Students are introduced to the physical geography and vegetation communities of Butte County by using maps and visual aids to notice patterns between elevation, vegetation, and fire. Students will use the Butte County Forest Health Guidebook to learn how fire plays an important role in maintaining healthy forests.
Students learn how Traditional Ecological Knowledge and cultural burning has been used by Indigenous Californians to improve ecosystem health for thousands of years.
Students are introduced to The Fire Triangle and The Fire Behavior Triangle to learn about the factors that affect how wildfires burn. Emphasis is put on reducing human-caused ignitions, the cause of most wildfires. Students create a wildfire public service announcement to grow fire-safe awareness in Butte County.
Students learn about the current efforts to build more fire-resilient communities across Butte County. Video segments, filmed in 2021, highlight fire mitigation activities with interviews from fire professionals and educators. End by watching Wildfire Ready Raccoon’s music video and discussing youth-led community service projects.
Students learn how maintaining defensible space and home hardening efforts can increase a structure’s chance of surviving a wildfire. Focus is put on the Firewise principles of minimizing risks in the three Home Ignition Zones and highlighting tasks that students are able to help with.
Students learn how to prepare a Go Bag and make a Family Emergency Plan. Documents from national fire preparedness programs are provided for students to take home to support in their own family’s fire preparedness.
Students learn what to do in the event of a wildfire emergency and how to activate their Family Emergency Plan to evacuate and get to safety. Students are provided with county-specific emergency information and take home a “Ready, Set, Go” Evacuation Plan, community evacuation map, and a county emergency communications guide.
Review all seven, or select, topics with a team review game. The Jeopardy-style game features seven categories with five questions per topic, differing in point value and difficulty. Game Q&A can be printed below.
Students review key program information with a mock Firewise community meeting. Students will represent residents and stakeholders that have something important to share about wildfire mitigation, response, or recovery. The focus of the meeting is to learn how to create a more fire-safe community and hear from the people working to make it possible. After[…]
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