Youth FireScience Information and Resilience Education (Y-FIRE) Workshop Series 2023

Hands-on learning about wildfire, firewise landscapes, fire fighting, and fire careers.

Target Age: teens (13-18) in Sonoma, Napa, and Marin counties

Registration Deadline: Three days before each workshop (see below).

Workshop Dates and Locations (program content is duplicated)

• Session 1: Saturday, April 1, 9:00am-2:00pm
  Register by March 29 [30 seats].
  Pepperwood Preserve, 2130 Pepperwood Preserve Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404 (Sonoma County).
  Participants need to sign (or their parents for minors) the Pepperwood liability waiver: https://pepperwood.tfaforms.net/6 

• Session 3: Saturday, April 22, 9:00am-2:00pm
  Register by April 19 [30 seats].
  Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, 1600 Los Gamos Drive, San Rafael, CA 94903 (Marin County).

1. --

   Please bring a water bottle and sack lunch. 

   Parents are welcome to stay and observe. 

   Safety Information

• Bring hair ties. 

• Wear natural fiber and non-flammable clothing. 

• Close-toed shoes.

• Dress Guidelines (Casual)

• Code-of-Conduct - Behavioral Guidelines

2. --

   AGENDA

   8:30am - 9:00am - Arrival

   9:00am - 11:45am Hands-on Activities

• Plant Adaptations/Identification: Learn that trees have characteristics unique to each species and these can be used to identify them. These characteristics can also be adaptations for a fire ecosystem.

• Fire History: Introduce the idea that people have been interacting with fire in California for a long time. Provide a base understanding that many tribes used fire as a tool for landscape management.

• Fire 101: Increase students’ understanding of the fire triangle through experimentally removing different parts of the triangle and build on an understanding of how heat from a fire travel (radiant vs convection)

• Burn Board Models: Increases students’ understanding of wildland fire behavior in oak woodlands and other kinds of plant communities

• Preparedness: Familiarize students with Firewise guidelines, go bags, communication and evacuation planning, fire resistant structures and defensible space.

3. 11:45am - 12:15pm - Lunch

   12:15 pm - 1:45pm - Outdoor Activities varies by site location (e.g., nature hike, plant identification, preparedness activities). 

   1:45pm - 2:00pm - Regroup & Evaluation

   2:00pm - Depart

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   Presenters:

• Tori Norville, Fire Science Advisor, Sonoma, Marin, and Napa Counties

• Sophia Porter, Fire-Smart Landscaping Science and Education Specialist, Marin County

• Hannah Bird, Community Educator, Hopland Research & Extension Center

• Steven Worker, 4-H Youth Development Advisor, Marin, Sonoma, and Napa Counties

• Suzanne Amaral, Napa 4-H Program Coordinator