Junction, Utah – The Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands Central Area staff and the Piute High School Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) hosted a hands-on interactive assembly for the students. The assembly focused on forest ecology, fire behavior, mitigation and preparedness.
The assembly was an initiative that provided interactive and hands-on activities for students and was a part of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) the staff has been implementing over the past year. CWDG is a grant that funds communities to reduce their wildfire risk through education, planning and preparedness.
The FBLA group started the assembly with a presentation highlighting the topics for the entire student body. Then, the students were divided into four groups and rotated through four hands-on activities hosted by FFSL personnel.
Central Area’s Forester, Justin Short, and Assistant Forester, MaLyssa Hart, highlighted the importance of forest ecology and resources, which introduced them to the study of interrelated patterns, processes, flora, fauna, fungi, and ecosystems. As an activity, the students played tree poker where they acted as trees and had to collect resources (represented by poker chips of different colors) in order to survive. They simulated how a wildfire would impact the availability of resources within the forest.
Students were introduced to competition and limiting factors within the forest. Although some students forgot that our local trees can’t sprout legs to move and fight for nutrients, the participants realized how everything in an ecosystem interacts and influences the forest. The activity highlighted how different forest life stages are influenced by forest ecology and how resource availability relies on the forest cycles.
Sevier, Wayne, and Piute County Assistant Fire Warden Nick Niemann introduced students to the science behind fire and explained how fuel, oxygen, and heat are required for a fire to start. Niemann also explained the wildland-specific fire triangle, which shows how vegetation/fuel, weather, and topography influence a fire’s behaviour.
To demonstrate these concepts, Niemann had a scaled-down “mountainside” made out of sand in a plastic bin with matches representing trees (fuel) and another flat sand bin with matches pushed into the sand. Between the groups of matches were gaps representing fuel breaks. The tightly grouped matches demonstrated how dense and overstocked forests are a major contributing factor in wildfire severity and catastrophic wildfires. Once the matches were burned, he also talked about how the “black” burned fuel, combined with a fire break, is used in fighting wildland fires.
Chance Christensen, the San Pete County Assistant Fire Warden Dylan Syme, the Central Area Fuels Crew Lead, allowed students to take on the role of fire with an ember house. Through this activity, the students learned the importance of property owner responsibility with mitigation efforts.
The ember house is a mockup of a vinyl home with felt patches placed in high-ignition areas, such as gutters, open windows, leaf litter, and vents. Students let the embers fly as they threw the Velcro-covered ping-pong balls towards the home. They walked away with a better understanding of how far fire can travel, common places where embers can enter structures, how to lower risk through mitigation, and better respect for nature as humans move closer to the wildland-urban interface areas.
Central Area Wildland Urban Interface Specialist Matt Christensen and Assistant Coordinator Breanne Liston, along with SWCA Contractor Stephanie Graham, led a preparedness station on go-bags and WUI discussions. Students participated in rotations for a demonstration, where Matt emphasized the importance of preparedness, while Breanne and Stephanie facilitated smaller group discussions.
Each student received a bag and an evacuation packing list before engaging in a mock evacuation drill. The list included essentials like money, pets, important documents, food, and first aid kits, as well as non-essentials like games and crayons. Students had 10 minutes to gather all the essentials for themselves and their families amid a simulated emergency with a countdown and chaotic environment. Afterward, students counted and reviewed the items they secured, gaining insight into the evacuation process and the importance of being prepared.
Principal Shauna Bagley followed up by stating that the students shared that it was their favorite assembly to date. They were engaged throughout every station and finished with more confidence in their preparedness, mitigation, and forest health knowledge.
