School Outreach Event

Kamaile Academy Wildfire Lessons

Pablo teaches students about the fire triangle and how each element plays a part in preventing wildfire.

The Nanakuli fire in March was the most recent scare for Waianae residents. Although no homes and lives were lost, thanks to the courageous efforts of our firefighters, the wildfire proved to be a frightening one for residents, including keiki.

On May 12th, Pablo Beimler, Community Outreach Coordinator for HWMO, was invited by Jamiel Saez, a FoodCorp representative for the school garden at Kamaile Academy, to speak to K-8 students about the importance of wildfire prevention and preparedness. Over 300 students flocked to the garden to tune-in to a brief, interactive presentation that included a fire triangle game to have students understand the core concepts of fire ecology. 

For the remainder of each class, the students played a game of fire tag. Most of the students began the game as their favorite native trees, usually koa or wiliwili, and were tasked with power-walking to the other side of the playing field. The catch: they had toavoid 3-4 students who were “wildfire” and could move about freely and tag any of the trees. Once a tree was tagged, they became a grass that could then ignite passer-bys on the next go around (grasses, however, had to stay “rooted” to where they were tagged by only being able to pivot). By the end of the game, most of the native forest became part of an extensive “grassland” - students could clearly see the transformation of the native ecosystem - something we call “Hawaii’s fire cycle.” 

Fire tag game: "native trees" try their best to avoid being tagged by "fire" students.

Why not have fun when learning about the fire cycle?

Kamaile students and visiting kumu build a hale in the garden.

It was also an important day for the school, culturally. Kumu from the Leeward Campus at University of Hawaii were invited by Jameil and school officials to help students build a hale at the garden. Pablo was graciously offered an incredibly beautiful lei as part of a blessing in which students led oli. It was quite a beautiful moment to be a part of and added a whole other level of excitement and significance to the day for HWMO.

Mahalo Jamiel and Kamaile Academy staff for sharing the beautiful garden as a space for us to teach the incredibly friendly and bright students!

Kamaile Academy Wildfire Lessons 5/12/16
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Waimea Youth Wildfire Prep Team

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In August of this year, a 4,000-plus acre wildfire threatened a number of homes and businesses in the Kawaihae area. Nearly a week later, heavy rainfall swept the exposed, loose, post-fire soil and debris through stream channels and roads, creating flash flood conditions that caused further evacuations. The clear connection between wildfires, flooding, and smothering of coral reefs during the event led us to create a YouTube video titled: Kawaihae Fire and Flood - Mauka to Makai Impacts. 

Although the current El Niño brought Hawaii a wet summer, very dry conditions are forecasted this winter. Drought during past El Niños has led to some of Hawaii’s largest wildfires on both windward and leeward sides. The next Kawaihae fire could be right around the corner.

Youth Wildfire Prep Team from Waimea Middle School. From left to right: Zakahry Murakami-Mattos, Jamin-Quinn Lee Rillanos, Zariah River, Kawehi Bell-Kaopuiki. 

With the recent wildfires and El Niño predictions in mind, HWMO assembled a group of five enthusiastic students from Waimea Middle School who were eager to complete a community wildfire prevention or preparedness project. Kyren Martins, Zakahry Murakami-Mattos, Kawehi Bell-Kaopuiki, Zariah Rivera, and Jamin-Quinn Lee Rillanos joined the Youth Wildfire Prep Team in November, working on projects they developed and executed on their own. Mr. Martins and Mr. Rillanos each created their own wildfire prevention signs; Mr. Murakami-Mattos is currently creating a “good versus bad defensible space” video; and Ms. Bell-Kaopuiki and Ms. Rivera teamed up to remove flammable plant debris from the Mālaʻai Culinary Garden. 

The action team was originally inspired by a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) national call to action for youth from ages 13 to 22. Students from around the country were urged to implement their own wildfire prevention or preparedness project between September 1st and November 15th with the chance of being selected as a $500 “TakeAction” community service funding award recipient.

Kyren Martins, one of ten national TakeAction community service funding award recipients. 

HWMO is pleased to announce that Mr. Martins was selected as one of ten national recipients. Mr. Martins, whose family was directly affected by the Kawaihae fire and subsequent floods in August, made and installed a wildfire prevention sign at the edge of his home, which is visible from the road. Kyren’s message about preventing cigarette ignitions alongside the road will certainly have an impact considering a number of people drive by their home everyday. Mr Martins has elected to use the reward for future educational costs.

Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization thanks the Youth Wildfire Prep Team for their enthusiasm, hard work, and overall commitment to helping protect their community from the growing threat of wildfire. HWMO also congratulates Mr. Martins for receiving the national award. We plan to work with other students throughout the state on similar projects, using Waimea’s Prep Team as a model for future collaborations.

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Waimea Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Science Wildfire Classroom Lessons

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Pablo Beimler explains to Ms. Murphy's 8th graders the basics of the fire triangle: fuel, heat, and oxygen.

HWMO continued its month of student outreach with a series of classroom lessons about wildfire prevention and preparedness with Waimea Middle School students. On November 18th, Pablo Beimler gave presentations to each of Ms. Naui Murphy's 8th grade science classes. He covered a range of wildfire issues, but focused primarily on wind, weather, soil, and mauka-to-makai connections, topics that the students had just learned or were currently learning about. For example, Pablo explained how wildfires could actually create their own weather by drawing in oxygen. At the extreme level, this peculiar behavior of wildfire can create "fire whirls" (mistakenly known as "fire tornados"), a phenomena that occurred on Mauna Kea during a massive wildfire in 2010 (video below).

Following each presentation with Ms. Murphy's classes, students gathered into small groups to work on a poster board activity. The students were to "take over" Pablo's outreach job by creating public service announcements about various topics that were covered in the presentation. Each group focused on a particular issue, such as roadside ignitions or the El Niño drought, and brainstormed ways in which they could get the messages across to the public (including through social media using hashtags, etc.)

On November 19th, Pablo returned to the WMS to give presentations to Ms. Jade Bowman's 7th grade science classes. He turned the focus more on plants and how they could help protect a home from a wildfire. Many native dryland plants, such as pohinahina and ilima, have characteristics that are considered Firewise: drought-tolerance, stay green all year, drop very little debris, and so on. Students translated their new-found understanding for these characteristics by participating in our popular Native Plant Firewise Game Show. Each class helped us determine which live plants that we brought to the classroom would be good, not-so-good, and bad for a Firewise garden. 

Ms. Bowman's 7th grade science class watches in awe the story of the Waikoloa fire in 2005.

During the first class, a fire evacuation drill occurred, which turned out to be a great teaching moment for HWMO. Pablo stressed the importance of taking these drills seriously. A number of schools across the state have had to evacuate due to encroaching wildfires. By practicing these drills regularly, should an actual emergency occur, students and staff would be ready to "Go!" seamlessly without a moment's hesitation. Pablo also told students to share their new Ready, Set, Go! Action Guides with their families to go through their own evacuation plans and to practice them as often as possible. 

Mahalo to Ms. Bowman and Ms. Murphy for opening their classrooms to HWMO and being such great hosts!

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Seabury Hall Presentation

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Pablo Beimler gives background on Firewise native plants to Seabury Hall students.

A busy week of school outreach kicked off in Maui on Monday, November 16th. HWMO's Pablo Beimler gave a presentation to the 6-12th grade students of Seabury Hall, a coed college-preparatory school in Makawao.

Pablo kept students engaged by firing questions left and right about Hawaii's wildfire issues and prevention and preparedness messages. Students were especially excited about Kaleo the Pueo, stopping to pick up stickers and bookmarks along with "10 Ways to Prepare for Wildfire" brochures at the end. 

Mahalo to Ms. Jacque Peterka and the Seabury Hall staff and students who opened their doors to HWMO with a warm welcome.

Malaai Garden Take Action Campaign Recruitment

Pablo Beimler explains what it takes to apply for a Take Action funding award.

Healthy food, healthy living, community service - all words that come to mind when one mentions Malaai Culinary Garden. The student garden, "a one acre organic garden grown by and for" students at Waimea Middle School, hosted HWMO Education and Outreach Coordinator, Pablo Beimler, for its morning classes on November 10th. Pablo, who also is a volunteer at Malaai, came to speak to the students about an exciting community service opportunity. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released an award contest for young adults (ages 13-22) who were willing to start and complete a neighborhood project to prevent or reduce wildfire threats in the area. Students could work on a number of projects and once they completed it, they could enter the 2015 Take Action contest for a chance to be a recipient of a $500 funding award. The award could be used for future education costs, or as a donation to their favorite charitable organization.

Five students took particular interest and sat down with Pablo to discuss ideas for projects in their neighborhood. One student, for example, decided to make a fire prevention sign that he could post next to his home, which is situated next to the busy Kawaihae Road. Other student ideas included making a "good v. bad defensible space" video and clearing fuels around Malaai Garden. It was great to see students who were enthusiastic about making a difference in their community and we only hope to grow this enthusiasm with future student events. 

Stay tuned for updates on the student projects!

Kauai School Outreach Tour

Kauai's wildfire uptick in recent months, partially due to drought conditions and a string of arson cases, is cause for concern for the Garden Island. We reached out to various schools across the island to offer our complimentary wildfire student outreach program. 

Pablo asks students to chime in on how the wildfire hazards on the screen could be eliminated.

The first week of September became an outreach tour of Kauai's schools for HWMO Education & Outreach Coordinator, Pablo Beimler. On September 1st and 2nd, Pablo traveled to Waimea Canyon Middle School and held wildfire lessons in the science classroom of Ms. Yamagata for a total of seven classes. On the following day, September 3rd, Pablo held lessons in the life sciences classroom of Mr. Sasso at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School in Lihue, another great fit for introducing students to a life science they're not normally exposed to: fire ecology. September 4th was a double-header for HWMO: Pablo first held a presentation for over a hundred K-5th graders at Island School in Lihue and then hopped on over to Chiefess for one last classroom lesson, this time with Ms. Thompson's Hawaiiana class. 

Students become gnarled Wiliwili trees in a series of "ladder fuel" stretches.

For each classroom lesson, Pablo gave an interactive presentation about the basics of fire ecology, Hawaii's unique wildfire issues, how students can help reduce ignitions and protect their homes from wildfire using Firewise landscaping. To keep the students on their toes, Pablo had the students stand up and demonstrate "ladder fuels". Students first touched their toes to be a grass fire, their knees to be a brush fire, and eventually a wild crown fire with their arms waving frantically. For the next round, Pablo told the students that the brush had been removed and the lower branches of the trees eliminated (removal of "ladder fuels"). Students no longer could get from the grass pose to the crown pose. The ladder fuel treatment was a success.

To wrap up each lesson, Pablo had several volunteers participate in the Firewise Plant Game Show. One student would select and carry around a special plant to each student and allow them to "smell, touch, and even cuddle" the plant to get to know it better. Then, three landscaping judges would examine the plants and decide whether the plant should go in a Firewise garden or not. Before they could decide, they had to see what the audience thought by gauging the thumbs in the crowd. After coming up with a consensus decision, the students would show cards with "emoji" faces to determine the fate of the plant.

It was a treat to be able to talk to so many students during a short period of time and we are looking forward to additional opportunities throughout the State. Contact us if you'd like for us to come visit your school!

Mahalo nui loa to all of the teachers, administrators, and students who helped make this outreach tour a success!

Banner photo: Students stand tall like koa trees, which make for good Firewise plants.

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Waikoloa Back-to-School Bash 2015

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Dressing up in wildland fire gear and posing in front of Kaleo the Pueo (and cotton candy enthusiasts!)

This summer went by fast! It was only yesterday when we were participating in end-of-the-school-year events. On Saturday, July 25, we traveled down to Waikoloa School for this year's Back-To-School Bash. Hundreds of keiki and their ʻohana joined the festivities, gathering free books from Friends of the Library, climbing a 30-foot rock wall, indulging in cotton candy, and more. The fun didn't stop there, many visitors stopped by our booth to learn about Firewise native plants and to dress up like wildland firefighters. Each kid that dressed-up in the gear took home a Polaroid photo of them, complements of HWMO (along with Kaleo the Pueo stickers and Smokey the Bear giveaways). We even got to catch-up with our Ocean Warriors students who helped us put on the Kaleo the Pueo play back in April.

Looks like the Polaroid camera is on us now!

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Waimea Middle School - Student Leadership Day Wildfire Lessons

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Tom Loomis reads off a plant card for the student judges - in the front of the picture are the plants we asked them to categorize as "good", "so-so", or "bad" Firewise plants.

HWMO's Tom Loomis and Pablo Beimler joined various other companies/organizations as classroom visitors for this year's Student Leadership Day at Waimea Middle School on June 2nd. Mr. Loomis and Mr. Beimler called one of the classrooms home for a couple of hours, meeting with students to talk about wildfire prevention and preparedness.

For each of four 25-minute classes, Mr. Beimler started with a presentation with plenty of colorful photos and Kaleo the Pueo drawings to illustrate the wildfire issue in Hawaii and what students could do around the home to reduce fire hazards. 

Mr. Loomis followed with a Firewise Plant Game Show, calling upon volunteers to act as judges who would have to come to a consensus and reveal their answers about whether a given plant was a "good", "so-so", or "bad" Firewise plant. One student was chosen to be the "Vanna White" of the show, carrying around a potted plant to each classmate to let them get a good feel for the plant before deciding whether the plant would go into a Firewise garden. 

We showcased a variety of plants including "happy face" plants like ʻaʻaliʻi, koa, and ʻilima oʻahu; "neutral face" plants like dill and ʻawa; and "sad face" plants like eucalyptus, pepper trees, and pili grass.

We were able to recruit a whole new class of "future landscape designers" from such a short period of time!

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BioBlitz Cultural Festival at Hawaii Volcanoes 2015

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Every year, National Geographic helps put together a BioBlitz event, with the host park changing each time. This year, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was the host for the 2015 BioBlitz. The BioBlitz is "a 24-hour event in which teams of volunteer scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members work together to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as possible," as described by National Geographic.

Pablo Beimler lets each student from Pahoa make a friend with a native Firewise plant.

As a way to help bridge science and culture, the 2015 Cultural Festival was held in conjunction with the event. On May 15th, the first day of the event, scores of students, teachers, and volunteers visited the festival after going out in the field and identifying natural resources. Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization was there to host a number of the students by playing a Firewise Plant Game Show. Students were shown a few different plants that ranged from "good," "ok," or "bad" Firewise plants. The "future landscapers" had to help us determine the ranking score for each plant, many of which were native to Hawaiʻi.

Scratching heads while trying to decide if jade and ʻihi oʻahu are good Firewise plants.

The second day of the event, May 16th, brought in a different audience: the general public. Thousands swung by the festival, many of whom stopped by our booth to learn about wildfires in Hawaiʻi and how residents could use native Firewise plants to help protect their homes from wildfire. Visitors were intrigued by the plants, including ʻihi oʻahu (delicate succulent with beautiful purple flowers), ʻohelo papa (native edible strawberry), and ʻalaʻala wai nui (a peperomia with fuzzy leaves and branches that protect it from the sun). 

Kilauea Volcano gets active during Keiki Wildland Firefighter photo-shoot.

We also had a few keiki dress-up in wildland firefighter gear donated by Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife. Each young firefighter was able to take home a Polaroid photo (yes, they still exist!) with the active Kilauea Caldera in the distance. 

The unique event drew upwards of 5,000 people, making it one of our most visible events, yet.

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Kealakehe School Student Leadership Day

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Teach for America organized a Student Leadership Day for Kealakehe School and neighboring school students, inviting various workshop and booth presenters from around the island to Kealakehe on April 25th. HWMO was invited to set-up an outreach booth for the event. We reached out to a few dozen kids of all ages, some of whom dressed up in wildland firefighter gear and took photos with our new wildfire mascot: Kaleo the Pueo. 

Mahalo to Teach for America for organizing and inviting us to the event!

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of protection.””
— Chief Eric Moller, USAG-P, FES