Smokey Bear is at it again, slinging stylish apparel and raising half a million dollars for wildfire prevention and education.
Spreading the word on wildfire prevention is a never-ending job. Like any other education campaign, it also requires money to be successful. That can be hard to come by for underfunded government organizations like the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), despite the essential nature of the work.
Luckily, USFS has a hip mascot named Smokey Bear, and brands like The Landmark Project (TLP) are eager to use his likeness. TLP has a whole line of T-shirts, hats, drinkware, bandanas, and more — all featuring the bear, the myth, the legend: Smokey.
And we aren’t talking a measly 1% donation — 10% of every Smokey Bear product TLP sells goes to USFS. So far over the course of their 5-year partnership, the brand has managed to raise over $500,000 for wildfire prevention and education. That’s more than a drop in the bucket — it’s a firehose of funding.
Why Donate to Wildfire Education?
New research shows that there’s been a 27-fold increase in “extreme smoke days” across the U.S. over the last decade. Just in 2020, dangerous levels of smoke and poor air quality affected over 25 million people. Wildfire frequency has tripled in some parts of the U.S. in the 2000s. And fires are growing to four times their size over previous decades.
It’s getting to a point where wildfire smoke is actually undoing all of the progress made by the Clean Air Act.
The situation is not expected to get better on its own. Not without widespread education and prevention campaigns. However, those can’t happen without private donations and serious fundraising efforts from companies like TLP. They’re doing their part to spread the good word of wildfire education.
If you’re interested, check out TLP’s lineup of Smokey Bear-themed products on its website. Or, simply donate directly to USFS through the donations page. You’ll get a tax break for it — but you won’t get any of that stylish Smokey Bear swag.
