Some of lifeâs more teachable moments come in the face of tragedy. That was indeed the case last week when wind swept a barn fire on Moscow Mountain into a 116-acre inferno threatening houses â burning one to the ground â and causing evacuation of dozens more. After the smoke cleared, fire science senior instructor Heather Heward and two of her students witnessed the results of ongoing thinning work they did for landowners over the past three years. Much of the mountainside showed scorched trees where the fire crowned. In places they had cut small diameter trees and cleared the trees to grow 15 to 20 feet apart, the fire had not torched the trees. That is hands-on learning. Our Fire Science and Ecology program is the oldest one of its kind in the country. For generations, we have trained fire managers to best understand the complex nature of wildfire. For junior James Shook, it is about putting into practice what he learns in the classroom. As part of the Student Association for Fire Ecology, the student chapter of the professional organization, he and his classmates go to Moscow Mountain once a week to cut trees, clear brush and help make the private lands more resistant to wildfire. The Firefighter for Hire project trades hands-on fire prevention work for donations. The Moscow Mountain project involved more than 35 students. The money supports the club and its students in their education â including an annual trip to the Southeast during Spring Break. There, the students engage in prescribed burning projects â a practice common in that area and a necessary skill to land that permanent job after graduation. Preparing the next generation of professionals is what we do so well at the University of Idaho. We use the entire state as our classroom â from our 10,000-acre experimental forest just minutes from our Moscow campus to Rinker Rock Creek Ranch in southeast Idaho. Fire research and education touches all of Idaho and beyond. Vandals directly mitigate the impact from the ever-growing number of wildfires on our state. Vandals make a difference. Every day. |