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The UC ANR Fire Network invites UC ANR colleagues to a “Cooperative Extension Fire Peer-Learning Exchange” in Wawona, (within Yosemite National Park), April 15-17. 

This interactive workshop is designed specifically to provide participants with the knowledge, tools and skills necessary to bring fire-related educational programming to the communities they serve. 

“Join us in this peer-learning exchange to learn about wildfire preparedness, mitigation and recovery,” said Katie Low, UC ANR Fire Network statewide coordinator. “You do not need to work in fire or have experience doing fire-related programming to join this event.” 

Through train-the-trainer style presentations, demonstrations, field tours and discussion panels, attendees will gain the confidence and resources to serve as community leaders in wildfire education. Sessions during the workshop will include a panel discussion about cultural burning and partnership with tribes, a mini pile-burning workshop, home hardening 101, post-fire landowner workshops, and a fire ecology hike in the nearby Mariposa grove of giant sequoias. 

This event will take place at the beautiful UC Merced Yosemite Field Station in Wawona and run from noon on April 15 through noon on April 17, with an optional field tour to the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias on the afternoon of April 17.  

This workshop will be the second Cooperative Extension Service Fire Workshop. The first workshop, hosted by North Carolina State University Extension in 2023, was developed in response to interviews with Extension professionals in the Southeast U.S., which demonstrated that many desired more fire-related training and wanted to learn how to better communicate with their clientele about fire.

If you are interested in joining the California Fire Peer-Learning Exchange workshop to learn, share and grow together, please register at https://ucanr.edu/extensionfireworkshop.

The cost for this workshop is $275 and will cover meals and lodging throughout the event. 

“We understand that the cost may make the workshop inaccessible for some participants,” said Alison Deak, UCCE fire advisor for Mariposa, Madera and Fresno counties. Please reach out to Deak at aldeak@ucanr.edu if you will require travel support or need some or all of your registration costs covered to attend the workshop. 

If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Low at katlow@ucanr.edu or Deak at aldeak@ucanr.edu.