Mission & Philosophy
FUSEE is a grassroots organization with a regional focus and a national impact.
Our Mission: FUSEE does public education and policy advocacy promoting safe, ethical, ecological wildland fire management.
FUSEE’s Frida Firehawk by Board Member Miriam Valentine
Want a poster of Frida? Check out FUSEE’s Fire Shop!
FUSEE strives to inform and empower fire management workers and their citizen supporters to become Torchbearers for Ecological Fire Management.
Instead of reactively fighting against fire, we support proactively working with fire to protect rural communities, restore fire-adapted ecosystems, and preserve fire-dependent species.
Inspired by the great Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic,” FUSEE promotes a new Fire Ethic in fire management policies and practices: “A thing is right when it contributes to the safety of firefighters and the public, ethical public service, and use of taxpayer dollars, environmental protection of fire-affected landscapes, and ecological restoration of fire-dependent ecosystems. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
Safe, ethical, ecological fire management is achievable when we stop the endless, escalating, and futile war against Nature’s fire, and relearn to safely work and sustainably live with it.
Our Philosophy
The FUSEE triad: Safety, Ethics, & Ecology
The SAFETY of firefighters and the public is our number one priority; professional and environmental ETHICS are at the heart of our mission; and ECOLOGY is the bottom line of the fire management policies and practices we promote.
FUSEE links firefighter safety with community and land safety.
We challenge damaging forest management projects that appear under numerous guises such as “wildfire prevention,” “hazardous fuels reduction,” or “forest health restoration,” but instead, degrade the environment in ways that undermine authentic land stewardship goals and may actually increase the safety risks and health hazards for firefighters.
FUSEE promotes a new ethos for wildland firefighters.
FUSEE encourages renewed professional and environmental ethics for wildland firefighters that embrace a personal and collective sense of duty in service to communities and the land. We condemn the growing profiteering that accompanies wildfire disaster recovery, critique the expanding corporate privatization of fire and fuels management, and strive to expose the systemic causes of waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars and resources during wildfire suppression.
FUSEE advocates for ecological fire restoration and resilience.
We understand that wildland fire is a vital ecosystem process that sustains native biodiversity, essential ecosystem services, valuable natural resources, and landscape beauty. We challenge conventional notions of wildfire prevention and suppression whose goals attempt to impose fire exclusion on fire-adapted ecosystems in ways that adversely impact fire-dependent species. We strive for a paradigm shift in society’s relationship with wildland fire, ending the misnamed “war” on wildfire – symbolized by the concept of “fighting” fire – that is socially, economically, and ecologically unsustainable.
Who We Are
Our members and supporters include current, former, and retired wildland firefighters, fire scientists and managers, educators and students, rural residents, forest conservationists, and other concerned citizens who support our vision and mission.
If you’ve ever dreamed of a society where people can stop fearing and “fighting” against fire, and instead, learn how to work safely and live sustainably with fire–you are not alone! FUSEE is full of people just like you.
You don’t have to be a wildland firefighter to support FUSEE - just believe in the right of firefighters and other fire-related workers to work safely, ethically, and ecologically.
What We Do
MEDIA OUTREACH - FUSEE has an active program of media education and outreach that encourages more in-depth, critical investigative reporting on a broad range of fire-related issues beyond the conventional “war reporting” of wildfire suppression incidents.
POLICY ADVOCACY - FUSEE actively engages in advocacy work to promote scientifically sound, socially progressive fire management policies and practices and opposes regressive policy proposals that would increase the risks, costs, or damages of fire suppression.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT - FUSEE conducts a variety of educational and advocacy projects of key interest to the fire management and forest conservation communities. We participate in fire science conferences, host public meetings, and engage federal policymakers.