Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness
Presented by Deb Schweizer, Inyo National Forest Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Science Confirms: Poli0cs Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math A study done by Yale Law Professor Dan Kahan: • Asked participants about their political views • Established numeracy (are you good at math and with numbers based on a series of basic math questions) • Tested math with the same equation but three different fake scenarios • A scientific study based upon a "new cream for treating skin rashes.” (neutral) • A law banning private citizens from carrying concealed handguns in public. (emotionally charged) • The equation showed concealed handguns increase crime • The equation showed concealed handguns decrease crime
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Science Confirms: Poli0cs Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math
• Numerant participants solved the problem effectively with the neutral scenarios, regardless of political inclination • Most strikingly, highly numerate liberal Democrats did almost perfectly when the right answer was that the concealed weapons ban does indeed work to decrease crime —an outcome that favors their progun-control predilections. • But they did much worse when the correct answer was that crime increases in cities that enact the concealed weapons ban
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Science Confirms: Poli0cs Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math The opposite was true for highly numerate conservative Republicans: They did just great when the right answer was that the ban didn't work, but poorly when the right answer was that it did.
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Science Confirms: Poli0cs Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math • These results are a fairly strong refutation of what is called the “deficit model" in the field of science and technology studies—the idea that if people just had more knowledge, or more reasoning ability, then they would be better able to come to consensus with scientists and experts on issues like climate change, evolution, anything else involving science or data (for instance, whether concealed weapons bans work). • Kahan's data suggest the opposite—that political biases skew our reasoning abilities, and this problem seems to be worse for people with advanced capacities like scientific literacy and numeracy.
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Ecosystem Management Social Biological Physical Political
Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Science Confirms: Poli0cs Wrecks Ability to Reason about Fire & Smoke I set this foundation because I often hear that if we “just educate people” about fire and smoke, they will support prescribed or managed wildfire, but it’s much more complicated than that. I will be sharing examples of messaging throughout this presentation. Tree rings with fire scars from a giant sequoia tree demonstrate that fire occurred frequently in the Sierra Nevada Caring for the Land and Serving People
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness 1) Understanding your audience and their belief 2) We are inconsistent about how we message across the agencies-often for good reason 3) The media doesn’t help 4) What we can do to move in the right direction A regular fire cycle: • Reduces the risk of larger, more destructive, and smokier fires • Helps to create a mosaic of diverse habitats for plants and animals • Case Study-- Cedar Grove Caring for the Land and Serving People
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Understanding your Audience and their Beliefs 1. YOSE vs SEKI 2. Age 3. What is your experience with fire? • Emotionally charged 4. An example from the east side • What is bad smoke?
Prior to Euro-American suppression policies, fires ignited in the summer months by lightning storms would burn throughout the late summer and fall in the Sierra Nevada. These fires would slowly smolder with the cooler and shorter days and eventually be extinguished by rain or snow. Caring for the Land and Serving People
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness We are inconsistent about how we message across the agencies How many times do you hear that fire belongs in the Sierra Nevada like rain belongs in a rain forest? Sequoias are a fire-adapted species. Fire opens their cones, releases their . seeds to nutrient-rich mineral soil, reduces competition from other trees, and opens the forest canopy for this sun-loving tree.
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness We are inconsistent about how we message across the agencies For good reasons, sometimes • My friend and her child • Different missions, different leaderships, different direction, different landscapes: • Public and firefighter safety; • Current and predicted risk; • Values to be protected; • Availability of management resources; and • Land management objectives. • Email discussion Wildland fire has helped shape the beauty of the Sierra Nevada just like wind, rain, and snow.
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Choosing to Manage for the Best Outcomes: Lion Fire
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness The Alternative McNally Fire
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Treating Fuels, Reducing Fire Risk, Reducing Smoke for the Future, Tehipite Fire
Before
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness The Media Doesn’t Help: How to Cover a Western Wildfire Brian Rooney The men must wear smoked yellow Nomex shirts and stop shaving the moment they are sent to the fire. They must not shave their faces or wash their Nomex until they are done covering the fire, even if they sleep at home every night. Nomex, like hockey pads, should never be washed during the life of the man or the equipment. Women must keep their Nomex a spotless bright yellow. All hair and makeup must be perfect. Caring for the Land and Serving People
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness When you write your story, never call a fire a fire. It is a "blaze" or "inferno." Fire never just burns, it "rages." A blaze is always "massive," and "uncontrolled" is a given. Save the word "firestorm" for the destruction of 50 or more houses. When interviewing a fire commander you ask, "Do you have enough resources?" He will tell you he does not. The massive inferno never burns natural terrain or unoccupied wilderness. Wildfire does not burn trailer homes or mere houses. It burns primarily "multimillion dollar homes." The blaze never burns a barn, a tool shack or a secluded meth lab. It "incinerates outbuildings." Don't cover a wildfire that burns only trees, unless someone in a position of authority describes them as a "precious natural resource."
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness The weather during fire season is always "bone dry" with flames "whipped by seasonal winds." This continues until weary firefighters get a much-needed break from the weather. The word "weary" precedes "firefighters" in all references just as president comes before Obama and federal before deficit. The ground is never just "burned," it is blackened, charred or scorched. All wildfires occur in difficult terrain even when the ground is flat. When describing dry weather, break a branch off a bush and snap it in two, or grab a handful of brown grass and crumble it in your hand while saying, "the fuel here is tinder dry and firefighters see no relief."
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness Your first picture should be flames. Your last picture should be flames. Put flames in the middle of your story. When you do your standup, have flames behind you. If you don't have enough flame, you shouldn't be covering that fire.
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Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness What we can do to help Take the emotional charge of our educational message Rim Fire was a “monster” and fire is always a “battle.” Message often, message consistently (for your agency), message for a variety of means to reach a variety of audiences. Support other agencies and why they do what they do.
‘‘Of the hundreds of persons who visit the Pacific slope in California every summer to see the mountains, few see more than the immediate foreground and a haze of smoke which even the strongest glass is unable to penetrate.’’ C. H. Merriam 1898 Caring for the Land and Serving People
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Key Contacts for Your Project** • Air regulatory agencies • Internal employees • Sensitive downwind receptors – Individuals, businesses, facilities, parks, recreation areas, day care centers, nursing homes • Media outlets • Public safety and transportation agencies • Health agencies
Communication Methods ** Pre- & Post-Project mailings
Create a trail guide for a burned area
Open houses / public meetings
Information at road closures
News releases
Publications
Call smoke sensitive people
Bulletin boards
Outreach to media
Booths at special events
Email updates
Success Stories
Interpretive tours or roving
Visitor Center exhibits
Create / Update a website
Classroom activities
Social Media
Web Resources Inciweb: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2059/ Fire News Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks webpages Home page alert: http://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm Fire in the Parks, Current Fire Information http://www.nps.gov/seki/naturescience/current-fires.htm SequoiaKingsNPS Twitter acct, Facebook Account SWFRS, webcams, smoke data: http://sierrafire.cr.usgs.gov/swfrs/ MODIS: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/index.php? subset=AERONET_Fresno Air District webpages: www.airquality.org/smokeimpact/
Education About Fire and Smoke The Voice in the Wilderness
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