Non-Governmental Fire Education Programs

The Nature Conservancy (TNC)

The Nature Conservancys Fire Initiative aims restore the Earth’s natural fire processes.  TNC uses prescribed fire to manage their properties that are located in fire-maintained ecosystems.  TNC operates a firefighter training program.  TNC’s fire management program has many projects with federal, state, and local organizations.  For example, the North American Fire Learning Network is a partnership between TNC, the USDA Forest Service, and the USDA Department of Interior with support from the National Fire Plan whose goals are to apply the best available fire science tools to fire-altered ecosystems and deliver lessons learned in a fire management to partner agencies, tribes, and private landowners. TNC office at Babcock Park, FL is a demonstration of firewise landscaping. They are working to educate residents about strategies to reduce risk on the Lake Wales Ridge.

Tall Timbers Research Station (TTRS)

Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, Florida produces the E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database and its companion tool the Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Thesaurus.  The database indexes more than 5,000 bibliographic items devoted to the Southern region and it also includes, 1) all papers and abstracts from 21 Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings, 2) information collected by E.V. “Ed” Komarek, widely acknowledged as a founding father of fire ecology, and 3) papers authored and collected by other notable researchers and practitioners based in the southeast.  The TTRS Thesaurus was authored by Tall Timbers staff including librarians and a senior fire ecologist.  It is based on principles of ecology, fire science and information studies.  It is a proven product for indexing in the field of fire science.  Keyword topics can be combined with geographic designators and scientific names in Boolean searches targeted at the information needs of individualized users.  "Fire in the Southland" is a film produced by TTRS portrays the history and effects of prescribed fire in southern Florida. (Thorsen and Kirkbride 1998).

Nova

Nova has a website supporting the film “Fire Wars” which is a documentary about the Arrowhead Hotshots and their work as firefighters during the 2000 fire season.  The website provides lesson plans (including sample test questions) for teachers, ideas from teachers who have used the film, interactive media for students (“Where Growth Meets Growth” and “Fire Statistics”), viewing ideas, and other classroom activities.  The website defines which National Education Standards align with the Fire Wars materials.

National Geographic Society

“Fire Call: A Wildland Firefighter Speaks” is a short video about Norbert Schuster’s experiences as a wildland firefighter.  The National Geographic website has numerous articles about fire including “Rare Burst of Blooms Shows Bright Side of Wildfires” and “Women Smokejumpers: Fighting Fires, Stereotypes.”

Discovery Channel

DiscoverySchool.com contains instructional tools for educators, students, and parents.  For instance, teachers can access a fire ecology lesson plan and video for grades 9-12.  Earth Alert is a Discovery.com service that tracks current fires burning around the globe.

Eastern National

Eastern National operates efire.org an online store of educational literature related to fire.

Lowe’s

The Lowes website provides information about designing a home landscape, creating defensible space, and the fire-resistant building materials and fire-resistant plants that are available to its customers.

Pandion Systems, Inc.

Pandion Systems in Gainesville, Florida designs and delivers environmental education programs.  Among other projects, Pandion works with the Florida Division of Forestry to deliver teacher workshops on the program “Fire in Florida’s Ecosystems”.

Interactive Training Media, Inc. (ITM)

ITM in Tallahassee, Florida produces interactive training media such as CD-ROMS to teach K-12 students about forest management.

Allstate

The Allstate website provides assistance for customers whose property has been damaged by wildfire.  Be Cool About Fire Safety contains tips for protecting property from wildfire catastrophes.