Forests and Rangelands Success Story
Fire Squirts Summer Camp
Idaho County, Idaho
National Fire Plan - Community Assistance
2008
Hands-on experiments with laboratory-controlled fires provided a lot of excitement in the lab. Students learned about fuels, fire behavior, and the fire triangle.
Students dressing up in smokejumper protective equipment were transformed into smokejumpers.
Smokejumpers from Grangeville Air Center show students how a parachute works.
In 2008, the U.S. Forest Service partnered with the Bureau of Land Management, Framing Our Community, an Elk City non-profit community-based organization, and local school districts to provide a summer opportunity for children in Idaho County to learn about fire. The Fire Squirts program is a fun, educational weeklong camp that teaches children, ages 8 to 14, about fire ecology, fire history, fire behavior, fire prevention, and fire suppression.
Through interactive sessions, creative artwork, laboratory experiments, and dramatic play, students learned about the fire triangle, ecological cycles, fuels treatments and defensible space, as well as map and compass skills. Students dressed up in firefighter and smokejumper protective equipment to learn firsthand about tools and gear, engines and parachutes, and even implemented suppression tactics on a practice fire. The children also visited some nearby homes that had been impacted by a recent wildfire to learn about defensible space. They "played with fire" in laboratory experiments that demonstrated how fuel composition, wind, and topography influence fire behavior.
The Nez Perce National Forest has offered the Fire Squirts program annually since 2000. Jill Wilson, a former Forest Service Fire Prevention Technician and teacher at the Elk City School, originally designed and implemented the camp curriculum for Elk City children. Jill has since moved on, but the program has become well established. Locations have varied from year to year in order to reach more children across Idaho County. This year, camps were held in Elk City and White Bird, while previous programs were held in Grangeville, Kooskia, and Riggins. Tuition is free with space limited to 25 students in second through eighth grades.
Interagency partnerships have allowed this program to expand to more than one location per year and to enhance the curriculum. With Community Assistance funding, the BLM Cottonwood Field Office has provided support to this program through an Assistance Agreement with Framing Our Community to keep Jill involved with the program she originally developed. Other instructors included Nez Perce National Forest employees from the Clearwater and Slate Creek Ranger District fire programs as well as Grangeville Air Center smokejumpers.
For 2009, the Fire Squirts program is being planned in two to three communities, locations yet to be determined. The Payette National Forest is also interested in expanding this program beyond Idaho County.
Contact: Kristen Sanders, Fire Ecologist, Cottonwood Field Office, 208-962-3786.
Students dressed in firefighter firefighter gear try their hand at fire suppression tactics.
A field trip allowed students to see how effective defensible space projects saved homes during a recent wildfire.
Students designed and then colored their official camp T-shirt, each as unique as the student.