and brings over 25 years’ experience pruning fruit trees, growing food and keeping bees. He also has more than 20 years of experience in ecological vegetation management. The last 15 of those years were spent understanding how to manage ecosystems with fire as a practitioner with expertise in fire science, ecology, permitting processes, fire planning and fire leadership. Together, these skills provide a unique foundation for helping others tend their backyards and confidently plan and implement burns on their own land.

Mason has spent many years educating and mentoring others, and has a kind and gentle way of inspiring deeper connections with the Land, through education programs on plant ecology, integrated pest management, fire ecology and the practice of returning fire to the landscape.  

His mentorship style is rooted in the understanding that we are deeply interconnected with the living world and have a choice in how we show up within those relationships. 

Professionally, Mason has worked in the field of Environmental Science (specifically vegetation management and fire management) since beginning his career with California State Parks in 2006. Prior to moving to Australia, he worked as a senior level scientist and lead for a fire management program that covered more than 120,000 acres of Land.

In this role, he used his position to support partnerships with Indigenous Tribes. He successfully helped return stewardship to the Traditional Custodians of the Land, namely the Amah Mutsun and the Tamien Nation.

He guided the program’s vision and oversaw the implementation of cool burning across landscapes that had not experienced fire for decades. This work was undertaken collaboratively with Indigenous Tribes, where both parties together learnt how to build a healthier relationship to the Land and Fire in a changed landscape.

Mason holds a Bachelors degree of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.