.png)
BLAZE
ECOLOGY OF FIRE
EXPLORE
the exhibit
LEARNING MATERIALS
Get more out of the Blaze Project with free activities for home and classroom.
ABOUT
the PROJECT
At once worshiped and admonished, fire has been an evocative and complex symbol of the human experience. The current age of drought, rapid global warming, and catastrophic wildfires has shifted our contemporary view of this natural phenomenon, making it out to be a destructive force.
​
As wildfire claims a larger and larger place in the fabric of our modern lives and we manage the impacts of climate change, Blaze seeks to create an interactive educational exhibition. Blaze shifts the paradigm towards a holistic, ecological perspective of fire in hopes of creating better understandings of truly effective forestry practices. Growing up at the base of the Rocky Mountains, catastrophic fire has claimed precious ecosystems close to my heart.
​
Started as senior capstone project at Columbia College Chicago, The Blaze Project has continued on and evolved into a network of media and community engagement events that aim to meet audience where they are at, engaging and exciting WUI communities in wildfire ecology, behavior, and management in a variety of traditional and non-traditional education settings.
​
.jpg)
Lou Bean is a saw crew leader and wildland firefighter from Colorado. In addition to fire mitigation, prescribed burning, suppression, and burn scar recovery work, Bean is passionate about empowering community members and early career professionals with training and education, both in their work leading saw and burn crews with Southwest Conservation Corps, coordinating the Neighborhood Ambassador outreach program with SPAWP, and volunteering as a structural and wildland firefighter with Chaffee County Fire. Bean studied both Construction Coordination and Environmental Science and completed a thesis on Fire Ecology in the Wildland Urban Interface and has since worked for the National Parks Service and the US Forest Service in addition to their current gigs. Bean also runs The Blaze Project, which designs fire ecology curriculum for classrooms and non-traditional learning environments.