Living With Fire

Members of the Living With Fire program’s growing team give their perspective on what it means to “live with fire,” and talk about how they are continuing the program’s mission in new and innovative ways.

For more full episode details including the transcript, visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1819551/episodes/8946699

Transcript

Megan Kay: 0:19

Welcome to the Living with Fire Podcast, where we share stories and resources to help you live more safely with wildfire.

Christina Restaino: 0:28

My name is Christina Restaino.

Jamie Roice-Gomes: 0:31

My name is Jamie Royce-Gomes.

Jordan Buxton: 0:32

My name is Jordan Buxton.

Tessa Putz: 0:33

So my name is Tessa Putz.

Spencer Houston: 0:35

I am Spencer Houston.

Megan Kay: 0:36

And I'm your host. Megan Kay on this episode of the Living with Fire Podcast, we're going to be introducing you to the Living with Fire team and talking about what Living with Fire means to us. We're also going to be talking about the projects that we're working on right now to help communities live more safely with wildfire.

Christina Restaino: 0:56

So my name is Christina Restaino. I am an assistant professor at UNR and State Extension Specialist I focus on wildland fire and forest resource issues, and yeah, a little bit about my background. Have kind of a classic academic training in ecology. Studied forestry at UC Berkeley, and then went to graduate school at UW in Seattle, where I studied for my masters. I did a project focused on how forest management treatments influence resilience to wildland fire. And then for my subsequent work, I focused on how forest ecosystems respond to drought throughout the whole the whole western United States. And then went to do a postdoc at UC Davis, where I started to really work more on the science communication side. I worked there with the joint Fire Sciences program that focused on communicating wildland fire science issues to land managers. And then worked in a little bit of forest and fire policy in Tahoe for two years after that, and then came here. So I kind of have a background in Applied Ecology, trying to understand how land management can be used to increase ecosystem resilience, but then have really wanted to focus on that kind of tech transfer, science communication side, and not so much focus on the research end. But how can we get people to understand what they can do to live in ecosystems that face fire, drought, climate change, and have folks better understand kind of the tools in the toolkit that that land managers use to manage ecosystems. I also have just worked a lot, um, trying to kind of bring science outside of the university into schools, and working with land managers and working with nonprofits, and just working with folks kind of outside of that traditional academic sphere, and kind of trying to push information out, and then also trying to better understand what information and what what, what information that folks want to make decisions about what they're trying to do, whether that be a community, a homeowner, a land management agency. So what is it that that folks need more information about, and then we at the university can try to to create that information for folks so really trying to serve that conduit between research and science, land management and the public.

Megan Kay: 4:15

And that ties into the like the mission of Living with Fire, which which simply put, on our website and our materials is just to help people live more safely with fire. Is that why you were so attracted to the Living with Fire Program? Just kind of your interest in science communication?

Christina Restaino: 4:32

Yeah, so I've always been attracted to a position in extension going to, to undergraduate at a forestry school that is a land grant exposed me to extension early on, and so that their unique positions in that they are positioned. Kind of in the center of things, if you will, where you can be that hub to connect all the other pieces out there trying to do the same thing. For example, you can connect private industry and nonprofits and NGOs and state government, local government and the federal government, tribes, universities, you can really be that that go to to kind of connect folks to facilitate idea creation, problem solving, and the generation of new science, information, ideas, and so I was always attracted to an extension position, specifically one in fire, because my my expertise and training is in fire, but also it's kind of the overarching ecological issue that is eclipsing all others in the West, where I was born and raised and have worked and so, you know, specifically working in fire kind of helps. It's the discipline that that kind of grounds us in a lot of the other ecological issues of concern in this region. I grew up in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. So certainly, a position at UNR was also an appealing one, because, you know, you're kind of at that confluence of the Great Basin and the Sierra where there's a lot of really interesting ecological questions that can be answered and and big problems and issues that need addressed in an area that I love, and so, you know, I was attracted to UNR and extension for those reasons. Living with Fire in in particular, you know, is just a really well established, well regarded program, and having the opportunity to be at the helm of of that and steer that ship was very, very appealing to me, just in terms of what we can keep doing that's already been done, and the opportunity that we have to expand the program and grow the program with such a good foundation in place, is a really unique opportunity.

Jamie Roice-Gomes: 7:27

My name is Jamie Royce Gomes. I'm the manager at the Living with Fire Program, as a background to where I got to this space, being the manager at Living with Fire Program. You know, in my in my undergrad, I had the choice between doing nursing school or wildlife ecology, and I chose wildlife ecology, and then I had that as an undergrad and and then I got experience under a plant ecologist, and then ended up out of out of the program at UNR I get, got a position as a biological science technician under a research ecologist. So I would go out to the middle of of rural Nevada and do plan experiments and I loved it. But it was, it was really academic based, and I really wanted to help people and and I wanted to, you know, help promote research that that would that people could benefit from. I wanted to learn how to communicate these things to people. So then I got my master's in environmental journalism and and then I found extension after that program, the master's program at UNR and, and I loved it. I mean, I could communicate, you know, research, to people, and I could help people at the same time. And so I position at the Living Fire Program opened up in 2016 and I was the Outreach Coordinator. And so then I learned a lot from from those managers that I had, and then they retired, and then I, all of a sudden, was the the Manager, the Director and Outreach Coordinator, for a little while, until, until we we found Christina Restaino, which was amazing. And so now I'm the outreach or sorry I'm not the outreach. Sorry, we have an outreach coordinator. I am the Manager, and I love it. I have, I find a lot of joy in in helping people to reduce the threat of wildfire. I I really enjoy what I do. So here I am.

Megan Kay: 9:50

I'm Megan Kay. I'm the Outreach Coordinator for the Living with Fire Program. You're going to be hearing a lot of my voice on the podcast, so hopefully you. Don't hate it. I don't have a science background, like everyone at this table. I was an art major. Studied print making and book arts and photography. But before I went to before I got serious about college, I do have a fire background. My dad was a firefighter for Reno Fire for many years. He spent his entire career there. And when I was about 19, I was, you know, had no direction, and he basically filled out an application for me to be a seasonal firefighter for me. And he's just like, sign this, turn it in, this is what you're doing. And I did it, and it was wonderful, and it was such a formative part of my life. I spent two seasons on an engine, three seasons on a hand crew, and I just really, you know, fell in love with the lifestyle and but also realized that it wasn't, I'm not I'm not a lifer. It wasn't necessarily like the right fit for me, but I really enjoyed it so much. And have, you know, knowledge of the vocabulary about wildfires is in a very basic, you know, just because I was a was doing, I was on the ground, doing, like, field projects, you know, I kind of understood a little bit of I understood what we were doing, not the higher science, but I understood, like, Why were we doing, like restoration and rehabilitation? But So I worked in the arts for a long time, worked for the Nevada Arts Council for a little bit, and then found my way back to found my way back to UNR working at Extension, as Administrative Assistant and doing desktop publishing work. And that's when I found out about the Living with Fire Program. And I just was like, had to be a part of it. The outreach, the outreach coordinator position was actually open while I was here, but I was, I felt like I it was too soon for me in my old job to apply for it. So I could have, I could have applied for a long time ago, but I didn't. So I'm really so grateful that I get to be part of this team, and it's a great way for me to put my, you know, my skills as an artist, because I do have to create lots of graphics for the for the program. But also, in general, I, like Jamie, have always really been drawn to jobs where I'm working with the community. I'd done a lot of volunteer work for like community arts organizations, and now continuing volume volunteering for different organizations. So it's kind of part of my DNA to want to work with the community, and I'm really glad that I get an opportunity to do that, and really grateful to Christina and Jamie and everyone who's helping to make this podcast, and Jordan, who's helping to make this podcast a reality. Speaking of that, I want to make sure we introduce Jordan, who is the man behind the microphones.

Jordan Buxton: 12:56

Hello. My name is Jordan Buxton. I am a Content Creator, I think is my official title right at the Living with Fire at UNRextension. I am currently enrolled in a bachelor's program at the University of Nevada, Reno with a well a Bachelor's of the Arts in Journalism with a primary focus on digital content creation. So I have experience in graphic design, audio editing, video editing, photography, motion graphics, etc, etc. And I am here to edit the podcast, which is pretty rad.

Megan Kay: 13:33

And I also want to make sure we recognize another member of our team who's not here, Christine Nazerchuk, and she's our desktop publisher. She supports us with pretty much everything we need, anything we need at any time. She's great. She is a great editor. She helps us with graphics, and she's just a really good person to offer feedback, and we value her a lot.

Christina Restaino: 13:58

Yeah, she's a key part of our program always available to help with, from the big stuff to the small stuff. You know, there's a lot of that behind the scenes, editing, graphic design, layout. We have so many publications that we continue to reprint, and every time we reprint them, we have to reformat them to meet. You know, there's just a lot of things that have to happen. And she is available to help us with a lot of stuff, and it's really valuable.

Megan Kay: 14:33

During a wildfire, firefighters have a lot to do. Make it easier for firefighters to defend your home. Create defensible space now. Defensible space is an area between a house and an oncoming wildfire where the vegetation has been managed to reduce the wildfire threat. Proper defensible space doesn't mean removing all vegetation, though, by following the lean, clean and green rule, you can keep your property safe while preserving its natural beauty. Learn. More about defensible space in our guide "Fire adapted communities, the next step in wildfire preparedness" you can find the guide in the resources section of our website at livingwithfire.com. Yes and that brings us to the newest members of the team. Part of the reason I'm excited to have you guys on is to get to know you a little bit. A little bit little bit better. So let's start, if you let's start with Tessa, if you don't mind, um, so once you go introduce yourself.

Tessa Putz: 15:30

Yeah, so my name is Tessa Putz I am a Natural Resources Associate with the Living with Fire Program, and I ended up here, well, I did my undergrad at University of Washington in environmental science, and after that, I was fortunate to work for different universities and agencies across the West, in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and California, and those were all they're either restoration or ecology based. And those were a lot of fun, but I decided I wanted to buckle down, and I ended up at UNR for my master's in natural resources and environmental science, where I studied forest ecology, and I ran around Nevada, measuring trees, trying to find ponderosa pine, which is actually harder than it is in California. And yeah, graduated in 2020, with my masters, and ended up here, which I'm so excited to be able to I'm really interested in research, but I really love bridging the gap between our findings and and the community. I really enjoyed positions where I had an outreach element, like volunteer events, and so it's, it's really important to me to get to work with people and boil down what we're what we're finding out for the public.

Megan Kay: 17:10

And then so do you, Christina and Tessa, you guys want to talk about what the type of work here you're doing?

Christina Restaino: 17:18

Sure, I'll let you talk about it, Tessa, but, but I'll just say I, I interviewed Tessa for a position on a field crew at UC Davis before she went to grad school. So she worked for me before in the past. And then it came full full circle that she, she, she came back to me somehow, so that that worked out great. But I'll let you talk about the projects that you and I are working on, Tessa.

Tessa Putz: 17:44

Yeah, yeah. So we have some really awesome things going on. One of them, some people may be seeing hopefully in the next couple needs assessment and an evaluation survey. So watch your email for that one day. And so that'll be really great to get an idea of encroachment education website. Something that's really important is educating the public about the benefits of managing Pinyon-Juniper for our sagebrush ecosystems. So keep your eyes open for the on the internet for that too.

Megan Kay: 18:34

And that will be on our we'll be linking because that'll have its own website separate from ours, but we'll definitely link to that from our website, I assume, yay. Well, thanks for welcome. Excited to get to talk to you, and we, because we're operating in covid restrictions and everything, and we're all working remotely, this is the first time we've all been in, you know, we've been in a room together, so it's, pretty exciting. You know, Christina and Jamie are working remotely, but we're in the digital room. Not the first time we've been on a zoom together, but it's pretty exciting. So yeah, that. And then Spencer, another new addition to our team. Do you want to introduce, introduce yourself, and let's know what you're working on, and then maybe start with your job title, too.

Spencer Houston: 19:20

Yeah. So Hi everyone. I am Spencer Houston in and I'm a special project manager at Living with Fire. And the special project that I work on is taking really cool science from scientists like Tessa and Christina about wildfire and turning it into wildfire science curriculum for our Nevada high schools. And that's the main project that I am working on. So I have a background in doing this. Over the last seven years, I started a nonprofit that focused on connecting scientists to high school students and finding ways to make really awesome and interesting research relevant to the ecosystems that students lived in, and finding a way to give teachers tools to allow students to play with that research, to go out, collect measurements like that, ask questions and really understand it, so that their science classes were a lot more applied and they could understand questions that people are actively trying to study and learn.

Megan Kay: 20:15

Christina, do you want to talk about that project at all or?

Christina Restaino: 20:18

I mean, I think Spencer covered it pretty well. It's a grant that we got through FEMA to support that so important to acknowledge them. And you know, we're really working with a lot of different stakeholders in the region to really try to have this be a curriculum where we get a lot of participation from our partners at the BLM and NDF and at the Forest Service, to really make sure that we're we are contributing to the broader, you know, prevention and mitigation education that's occurring across the state, and so, you know, we've been getting a lot of great participation from our partners and and a bunch of teachers throughout the region. So really excited about it. We as a program haven't developed a curriculum like this before, and so folks are really, really excited about it, and Spencer and I are hoping that this is the beginning of more formalized K-12 education that we're doing in this program.

Spencer Houston: 21:40

And one of the really cool things about that that's kind of come up from all the scientists, fire professionals, teachers that we've talked to, is because fire is such a big part of the Nevada ecosystems that there's so many different places that you can connect fire to in your biology class talking about successions in different ecosystems in there. And so there are a lot of different places where we might not be saying, this is a unit on fire. So this is a study system about wildfire, where you're going to learn about how to effectively apply grazing to create beneficial plant outcomes.

Christina Restaino: 22:13

Yeah, so we're trying to integrate it into environmental science classes, biology classes, and some of the agriculture classes that are at at at high schools. So So really trying to have it be that there's kind of units that we can kind of plug into these broader classes that are are happening. And so it's a really exciting, engaging project that will that is really a lot of fun to work on, honestly, because it's, it's kind of a different skill set that we haven't been employing so far. So it's fun.

Megan Kay: 22:51

So let's, let's go around one more time, and let's just, you can however long answer is, let's just talk about what living with fire means to you. Start with Christina, yeah. What does living with fire mean to you?

Christina Restaino: 23:05

So to me, the concept of living with fire really is a concept that in that encompasses that we have a general understanding of the role that fire has played historically in our communities and ecosystems, and the role it plays now, and how we can be prepared and live I don't know if harmoniously is the right word, but live with an understanding and respect for fire, and so to me that that includes an ecological understanding of fire, a cultural understanding of fire, an economic under understanding of fire, a technical understanding of fire. So how do we suppress fires? How do we how do we manage them? How do we prepare our homes for fire? How do we prepare our communities for fire? And it's not just flames and fire, it's smoke. It's having your power shut off, because that's part of living with fire, right? So, so just being aware of of you know that that that there is a long standing historical role of fire, and presence of fire in our ecosystems, in the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada and in the West in general, and that there are different ways culturally and economically, that we prepare for fire and that we cohabitate with it, and that, you know, there are a lot of different communities that have to be preparing for fire in different ways. The wildland urban interface has to think about a certain set of issues. Ranchers have to think about a certain set of of of issues. The farmers have to think about a certain set the folks that live in the urban center have to think about a different set of of issues. So so really trying to keep in mind that when we live with fire, that we're trying to think about a current and a future time in which we don't lose our communities to fire, that we don't compromise our health due to fire, because we are prepared and resilient, both ecologically, socially, economically, to absorb a wildland fire when it comes to where we are. And I mean, I think that that does a pretty good job of explaining the vision I have for the program as a whole is really providing a variety of different educational resources and opportunities for folks to learn about these different components of what it means to live with the constant presence of fire in the region where you live. And so maybe that is a workshop on climate and fire, or maybe it's a workshop on how to pack an evacuation bag. Or maybe it's a it's a training for landscapers that work in fire, or it's an educational program for K-12 schools, or, you know, so really, not limiting ourselves to one kind of pathway or silo of that entire kind of spectrum or universe of different fire realities that we all face, but allowing the program to be adaptive and flexible over time, to continue to provide new educational materials and opportunities for folks to understand a different part of the puzzle than they did before.

Megan Kay: 27:07

Communities located in wildfire prone areas need to take extra measures to live safely. There are many ways to prepare communities and properties for wildfire, including creating and maintaining adequate defensible space and hardening homes to withstand wildfire. This could mean altering or replacing certain components of the home. Our wildfire home retrofit guide will help you better prepare your home and communities for wildfire. You can find the guide in the resources section of our website at livingwithfire.com. Just coming off of this podcast we just recorded. And to let you guys know, we just interviewed Helen Fillmore and Rhiana Jones from the Washoe Tribe. And I will say that that experience kind of has changed my answer a little bit in that you know when I came in, my understanding of what living with fire means to me was about, kind of like our, what you were talking about, like, having, being able to have fire as a natural ecological disturbance and process without the loss of communities and life and all the other devastation that comes with fire. I mean, there's gonna be a bit of a disturbance, but, like, how do we build or harden or retrofit? There's a lot of terms out there communities to withstand wildfire, but while also kind of letting it play its role in the ecosystem. But then I would take that a step further after this, and just kind of understand that there's been a like culturally, I will say, and this is just an observation. I'm not a social scientist, but I think there is a lack of stewardship, just this idea of stewardship in our culture and of a connection to the land. And I think everyone can that can exist in people's lives in various degrees. And there needs to be a little bit of care taken before you just go out into the land, a little bit of education that needs to happen. But I'll extend that, yeah, a step further beyond what Christina was saying. And just saying that, like for me now I think I'm thinking about way, the way that we interact with the land, and not just preventing fires, but maybe like actively understanding processes and like becoming like, just more connected to the land and that, and maybe that's by educating yourself about the historical role of fire and current land management, but just feeling a connection to the land. And therefore, I think that that will sort of ripple out into people's like feeling responsibility, and then also when people with land use being what it is, and wild and urban interface expanding, I think a lot of people are moving into the these eight these areas, and they don't have that connection to the land, and they don't necessarily understand their roles and responsibilities. So I would also say that to me, living with fire means doing your due diligence, and like when you choose to live somewhere, taking taking it all in. And instead of trying to just completely separate yourself from the land and harden yourself off and say, like, Okay, I need to protect myself from this ecosystem and from this from nature, try to maybe integrate the way that you live into nature a little bit more. But I don't know that's just me personally, the way I think about it. But as far as implementing that into the program, I think those, those that does exist in in our literature, when, when we talk about, like, home hardening and defensible space, we try to let people know that you don't have to clear cut around your house like you can. You can have natural vegetation. You can, you know, sort of exist with nature, but do it strategically. And same thing with home hardening, like you don't, we dont have to all live in metal boxes. It's more about like making strategic changes. So anyway, I feel like I'm very inspired by that episode. Sorry to eat up so much time. But Jamie, did you want to add anything else?

Jamie Roice-Gomes: 31:17

Okay, so what does living with fire mean to me? It basically that, you know, wildfire isn't inevitable. It's it's coming. And so we, we help residents to anticipate and prepare for for wildfire, so they're better able to, you know, adapt to it. Gone are the days where, where folks just say, you know, and I'm just going to rely on the the fire department to save me. I pay my taxes. You know, residents are the first line of defense with their pre-fire activities to help them reduce the threat of wildfire. So that's in a nutshell, what I would say to me that living with fire is.

Megan Kay: 32:04

Yeah, I like it. I already went, so I'm gonna abstain. You wanna go Spencer?

Spencer Houston: 32:09

Yeah, for for me, and kind of thinking that the context of my project in Living with Fire, living with fire, to me means that you could go, walk outside into a semi vegetated area and look at it and understand the health and how fire would interact with that area, like, is it going to be something that could really catastrophically burn, or is it something that is very resilient? And so being able to look and understand is kind of going to be really helpful to that. And I think kind of, I'm excited to listen to the podcast session that connects to the Washoe Tribal organizations that you've interviewed so far, because some of my talks from the education piece, from that was like one idea that really resonated with me was you're never not managing an ecosystem, and so kind of whether it's driving down the highway, maybe not the best management or something like that, but there, there can be good and bad management, and so understanding what it looks like around you is a good first step for that.

Tessa Putz: 33:09

Growing up in a mountain town in Southern California, I was aware of the impact wildfire can have on communities from a really early age being evacuated, and then coming back to a national forest that looks completely different, and then seeing how it changes throughout the years. And it was really interesting to me to learn later, and it's interesting that this wasn't established for me as a child, that there is good fire, and that fire is necessary for so many ecosystems, but that as the climate becomes more extreme and unpredictable, we're going to need to learn how to live with it, how to steel ourselves for it, manage properly and be prepared for it.

Megan Kay: 34:01

You guys have great answers. I feel like even though I made the questions I had the most rambly answer. Thank you grhruys.

Christina Restaino: 34:09

Want to answer again Megan?

Megan Kay: 34:11

No, I think it's okay. I wanted, I wanted to pose it to Jordan. So Jordan, what does living with fire mean to

Jordan Buxton: 34:16

Well, I will admit that of everyone in the you? podcast and everyone we've ever talked to, I definitely have the least knowledge and the least amount of experience as it relates to wildfire science and wildfire education. But I will say that growing up, and I know that that's kind of arrogant for me to say, because I mean, everyone's still growing up, and I'm still, I'm still 22 so you know. But growing up, I was inundated with, like, the standard wildfire warnings, with like, you know, Smokey the Bear only you can prevent forest fires, and mostly preventative education that I would receive with my extensive, you know, public land use. I mean, I've spent most of my life in the mountains. I mean, I was a boy scout, and I'm a back country snowboarder and a bike tourer and a backpacker, and so, like I've seen, I've had a litany of education towards preventative measures. But it's, it's interesting to think about how little I was exposed to proper defensible space, education and an actual usable material. Not that other other education isn't usable, but it's not as applicable to your daily life on how to live with and live in an area that's prone to wildfire. And I don't, I don't live on the wildland urban interface. I live about 12 miles from it, at least. That's what we used to think. I live on the on the deserts edge in Spanish Springs. And it hasn't been until recently that we've actually had wildfires approaching our property. And it's, it's kind of really shifted my perspective, and I've enjoyed, all right, I've appreciated the last because I've only been here for a couple months, but I've appreciated the Litany and wealth of knowledge that I've learned in regards to, you know, actually residing in areas prone to wildfire.

Megan Kay: 36:18

So the I think that that really, that ties in really well with our mission, which is trying to kind of do that flesh out the piece of the puzzle, which would be like the the why and the how. So, you know, it's not just about preventing fires, which is very important, because most, most wildfires are human caused. So it's important that we're not just going out and starting fires and that, but that also they are their reality and when they happen, being prepared is really important. So the I wanted to transition, transition into just kind of and talk to talk about for listeners the types of things that we create and what we do and how we fulfill our mission of helping people live more safely with wildfire. This podcast, if they're listening, would be one thing, one medium of using narrative to get to to try to educate people and reach people and but we also are working on a lot of great things like that we just mentioned the curriculum, but I, I wanted to highlight, and I'll go to Jamie for this. I wanted to highlight. We're also doing, we also do webinars and online workshops. And this summer, we have a whole, a whole series, but we'll do, I think that this around the table thing is working, so I think we'll just go around and kind of highlight some of just what we produce. We are a resource for for people to live more safely with fire. But how do they utilize this and and what kind of things do we provide? So I'm gonna put you on the spot and go to Jamie first.

Jamie Roice-Gomes: 38:00

It's fine. So I think that we need to mention that, you know, we work with local, state and federal firefighting agencies. We work in collaboration with them, and we also work in collaboration with land management agencies too. In Nevada, Living with Fire Program is a grant funded program, and we really rely heavily on on the these agencies and work in collaboration with them. And so that's big with us. And so what do we create? We we create peer reviewed publications. We lead an annual Wildfire Awareness Campaign. It's a campaign that we do. It used to be every May, but we've changed it to May to October, so a longer campaign awareness period where we just want to gain awareness of wildfire and preparedness for it. We we do public presentations, particularly for this year's Nevada Wildfire Awareness Campaign, we are doing workshops, online workshops. We're gonna have one to two workshops a month from from now until October, and they they are there on a variety of topics, from wildfire preparedness to a wildfire investigation to wildfire and smoke and a lot more. Those are this, the things that I can think of off the top of my head. What else do we do? We not only are a resource for Nevadans, but we also provide publications and information nationally. And internationally, some folks don't realize that I off the top of my head, I believe that we do help at least 25 other countries with this information. Pretty cool.

Megan Kay: 40:14

Yeah, we've had some really good participation and outreach with the workshops. I mean, the pandemic has been like, it's had some weird side effects, one being that, like all of this zoom programming, we're able to reach people we never used to be able to reach, so.

Jamie Roice-Gomes: 40:31

Yeah, you know, usually we do these in person presentations, and we would either target, like a smaller community in Nevada or the whole state. And with these zoom presentations, we've had folks from, I mean, Brazil, Canada, you know, across the nation, New York. So it's really, really cool to see that folks from other places are utilizing our information.

Megan Kay: 40:56

I'm pretty excited about the ones we have coming up. The wildfire and smoke one is going to be really interesting, because that's a thing that I don't think. I think people were just sort of because it was so temporary before wildfires. You know, the wildfires were not as prolonged and not as huge. There wasn't as much output, but now we're living with, I mean, last year, I mean, do you guys know, I can't remember, but it was a scary thing where we only had, like, for like, an entire month. We had like two days that were green, like, which, like healthy air, and that was that was pretty intense. So that's gonna be a much needed, much needed workshop..

Jamie Roice-Gomes: 41:36

And I really hope that we, and I know this is on our radar to, you know, create publications from the information so that we can help residents prepare for smoke. That is, it's so interesting and is is really needed. We have, you know, youth games to teach children about the emperor threat or about junipers. Folks can always borrow those if they live locally and they're willing to drive out here to pick them up to borrow it from us. We have publications that folks are able to design, or they could designable publications, rather.

Megan Kay: 42:21

So they can, like, adapt them to their communities.

Jamie Roice-Gomes: 42:24

Yes, they can adapt it to their their region. And then there's, you know, new publications that that if folks want to order large quantities of and they're from different states, they they're, able to, yeah, so we we do this education

Christina Restaino: 42:44

I just want to add that this program isn't possible without the amazing team that we have to get everything done. There's just a lot of bits and pieces that need to be done to make this program so successful. And so I just want to make sure to acknowledge this whole team that we have, because, you know, it wouldn't be a possible program without everybody here on this podcast.

Megan Kay: 43:13

Thank you for listening to the Living with Fire Podcast. You can find more stories about wildfire and other resources at livingwithfire.com. The Living with Fire Program is funded by the University of Nevada, Reno Extension, Nevada Division of Forestry, Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service.