Are you ready to help prevent wildfires? Each year hundreds of thousands of acres of forest burn, destroying beautiful landscapes, wildlife habitats, and putting firefighter’s lives at risk. As many of you know, controlled fires are necessary for forest rejuvenation, however, inadvertent fires are extremely harmful and need to be prevented.

How can Hiking Lady readers help the Smokey Bear effort?

Many wildfires are unfortunately caused by careless behavior. Sometimes campers, hikers, and tourists just aren’t informed enough nor do they care enough to take the necessary steps to do their part to prevent wildfires.

Step One:

Fire safety is extremely important, so review the 10 Things All Hikers and Campers Must Know About Campfire Safety.

Step Two:

Take the Smokey Bear Campfire Pledge! What does that entail? Simply commit to be smart when you go outdoors. Sign up on the Smokey Bear website. My home state of California already has 3,907 pledges. Let’s get that to 5,000! We all should be part of this effort.
If you’re a teacher, be sure to consider incorporating Smokey’s Teaching Resources into your curriculum. There are loads of teaching guides and resources available to you to help your students be wildfire prevention experts! Teach them about controlled burns, preventing wildfires, firefighting tactics and more. It is a fun and excellent way to pass on our knowledge to the next generation, and hopefully help get the count of annual burned acres lower!

Step Three:

Go enjoy the outdoors with your family and friends, be smart about wildfires, and encourage everyone you know to take the pledge and support Smokey Bear’s efforts!

Happy trails!