{"id":574,"date":"2012-04-09T17:50:35","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T17:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learn.uppersouthplatte.org\/?page_id=574"},"modified":"2014-03-11T22:15:41","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T22:15:41","slug":"wildland-urban-interface-wildfire-student-module","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wildland-urban-interface-wildfire-student-module\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildland Urban Interface\/ Wildfire- Student Module"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Students,<\/p>\n

Thank you for choosing this topic. Textbooks address little about wildfire; none touch on the wildland urban interface \u2013 where development meets the forest.<\/p>\n

August 20th\u00a0and 21st, 1910: 3.1 million acres burned in northern Idaho, western Montana and eastern Washington. Seventy-eight firefighters and seven civilians died. The view on wildfire was all\u00a0BAD.\"\"\u00a0A national policy to extinguish all fires by 10:00 am (the 10:00 am rule) was enacted. As a nation, we excelled at putting\u00a0out fires.\u00a0 As a state, Colorado was above the national curve. One of the first bills passed when Colorado achieved statehood (1876) required that all fires be aggressively fought. As time marched on, people began to feel safe living in the woods because they felt local, state, and federal firefighters would protect them. Recent fire seasons have turned this assumption on its head. Colorado saw 2 million acres burned in 2002, in 2010 the Boulder fires resulted in catastrophic loss of homes, and the 2012 and 2013 fire seasons resulted in unprecedented levels of destruction along the Front Range. In this unit we are going to focus on fire in the context of energy transfer and apply it to home ignition and prevention.<\/p>\n

I worked closely with the property owners affected by the Hayman Fire. They can be divided into three groups: full-time homeowners, part-time home owners, and land owners. The first group has the most to lose, and are generally the most motivated to reduce their wildfire risk. Yet the other two groups greatly affect fire behavior before it reaches the homes of the full time homeowners. Education is key to improving the situation for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte’s (CUSP) former employees, Martha Campbell, applied the lessons we have learned by working in areas affected by the Hayman Fire. In 2003 she started to organize a local movement to create\u00a0defensible space<\/a>. We now help communities, counties, and fire districts create plans called Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP). The tools we use are the ones we are giving to you and your students. CUSP has a crew that helps communities do the on-the-ground work, and they are also a first response team in the event of a fire. We all know it is not a matter of\u00a0if, but when,<\/strong>\u00a0a fire will happen. It is the cycle of nature; it is the natural process of recycling nutrients. We know the chance of a fire starting in an area that has been mitigated\u2014an area that could sustain a fire with minimal damage\u2014is slim, because there are so few. The goal is to put fire back in its beneficial role. Your students will learn how to achieve this goal.<\/p>\n

Cordially yours,<\/p>\n

Theresa Springer<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Environmental Education Coordinator<\/p>\n

Coalition for the Upper South Platte<\/p>\n

Theresa@uppersouthplatte.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

ACTIVITIES<\/p>\n

Hot & Cold Demonstration<\/a>
<\/a>Convection Activity
<\/a>Steep Fire, Flat Fire Activity<\/a>
Energy Transfer Activity
<\/a>Firewise Activity<\/a>
Defense by Diorama Activity<\/a>
\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

DOCUMENTS & MATERIALS<\/p>\n

Background Information<\/a>
<\/a>Vocabulary<\/a>
<\/a>Woodland Home Forest Fire Hazard Rating<\/a>
<\/a>Contacts for Additional Fire Information<\/a>
Defensible Space Images<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
<\/strong>\u00a0
Videos:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two Sides of Fire<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 for purchase at\u00a0http:\/\/www.forestinfo.org\/videos<\/a><\/p>\n

Fire Wars.\u00a0<\/em>Dir. Kurt Wolfinger. PBS. 2006. DVD.<\/p>\n

Escape! Fire in Mann Gulch.\u00a0<\/em>History Channel.\u00a0 A&E Home Video. 2006. DVD.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Books:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pyne, Stephen J.\u00a0Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910<\/em>. New York, N.Y: Viking, 2001. Print.<\/p>\n

Maclean, Norman.\u00a0Young Men & Fire<\/em>. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Print<\/p>\n

Gantenbein, Doug.\u00a0A Season of Fire: Four Months on the Firelines in the American West<\/em>. New York: J.P. Tarcher\/Penguin, 2003. Print.<\/p>\n

Maclean, John N.\u00a0Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire<\/em>. New York: William Morrow, 1999. Print.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

*This book takes place in Colorado. Storm King Mountain is just off of I -70. Once you locate the trail head the trail is clearly marked and is a strong emotional hike. There are markers along the trail where each wildland fire fighter died.*<\/p>\n

Maclean, John N.\u00a0Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines of American Wildfire<\/em>. New York: H. Holt, 2003. Print.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Student books:<\/strong><\/p>\n

De, Golia J.\u00a0Fire, a Force of Nature: The Story Behind the Scenery<\/em>. Las Vegas, NV: KC Publications, 1993. Print.<\/p>\n

Beil, Karen M.\u00a0Fire in Their Eyes: Wildfires and the People Who Fight Them<\/em>. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1999. Print.The True Story of Smokey Bear<\/em>. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1985. Print.Karen Magnuson Beil<\/strong>\u00a0(Photographer)

<\/a><\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

NOVA Fire Wars:\u00a0http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/nova\/fire\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Science Notebooks in K12 Classrooms:\u00a0http:\/\/www.sciencenotebooks.org\/notebookFeatures\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Teacher Demonstration:\u00a0www.abc.net.au\/science\/surfingscientist\/pdf\/teachdemo10.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAre You Firewise\u201d\u00a0 Colorado State Forest Service:\u00a0http:\/\/csfs.colostate.edu\/pdfs\/wholenotebook.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCreating Wildfire-Defensible Zones\u201d Colorado State University Cooperative Extension:\u00a0http:\/\/csfs.colostate.edu\/pdfs\/FIRE2012_1_DspaceQuickGuide.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Colorado State Forest Service Office Address Directory:\u00a0http:\/\/csfs.colostate.edu\/pdfs\/CSFSwebDirectory_October_2012.pdf\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

FireWorks: Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science Program. Rocky Mountain Research Station. Missoula, MT.\u00a0http:\/\/www.firelab.org\/science-applications\/science-synthesis\/75-fireworks<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capri, Anthony.\u00a0 Matter and Energy.\u00a0 John Jay College of the City University of New York.\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/web.jjay.cuny.edu\/~acarpi\/NSC\/2-matter.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Graham, Russell T., Technical Editor.\u00a0 Hayman Fire Case Study.\u00a0 Gen Tech. Rep. RMRS-GT-114.\u00a0 Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. P. 1-32.\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/rm\/pubs\/rmrs_gtr114\/rmrs_gtr114_001_032.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael, J. P.\u00a0 Linking Weather and Climate: Water Density.\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/linkingweatherandclimate.com\/ocean\/waterdensity.php<\/a><\/p>\n

Pyrocumulus. \u00a0Excerpt from the book \u201cWeather\u201d. \u00a02005.\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.theairlinepilots.com\/met\/pyrocumulus.ht<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a92012 CUSP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Students, Thank you for choosing this topic. Textbooks address little about wildfire; none touch on the wildland urban interface \u2013 where development meets the forest. August 20th\u00a0and 21st, 1910: 3.1 million acres burned in northern Idaho, western Montana and eastern Washington. Seventy-eight firefighters and seven civilians died. The view on wildfire was all\u00a0BAD.\u00a0A national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-574","page","type-page","status-publish","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1262,"href":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/574\/revisions\/1262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uppersouthplatte.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}