This year's conference includes representatives from Firewise Communities/USA sites from across the country, community leaders, residents, firefighters, Firewise state liaisons, and wildfire experts from several countries including Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom, and Canada.

This morning we heard remarks from Charles Bronson, Commissioner of Florida Department Agriculture and Consumer Services, James Karels, Director of the Florida Division of Forestry, and a great panel of Firewise experts about the roles and responsibilities in preventing wildfire in the Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI). The group discussion, moderated by Patty Salkin of Albany (NY) Law School, examined a series of hypothetical situations that confront residents, firefighters, planners, developers, and elected officials everyday in the WUI. It was an interesting presentation and reiterated the fact that it really is everyone's responsibility in the real world.

There is still quite a bit to come tomorrow and Saturday, including the presentation of the 2008 Firewise Leadership Award Winners, but I'll leave you with this quote I overhead while leaving a conference session today:

"This is the third Firewise conference I've attended and it's not only a great opportunity to see old friends, but it's incredible to see how far this issue and the Firewise program have come since the first conference four years ago."

More to come...