by Communications & Public Information Director Doug Wood
Media interest in the Forestry Commission is at an all-time high. Thanks to last year’s hyperactive wildfire season, our public service announcements airing on virtually every radio and TV station for three months and the publicity surrounding Prescribed Fire Awareness Month, the agency is enjoying widespread, positive exposure that would be difficult to generate even with paid advertising.
Every March is Prescribed Fire Awareness Month, this year being no exception, and Forestry Commission employees and partners really stepped up in 2026 to promote understanding and appreciation of the practice.
In addition to securing a proclamation from the governor noting the occasion, we made an agency-wide push to raise awareness about prescribed burning by inviting media to cover various burns around the state.
We saw stories about prescribed burning in newspapers and on radio and television, thanks in large part to ambitious foresters, fire management officers and other agency personnel who took the time and effort to coordinate their schedules with reporters.
One of the biggest splashes we were fortunate enough to make was the story around a prescribed burn that Pee Dee Regional Forester Mike Ney headed up at Camden Battlefield & Longleaf Pine Preserve. The primary purpose of the burn was to remove accumulated hazardous fuels, but another important objective was to restore the landscape to resemble what troops would have seen Aug. 16, 1780 at the Battle of Camden.
But the interest in all things fire really kicked off in January as news outlets flooded our inboxes and voicemails with requests for interviews, mostly spurred by recollections of the incredibly busy fire season of spring 2025.
The agency’s fire prevention and suppression mission has been one of the top-trending stories of the year, and so many of our personnel have gone above and beyond to help promote the work we do.
Among them were Communications & Public Information staff, Piedmont Regional Forester Brad Bramlett, Piedmont Firewise/Prevention Coordinator Helen Mohr, IMT Coordinator Andy Johnson and especially Fire Chief Darryl Jones, who has done everything from TV interviews to a series of reel-style social media videos.
Statewide Firewise/Prevention Drake Carroll even did a live, in-studio panel discussion with Horry County officials on WPDE-TV.
Friend of the agency Jennifer Howard, executive director of the SC Land Trust Network, also coordinated a very positive, in-depth news story with Charleston’s WCBD about prescribed burning in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy.
Prescribed burning was top of mind in March, media-wise, until weather conditions prompted an abrupt departure from all the talk of “good fire.”
The onset of gusty winds and lowering humidities against the backdrop of extremely dry fuels around the state caused SCFC officials to issue a Red Flag Fire Alert Tuesday, March 24 and then a State Forester’s Burning for all counties March 27-30.
Both of these events prompted another round of dozens of media requests about what constitutes “wildfire weather,” how people can take simple “firewise” precautions and how we fight wildfires in general.
The recent interest in our agency this spring has been amazing to see, and I’m very grateful for such a talented, professional and media-savvy group of foresters, firefighters and others to whom we can turn for interviews when our communications staff is stretched to its limit.