2023 Southern Wildfire Prevention Virtual Learning Exchange Workshop

Wildfire prevention has always had an important role in reducing human-caused wildfires. It has been proven that effective wildfire prevention techniques and activities can reduce losses and costs through reducing the number of fires that must be suppressed. Fires in the Wildland Urban Interface are becoming more complex and costly, so prevention also has an essential role in protecting wildland firefighters, communities, and natural resources.

Nine out of every 10 wildfires are human-caused and preventable. Wildfires caused by human activities such as burning debris, leaving campfires unattended, using equipment, fireworks and other use of fire results in major wildfire disasters every year. These preventable wildfires threaten lives, property and natural resources.

This virtual workshop will feature leaders in wildfire prevention across the U.S. sharing their knowledge, expertise and best practices. The workshop will examine wildfire prevention implementation strategies and provide participants with the unique opportunities to gain insight into local challenges and collaborative solutions, including:

• Building capacity and sharing ideas, tools, and materials among fire prevention specialists and fire prevention/education teams
• Sharing fire prevention programs successes and challenges
• Exploring the relationship between mitigation and prevention
• Marketing wildfire prevention to different and diverse audiences
• Using fire prevention tools to reduce human-caused ignitions
• Learning how to effectively use social media in your fire prevention program
• Assessing fire prevention and planning techniques
• Developing effective communication fire prevention strategies

This virtual workshop will be hosted by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry in cooperation with the Southern Group of State Foresters and the USDA Forest Service Region 8. It is free and open to everyone interested in learning more and expanding their knowledge of innovate wildfire prevention techniques, the role of fire prevention education teams, grants and federal assistance available for fire prevention and outreach, how to develop an effective fire prevention program, and more.