Develop an integrated information and awareness program.
1. Support a consistently funded, long-term, national and regional public awareness campaign to promote understanding of the need for communities to become fire adapted, and to motivate individual community members and key community interests to take positive action. The focus for the public at large is "pre-fire strategy" becoming second nature.
2. In cooperation with concerned state and local agencies and organizations, provide coordinated, consistent, scientifically sound, and area/audience specific information about fire's natural role in the ecosystem, potential mitigation and adaptation strategies, and the tools available to communities to enable them to develop and carry a fire adaptation strategy appropriate to their needs and capacity.
3. Develop a media and marketing plan, backed by social science research, which integrates all three goals of the Cohesive Strategy, while focusing on the "pre-fire strategy" (FAC) goal.
- Develop promotional and practical informational materials for young audiences. Encourage active involvement of young people in home and neighborhood FAC-related assessments and actions. Develop curricula for inclusion of wildfire and its mitigation in K-12 science classes. In researching and preparing education programs for schools, review the Mitigation Through Education material currently being developed by the DOI and USFS Hazardous Fuels Reduction Programs, the State of Florida and others.
- Develop a fire ecology message that can be presented jointly with fire prevention messages. Key elements would be that: wildfires are a natural part of the environment, will continue to occur, provide multiple resource benefits, and (in the long term) usually will adversely affect only very small areas of the landscape. Related talking points should be developed for fire information personnel and local fire units to use in the public outreach activities.
- Recruit national media assistance for information distribution, and enlist private sector, i.e. National Geographic, move theater shorts, hardware retailers, nurseries and garden centers, etc. Encourage local libraries, museums, malls, etc. to create visual displays and provide related informational materials on the ecological role of wildfire, fire prevention and mitigation, and available tools and resources for becoming a fire adapted community.
- Develop public service announcements (PSAs) and films/video for distribution.
- Utilize social media and other interactive tools to encourage and facilitate individual and group involvement in FAC activities.
- Encourage the creation of FAC-related demonstrations sites, and publicize them widely.
- Create a "teachable moment" package or template for local organizations to use when wildfire has threatened or burned homes in a community. Include tips, messages, and best practices for engaging the public and elected officials following a wildfire event to effectively respond to the heightened interest in mitigation, which normally follows a fire event.
- Develop a centralized prevention and education clearinghouse through which all informational tools and resources can be easily accessed by both agency personnel and the public.
4. Coordinate efforts to avoid contradictory messages, eliminate duplication of activities, and make the most of available funding.
Short Term (0-2 years), Mid Term (2-4 years), & Long Term (>4 years)
Collaborators - WRSC, existing tribal, state and local level communications programs, NGOs, industry associations, media and marketing specialist, educators, Extension Service, Ad Council, and FAC Coalition members, tribal governments, and NRCS.
