PARENT SESSION
Symposium #4: Restoration Education.

Organized by: LM Jablonski and KM Rodriguez
Monday, August 5. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Maricopa Meeting Room, TCC.

Restoration as an educational tool for addressing the Urban Wildlands .

Freeman, Robin^*,1, Self, David², ¹ Merritt College, Oakland, CA² Merritt College, Oakland, CA

ABSTRACT- In 1991 a catastrophic firestorm burned on the Urban Wildlands Interface in the Oakland hills in California. A decade later much of the small diameter fuel has grown back; re-creating similar pre-fire vegetation conditions to those in 1991. Although the area has extensive resources these have not yet been marshalled to reduce the risk of high intensity fire in either the vegetation or the buildings. A Merritt College partnership has tested an intervention in this repetitive fire risk behavior by using ecological restoration, learning theory, and stress psychology as tools. The preliminary results and lessons learned from this effort, the East Bay Fire and Watershed Convention, will be discussed.

KEY WORDS: education, fire, trauma, restoration