Wildfire Field Trip for Scientists and Journalists
Longer, more intense, and more hazardous wildfire seasons are forcing communities to ask tough questions about the long-term implications of these changes for their lives and livelihoods. COMPASS hosted a wildfire field trip in Montana to bring scientists and local journalists together to talk about what the future of fire holds for people and environment, and viable solutions for coexisting with wildfire
In October 2019, COMPASS hosted a field trip for Montana journalist and scientists studying different facets of wildfire in Montana – everything from fire ecology, to water quality, to recreation and human behavior — to help bridge gaps between wildfire science and decision-making in the state. We learned that, while national media attention around wildfires had increased in recent years, local journalists often don’t have the same resources and access to scientists, even as communities face decisions about how to handle longer, more intense, and more hazardous wildfire seasons in their backyards. We saw a need and an opportunity to connect local journalists to local scientists studying wildfire and its impacts on nature, people, and systems.
We began with an afternoon training session for eight scientists, and brought in two journalist experts to help identify their core messages and practice how to share them in a field setting. The scientists self-organized and developed short ‘pair presentations’ tailored to specific sites along the field trip that illustrated key points. That evening, we held a social gathering for the scientists with five local journalists that we’d invited for the field trips, then the next morning, we set out for a half-day excursion to the Lolo Peak Trailhead in the Lolo National Forest. This area was in the heart of the Lolo Peak Fire, which impacted local residents with evacuations and smoke for over a month in the summer of 2017.
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