Fire Education Programs

Public education is key to the success of fire management.

Fire Education Symbol from US Government Symbols Catalog

Education can improve the character of forest resources.

Fire is an important issue to the public, and public understanding is key to natural resource managers’ ability to effectively manage fire. Understanding the role of fire will help landowners and land users appreciate and support the efforts of federal, state, local, and tribal fire management organizations.

The effects of fire education can be positive because it can increase public support for natural resource managers; but there are numerous obstacles to fire education that can make it difficult to influence public attitudes about fire. Scientists have designed and experimented with numerous methods for fire education that, if implemented by managers, can be used in effective educational and public relations campaigns.

This section of the encyclopedia contains brief summaries of fire education programs with links to websites with more information. Most of the programs listed in the summaries are ones that can be found on the World Wide Web. Please contact your local land management agencies to find out more about the many excellent fire education efforts that are not accessible through the Internet and that are not referenced in the section.

Here is a list of the federal, state, interagency, and non-governmental organizations whose fire education programs are discussed in this section of the encyclopedia:

A Conservation Education Circle

Federal Fire Education Programs

• USDA Forest Service
• Fire Science Lab
• US Department of Interior
• Bureau of Land Management
• US Fish and Wildlife Service
• US Geological Survey
• National Park Service
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• National Fire Protection Association
• National Symbols Catalog

State Fire Education Programs

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Virginia

Interagency Fire Education Programs

• National Fire Plan
• National Interagency Fire Council
• National Wildfire Coordinating Group
• Firewise
• Interagency Fire Education Initiative
• Southern Group of State Foresters
• LANDFIRE
• National Wildfire Programs Database
• Cooperative Extension Agencies
• Wildland Fire Education Toolkit
• Prescribed Fire Councils
• Student Conservation Association Fire Education Corps
• Restoring Fire Adapted Ecosystems
• Southern Fire Portal
• Project Learning Tree
• Community Preparedness for Wildfire Case Studies
• Federal Alliance for Home Safety (FLASH)
• Science Museum of Western Virginia

Non-Governmental Fire Education Programs

• The Nature Conservancy
• Tall Timbers Research Station
• Nova
• National Geographic Society
• Discovery Channel
• Eastern National
• Lowe’s
• Pandion Systems, Inc.
• Interactive Training Media, Inc.
• Allstate