Georgia State Page

SE GA Wildfire Prevention, Education and Firewise Education Team
 
Fred X. Turck   Team Leader Virginia, VDOF
 
Bill Sweet
 Lead PIO
 Alabama, retired USFS
 

Terri Jenkins     Team Member, Georgia, US FWS

 
Jim Sorenson   Team Member, Georgia, retired USFS
 
Beryl Budd                   
Team Member, Georgia, GFC
 
Eric Mosley         Agency Liaison, Georgia, GFC
June/July 2011
This team will have as its main goal community outreach and firewise education.
 

Closeout went well. The team presented the report of what all we did as well as spending a fair amount of time going over our observations and recommendations. SE Georgia has an elephant of an opportunity and we just took a bite.

 

When I receive permission to post items from the final report I will do so.

 

Contacts were made to get permission to use Pogo and his gang as spokes"people for the firewise message, especially in SE GA. This is looking like it will happen.  

 Below is one cartoon we came up with.

 
 
Since this current Team will be utilizing much of the work the Team in January accomplished I have decided to leave that information available to readily refer to. It will be found below the green box with white lettering.
 

Activities:

           ·         Excerpts from the Delegation of Authority

o   The primary objective of this team is to provide expertise in Firewise practices and principles.  

§  The prevention team will work toward accomplishing this objective by:

§  Providing consistent Firewise and fire prevention messages to the public and the media.

§  Supporting Firewise and prevention education efforts and events already under way including presentations to civic and homeowners associations, participation in community events such as fairs and local celebrations.

§  Conducting Firewise mitigation work and planning within communities in the designated counties.

§  Creating of new Firewise products and programs for dissemination.

§  Providing assistance in developing new delivery methods or products as time allows.

§  The team members should always convey the important natural role of fire in the ecosystem while promoting the Firewise principles to communities in the wildland urban interface.

·         Our Goal will be to provide wildfire prevention and Firewise expertise to help mitigate the loss of structures in the wildland urban-interface during wildfires on the Satilla District and Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The focus areas are the counties adjacent to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge that include:  Charlton, Clinch, Ware, Brantley, and Pierce counties.

·         Our Target Audiences are to be County commissioners, City government , Local communities, Fire departments, Recreational visitors and Media (local, regional, & state).

·         An important activity/accomplishment will be a Firewise Mitigation Demo Day planned for July 9th. More on the “day” will come in future activity daily reports.

·         A variety of customized Firewise informational products will be designed as a collaboration with the Okefenokee and the GFC.

 

 

 
 
January 2011
Georgia Team Information:
  • Georgia Forestry Commission website
  • The GOAL (Greater Okefenokee Association of Landowners) FPET has been placed outside the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge for four days. Some members will return in February to conduct public meetings. More to come....
 

1/18/2011

DAILY UPDATE

GOAL Waycross Wildfire Education Prevention Team

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge - Waycross, GA

The GOAL Waycross Wildfire Prevention Team assembled at the Georgia Forestry Commission’s district office in Waycross to address wildfire concerns in the wake of drought conditions in the southeastern Georgia region.  The region of concern deals specifically with Charlton, Clinch and Ware Counties, which make up the perimeter expanse of the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge.  The team efforts will network the Georgia Forestry Commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to launch a fire prevention campaign and wildfire assessment of the communities surrounding the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  The scope of this campaign will focus on neighborhoods which lie within 1 to 3 miles of the refuge perimeter.

The team leader, Gwen Beavans and team members, Mark Wiles, Eric Mosley and Bryon Haire reviewed the Delegation of Authority with District Manager Frank Sorrells.  Support staffs from the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge and the Georgia Forestry Commission were on hand to provide information on the proposed campaign.  The members present from the refuge and GFC were Terri Jenkins, Brian Clavier, Billy Leitch, Barry Rowell, Thomas Whitley, Sarah Sorenson, Mike Hoult, Robin Alouso, Nathan Gilmore and Art Webster.

Initial planning by the team and support staff developed a rough draft of a plan to create hazard assessment teams to evaluate fire hazards on properties within a 1 to 3 mile radius surrounding the refuge perimeter.  Plans were made to activate these teams into action in the coming weeks.  Community meetings of the refuge communities will also be planned to educate the property owners on the fire dangers.

Mark Wiles and Eric Mosley reviewed local media contacts in preparation for the media launch to occur within the coming days.  Bryon Haire and Thomas Whitley worked to determine school systems within the regions that will be included in the prevention campaign.  The grade levels to be targeted will range from elementary through middle grades.

Team members reviewed and edited the literature for distribution to the property owners and schools.  The team also reviewed and edited the fire assessment worksheet that will be used to access fire hazards by the fire hazard assessment teams.

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