Fire Communication & Education
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Scientists in and beyond academia face considerable challenges to effectively sharing science, including lack of time and training, systemic disincentives, and the complexity of the modern media/attention landscape. Considering these constraints, 3 achievable shifts in mindset and practice can substantively enhance science communication efforts. Here, we provide evidence-based and experientially informed advice on how to center shared values, articulate science communication goals, and leverage the power of stories to advance our communication goals in connection with the values we share with our stakeholders. In addition to a discussion of relevant, foundational principles in science communication, we provide actionable recommendations and tools scientists can immediately use to articulate their values, identify shared values between stakeholders, set science communication goals, and use storytelling as a means of building and reinforcing relationships around shared values, thereby working productively to achieve those goals
Webinar recording.
Climate change is increasing the frequency, severity, and extent of area burned by wildfires in the U.S., putting more people at risk of exposure to fire itself and to smoke, which can travel thousands of miles and affect the health of millions of people. A.R. “Ravi” Ravishankara (Colorado State University) will moderate a conversation between Sarah Coefield (Missoula City-County Health Department) and Erica Fischer (Oregon State University) about how planners and decision makers are coping with these challenges and working to protect the built environment and human health.
Workshop website.
This Workshop is considered “mission critical” for anyone working on these issues in local, state, Tribal and federal agencies, and organizations as well as non-governmental organizations and private companies. There is no other forum in the nation that provides these opportunities.
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Overall, scientists more engaged with SWFSC reported involvement in a wider variety of knowledge coproduction activities. However, some knowledge coproduction activities, especially those requiring greater time investment or facing institutional barriers (e.g., research collaboration) were less common among all participants. Most scientists involved in knowledge coproduction believed that SWFSC increased their participation in these activities outside the boundary organization context, in part because SWFSC provided opportunities to interact with and understand the needs of managers/practitioners, as well as build research collaborations. Findings indicate that boundary organizations, such as SWFSC, can foster knowledge coproduction, but that they may need to further explore ways to address challenges for knowledge coproduction activities that involve greater time commitment or institutional challenges.
Check back for upcoming virtual workshop opportunities and curriculum materials.
Engage your students in hands-on activities to explore climate change and wildfire in the Southwest! This standards-aligned curriculum unit developed in coordination with the USDA Southwest Climate Hub uses experiments, games, demonstrations, and a group project to introduce students to how increased temperature and changes in precipitation affect wildfire risk in ecosystems. In this workshop, you will hear from an expert in the field, participate in a Q&A session, and then get training to implement these lessons in your classroom. Participating teachers will receive a $50 stipend and the opportunity to win raffle prizes.
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This study assesses the affordances and constraints of each of these figures for helping and/or hindering fire management. It considers how some forms of nostalgia position particular humans as heroes and fire as a villain, how others prioritize the communities that come together to face catastrophic fire events, and how some romanticize Indigenous burning practices. Drawing on knowledge from fire science, human geography, and the environmental humanities, we suggest that a more nuanced understanding of nostalgia can be useful for fire management and for finding healthier ways of living with more fire in the future.
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Representations of fire in the U.S. are often tinged with nostalgia: for unburned landscapes, for less frequent fires, for more predictable fire behavior, or for a simpler, more harmonious relationship between human communities and wildfire. Our perspective piece identifies four prevalent nostalgic figures that recur in popular representations of wildfire: the Giant Sequoia, the Heroic Firefighter engaged in “the Good Fight”, the Lone Frontiersman, and the “Noble Savage”. We assess the affordances and constraints of each of these figures for helping and/or hindering fire management. We consider how some forms of nostalgia position particular humans as heroes and fire as a villain, how others prioritize the communities that come together to face catastrophic fire events, and how some romanticize Indigenous burning practices. Drawing on knowledge from fire science, human geography, and the environmental humanities, we suggest that a more nuanced understanding of nostalgia can be useful for fire management and for finding healthier ways of living with more fire in the future
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The Fireshed Registry is a geospatial dashboard for land managers and decision makers to view and map a vast array of data related to wildfire transmission, past, present, and future management, and past and predicted wildfires. The Registry covers the full continental U.S and includes 192 million hectares of forest land. Fireshed delineations within the tool are not limited by administrative, jurisdictional, or other anthropogenic boundaries.
Webinar recording.
Description: In this webinar, Kira Hoffman will describe some of the factors that have contributed to the recent impactful wildfire seasons experienced in British Columbia in the last five years. She will discuss some of the barriers to applying controlled fire to the broader landbase and the importance of supporting Indigenous-led fire stewardship.
Presenter: Kira Hoffman is a fire ecologist and former wildland firefighter. Hoffman’s research focuses on how humans have used fire for millennia to manage and enhance their natural surroundings. In concert with Indigenous and local ecological knowledge, she uses western science to better understand how present-day forests have been shaped by stewardship techniques such as burning and how ongoing fire suppression has eroded the resiliency of landscapes and human communities. From field expeditions sampling fire-scarred trees to historical photograph interpretation and remote sensing imagery, her methods also integrate a range of disciplines including dendrochronology, botany, and archaeology. Currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of British Columbia, she is passionate about linking knowledge to action through science communication and supporting Indigenous-led solutions to environmental problems.
Webinar recording.
Presenter: Sarah McCaffrey
Description: Fire management in the United States is currently facing numerous challenges. While many of these challenges involve questions about how to increase pace and scale of fuels treatments and adapt to longer, sometimes year-round, fire seasons and more frequent extreme fires, there is also a need to adapt wildfire communication efforts to changing fire management needs and practices. This presentation will discuss insights from two decades of fire social science research about a range of topics to consider in improving wildfire communication including issues with conflation of language (prevention is not mitigation), when more rather than less complex explanations may be merited, and the need to account for how fire fits in everyday lives. The presentation will draw from general Communication, Natural Hazards, and Risk Communication theory, as well as specific fire social science research findings, about topics and approaches that are more or less likely to resonate with the public.