Thursday Highlights
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Opening General Session
Keynote Speaker: James Mapes —Founder and President
of The Quantum Leap Thinking Organization and the creator of The Transformation
Coach™
James Mapes is dedicated to education, coaching, and encouraging his audience
to be open minded about new options. It is his goal to help people make the
"quantum leap" toward more creative, productive, and confident lives. His
presentations are personal, interactive, humorous, and – create
results. James Mapes’ success as a speaker and as an authority on creativity,
communication, teamwork and coaching traces back to his training as an actor
and experience as a theatrical producer. His film credits include: Three
Days of the Condor, Taxi Driver, Star Trek VI, Star Trek: First Contact
and the suspense thriller, Do You Wanna Know a Secret?
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
WUI/Firewise Welcome Reception
Join and meet the other attendees
for a great networking reception. This
provides the perfect opportunity to
get reacquainted with old friends and
colleagues, establish new contacts,
and get a bite to eat!
Friday Highlights
8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Special Presentation – Preventing WUI Fire Disaster:The Key to Getting Compatible with the Beyond
Guest Speaker: Jack Cohen
In keeping with the Conference
theme “Backyards and Beyond” this
presentation will examine the context
of interface fire disasters and
how homes ignite. The presentation
will then turn to wildland fire in terms
of an inevitable ecological process in
the “Beyond.”
Looking at the wildland/urban interface
as two separate problems – one
being the home threat and the other
being the restoration of fire as an
ecological process – further reinforces
the need for mutual understanding
and collaboration. “The threat of
homes burning is keeping us from
implementing the restoration of ecological
fire,” says Jack Cohen. Jack will
show that we have an opportunity to
do both separately and if we don’t,
we may unnecessarily decrease our
ecological benefits. “The irony is that
our focus on houses without understanding
the problem jeopardizes
our ecological benefits, – houses are
threatening ecosystems more than
the ecosystem fuels are threatening
houses.”
6:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Dinner with The Blues Rangers
Join us and The Blues Rangers at the
Friday night conference dinner! The
Blues Rangers are a team of USDA Forest
Service employees from De Soto
National Forest in Mississippi who
participant voluntarily (and through
their day jobs) in The Blues Rangers
Interpretive Program. They have performed
across the United States and
have a CD of original blues songs,
“Gettin’ the Message Out” highlighting
current natural resource management
issues and includes their original
song “Firewise” — A MUST – HEAR
event!
The Blues Rangers Interpretive Program is a public outreach
and environmental educational tool designed to entertain and inform audiences
of all ages. The Blues Rangers Interpretive Program encourages appropriate
public use and stewardship of National Forest and Grasslands as well as other
public and private lands.
Saturday Highlight
1:15 PM - 3:15 PM
Special Presentation — Does Evacuation Always Put Life Safety First?
What is the potential threat to life as
wildfires grow larger, more extreme,
and threaten residential areas which
are growing larger and more densely
developed? This panel discussion,
with plenty of time for audience interaction,
will explore issues faced by
residents and fire incident command
staff in evacuation efforts and shelterin-
place options during wildland/urban
interface fires. This session will not
provide answers to all the questions,
but it will result in further discussion
and thought-provoking decisions in
the future by leaders in wildland fire.
