An Introduction

Wildfires are a natural, and healthy part of our ecosystem. 

However, with the combination of a global climate change, increasing fuel loads in our forests, and continuing expansions of urban developments wildfires are becoming more frequent, more aggressive, and harder to fight. The result: our landscapes have become scarred, our communities have faced widespread destruction, and livelihoods and lives have been lost. 

Our changing wildfire landscape is a far-reaching social issue that can only be resolved through collective community efforts - it does not lie solely on the shoulders of the responders. We are all stewards of the land, but in the name of progress, many of us have side step our responsibilities to ensure we are living symbiotically with the (wildfire) landscape.

The purpose of this project is to utilize a multimedia approach to capture the past, present and future of the wildfire landscape from a prevention and mitigation standpoint, and demonstrate how it relates to our current and future response and recovery efforts.

The vision is to capture the knowledge of the past, the lessons of the present, and the efforts for the future. This project aims to be hopeful for the future, but emphasize how the work needs to begin now. Even the smallest efforts in our own backyards, done collectively, can help change the shape of our future and how wildfire will impact them. 

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much" - Helen Keller