On November 18 and 19, 2008, thirty-three National Park Service firefighters and park rangers met at Mammoth Cave National Park to share success stories and insights about how to increase public understanding and support for fire management practices. Organized by the Southeast Regional Fire Management Office, the workshop brought together staff from all levels of the bureau, including volunteers, park guides, park rangers, fuels technicians, fire management officers, and park superintendents representing eight of the nine states comprising the NPS Southeast Region.
The two-day workshop included presentations on fire ecology and operations, as well as more specific sessions integrating NPS interpretation practices with fire management. Talks focused on topics such as “Citizen Science and Fire Effects Monitoring” and “How to Interpret a Burn.”
The highlight of the workshop was a field trip to Big Woods, the site of a prescribed burn in the park conducted in April 2007. Led by Mammoth Cave Fire Management Officer Rich Caldwell and Natchez Trace Parkway Fire Ecologist Lisa McInnis, the field trip took workshop participants step by step through the operations of conducting a prescribed burn. Participants then visited a fire effects monitoring plot within the burn for a presentation on how to conduct visitor tours of prescribed burns.
When asked about the most useful part of the workshop, one participant identified “gaining new ideas to prompt and expand my fire prevention programs,” while another emphasized “going on the field trip to see specific, tangible plans and results of prescribed fire, and then reflecting/seeing how that could be applied in education and citizen science programs.”
The training cadre and workshop participants agreed unanimously that the workshop should be conducted again in the future. The NPS Southeast Regional Fire Management Office plans to continue this and other methods of communicating with internal audiences and building capacity at the park level for public outreach and education about fire management practices in the future.
Contact: Rudy Evenson, Fire Communication and Education Specialist, NPS Southeast Region
Phone: (770) 722-5417
*This story supports the National Fire Plan |
