VERMONT—Green Mountain National Forest staff kicked off their “Fire in Our Forests” program for the first time this year, visiting three different schools and introducing over 200 kindergarten to sixth-grade students to northeast fire ecology.

While traditional fire education programs tend to revolve around wildfire prevention, “Fire in Our Forests” has been developed by a team of forest resource area experts with a goal of explaining the benefits of fire on the northeastern landscape. In Vermont, there are many fire-adapted ecological communities, and prescribed burning has become an important land management tool for the Forest. Fire and Fuels Technician Lindsay Rae Silvia says she values prevention-minded neighbors but wants to make sure they are getting the whole story about fire in their community and forest.

“Vermont doesn’t often have large wildfires, the state is lush and green, and most folks burn responsibly,” said Silvia. “But seeing wildfires on the news every year, or breathing the wildfire smoke from Canada this season, that was concerning for a lot of people. I want our communities to know that what they are seeing on video clips of wildfires and when they see us conduct prescribed fire for blueberry management or oak restoration, those are two very different fires.”

The “Fire in Our Forests” program emphasizes the idea that there are good or helpful fires and there are “bad or harmful” fires. The team explains how some species like milkweed, pitch pine, oak and morel mushrooms can benefit from a little good fire. They also stress that not all species will benefit from fire and that even good fires can go bad if fire severity is too high; those should be left to experts.

“Many of the kids we spoke to seemed to get the idea that not all forests are the same and therefore not all fire is bad,” said Silvia. “We actually had a few who have seen prescribed fire in their community before and many who were really knowledgeable about what’s in their local forests. We may have to make our next visit more advanced!”

Of course, wildfire prevention was always in the foreground of discussions about good fire. The team opened and closed with discussion around fire safety. The youngest groups still spent most of their time learning about Smokey Bear, while older groups touched on “dos and don’ts” of fire safety before being introduced to fire ecology.

The “Fire in Our Forests” team intends to be back in classrooms every October, and they’ve already started brainstorming changes for next year. The whole team is looking forward to visiting more schools next year; teachers can reach out to their local ranger stations to be added to the fun.