Ryan Hoffer, a BLM fire mitigation and education specialist, posts a fire restriction notice on a stop sign on Thursday in La Pine. 07/10/25 (Joe Kline/The Bulletin)

LA PINE — The staff at the La Pine Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center are used to dispensing information and handing out flyers and brochures to folks entering their building. On a recent weekday, Zachary Ellinger put them on the receiving end of paper handouts, tips and advice.

The flyers featured bold type instructions and graphics on how to prevent wildfires — Ellinger asked that they be placed in a prominent location in the visitor center to keep the public informed on what has become a growing threat to communities across the West.

Ellinger is in La Pine as part of a small, federally-funded team of wildfire education and outreach experts  collectively known as The National Fire Prevention and Education Team.

The team, most recently in the region in 2021, is an interagency effort that includes specialists from the Forest Service, National Parks Service, Department of Natural Resources and others.

After handing out the flyers, Ellinger dove into the particulars of wildfire prevention with the visitor center staff, highlighting what travelers should know about campfire bans and the benefit of propane stoves over open flames.

“Anything with an open flame is prohibited,” Ellinger told the center workers.

Smoking bans, spark arrester and more

In a brief encounter at the visitor center, Ellinger covered everything from prescribed burns and bans to smoking in national forests unless the person is in a vehicle or an area clear of vegetation.  The flyers he gave out explain what is allowed and what’s not on public lands.

He also talked about internal combustion engines like those in chainsaws and the importance of having a functioning spark arrester.

“We try to remind people, check your spark arrestor because they have to be working,” said Ellinger. “All that is (is) a metal screen fine enough to catch the carbon particles that come out of the exhaust, and trap them so they don’t light the vegetation on fire.”

The La Pine area was specifically targeted as a place for outreach due to the large number of fires close to the city in recent years. Last year the Darlene 3 Fire scorched nearly 4,000 acres near the city.

Most fires in the area are avoidable — of the 13 fires in the area this year, 12 were sparked by human activity.

Blanket coverage

After the meeting at the visitor center, Ellinger was off to the next stop — the Grocery Outlet down the road on busy U.S. Highway 97. He briefly met the store manager, handed over some flyers and requested they be placed prominently on the front window.

It’s an interaction that has occurred scores of times during the team’s stay in La Pine — over the past few days Ellinger and his team have campaigned fire prevention methods at gas stations, motels, restaurants and local businesses.

“We shoot for as many contacts as possible. Sometimes it’s hundreds, sometimes it’s dozens. It’s not just about the quantity but the quality of the contact,” Ellinger said.

Ellinger says it’s important to tailor the message to his audience. When he meets people at an auto parts store he talks about how to prevent fires sparked by a catalytic convertor. At a hardware store the conversation centers on chainsaws.

“Every conversation is different but every single interaction has been positive,” said Ellinger. “The community has been very supportive. It is in everyone’s best interest to prevent wildfires.”

Background experience

Ellinger says individuals with strong political opinions sometimes want to express their views, but his message is always non-partisan. He has plenty of experience to guide this process, from digging fire lines to providing education across more than a dozen states from Washington to Florida.

He served as a wildland firefighter for several years before transitioning to fire prevention. His change in work came after the deadly Thirtymile Fire caused severe damage near his home in Twisp, Washington in 2001.

“It was a formative moment in my career. It was started by an abandoned campfire and I realized that the way I could make a difference is by preventing wildfires … that even made a lasting impression on me. Putting the fire out is after the fact. Prevention is proactive.”

While putting out a fire is a tangible result, Ellinger said his work has its own measure of success. The education he and his team provides changes the way people go about their normal routine. He talks to people about drowning out their barbecue coals, how to prevent fires started by lawnmowers and the dangers of not fully drowning out a campfire.

“It happens routinely that someone says you made a difference in my life or my family’s life,” he said. “That is why I do it. If that didn’t happen I would have given up a long time ago.”