U.S. Joint Fire Science Program
Date of this Version
2007
Document Type
Article
Citation
Joint Fire Sciences Program, Project 0-56-4-1-08
Abstract
Most wildfire education programs have relied primarily on homeowner information and education. This project focuses on the role of business professionals who are often hired to design, build, maintain or mitigate the home and surrounding landscape or who otherwise advise homeowners and affect their decisions. Such professionals include architects, builders, insurance agents, landscape architects and contractors, planners, media, real estate professionals and others. The findings of this project were three-fold. First, by participating in this program, businesses and professionals gain a marketable service in the form of a greater understanding in wildfire mitigation as well as better business practices with respect to that mitigation. Second, by engaging this group the fire agencies gain a larger militia in the effort to reach homeowners and help protect homes and communities in wildfire prone areas. Third, as professionals are engaged, they add their own field expertise to the larger fire knowledge base. The development of this project revealed that engaging professionals in the development of seminars or other programs such as this is just as valuable as engaging them in the educational seminars themselves. Education in this instance is not a one-way street with information flowing from the fire knowledge base to professionals, but instead a two way street with information flowing both ways to address complex wildfire issues.
Included in
Forest Biology Commons, Forest Management Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Other Environmental Sciences Commons, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences Commons, Sustainability Commons, Wood Science and Pulp, Paper Technology Commons
Comments
US government work.