Firefest 2023

Firefest is a fantastic event held at Jonathon Dickinson State Park, and I had a great time talking to attendees this year!

This event raises fire safety awareness, discusses prescribed burns, and overall educates on how Florida is impacted by fire (in positive ways and negative ways). While it is an education based event, there are many fun, family friendly activities as well— swamp buggies, hay rides, pumpkin patches, and prescribed burn demonstrations (to name a few).

I was lucky enough to run a booth at the event on the topic of invasive species. I highlighted a lot of plants invasive to South Florida that affect wildfires, such as Cogongrass or Old World Climbing Fern. I included examples of fires where invasives have played a factor in creating intense and dangerous wildfires, like the Maui wildfires. In addition, I had general information available on the threats of invasive species and what you can do to help. As an interactive piece, I had live plant samples of the invasive plants pictured and mentioned on my board (the samples were disposed of carefully afterwards). I hoped these would be fun for kids and help everyone with identification of these species! Finally, I had fun (but informative) stickers people could take and mini tape measures as prizes (the kids sure loved these)!

Overall, I had over 160 event goers come by! I had so much fun talking to everyone who visited me- thank you to all who stopped by. I’m excited to attend again next year!

Here is the flyer for Firefest 2023: