The news has been full of the terrifying and tragic accounts of fires burning uncontrollably in Australia. Dozens of fires have burned homes, whole towns, woods, fields, forests. At this writing, more than 200 people have died and countless hectares have been brutally scorched. Every television network news has reported at length on the fires and most children, even the youngest, will have watched many of these reports by now. Some may have been quite frightened. How to help them understand better and so, quell some of their fears?
February is the height of summer in Australia. All is dry and brittle. The most common tree is the eucalyptus. It has a heady camphor smell, and attractive little seed pods. It is a tall tree that sucks water from the ground to such an extent that it has been planted in other countries to drain swamps. Its sap is highly volatile and when heated will burst into flame. The tree may even explode, spreading fire faster and farther. At the end of a hot, dry summer, a stand of eucalyptus is a tinder box.
There is a parallel in the northern hemisphere. Much of California has a climate similar to that of Australia, and off the desert from the east sweeps a vicious, dry wind called the Santa Ana. At the end of August, after a hot, dry summer, with the Santa Ana blowing, fires rage. California's volatile tree is the Jeffrey pine, which also explodes when fire reaches it. In the past, when its sap was collected for the making of turpentine, whole factories would explode until people learned to exclude it.
In both Australia and California, late summer is called the "Fire Season". Australia's dry conditions are natural. California's are man-made. Before the 16th century, most of California was mixed oak forest. When the Europeans arrived from Spain, one of the first things the landowners did was burn the forests. They did this to make grazing land for cattle. The result was a completely changed ecology. The same is happening in the Amazon rainforest, which is being both logged and burned. The burning is to make grazing land for cattle and farmland for soya and the new bio-fuel, maize.
Fire is a natural phenomenon that can be caused by lightning as easily as by a match. It has its place in nature, but it causes great suffering. Australia's Sam, the koala the survived the destruction of its universe and whose rescue can be seen on YouTube, has become an instant symbol. In her suffering and survival she is a silent ambassador for the millions of creatures who died. In North America, many years ago, there was a similar ambassador. As firefighters managed to extinguish a blaze that had raged for days, they found clinging to the top of a burnt tree a black bear cub. He was rescued, named Smokey, and made a mascot and symbol for teaching fire safety to the public. I do not know of any such ambassador from the Amazon rainforest to capture the hearts of people. Is there one?
There are some difficult lessons to cover here: the dangers of fire, fire safety, laws and rules about fire outdoors. But there are also some very interesting nature and geography lessons.
Learn about exploding trees and plants.
Gather information on the eucalyptus, the Jeffrey pine and the manzanita shrub from Wikipedia. If you live near an arboretum, take the class to see examples of these plants. If you have any of these near you, collect some seeds and leaves and create a display comparing the height and other characteristics of them. Point out that many species, such as some eucalyptus and the manzanita, need fire to scorch their seeds before they will germinate. This is an example of how a species can adapt to what should kill it and live with it interdependently.
Learn about fire seasons and compare them
The website:
www.clearlyexplained.com has an excellent article on bushfires in Australia, with very good graphics. From that page, you can go to a map of when the fire season occurs throughout Australia. On
www.fire.ca.gov you can learn about the fire season in California and there are some free publications that can be downloaded.
Have the children act out a firefighting play, with some playing animals that survive and others the firefighters.
Learn about the two survivors, Sam and Smokey
Here is the link to the YouTube video of Sam's rescue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XSPx7S4jr4
(You might have to copy and paste it.) There are quite a lot of news articles about her as well.
Here is the link to all there is to know about Smokey the Bear:
www.smokeybear.com This website has a large section of Teachers' resources. Under the section "Smokey's Vault", in the story of Smokey, you can see a picture of a firefighter giving the bear water from a bottle, just as was done for Sam in the YouTube video.
To know more about black bears, go to
www.stlzoo.org and search for the black bears page.
Be creative!
N.B. It is NOT recommended that you show videos of raging fires to the very young, as they may be too frightened.
©2009 Anne Morddel
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