Start A Donation Wildfire

Recently in Eastern Tennessee, residents have been impacted by wildfires that have burned across several counties.  If you are reading this and you live in the Western USA you are no stranger wildfires, especially during drought conditions.  However, the southeast, even with a lack of rainfall is not used to wildfires.  In this blog post I will discuss how a wildfire starts and how you can start a wildfire in the form of donating to your favorite charity.

How does a wildfire start?

There are three key elements that need to be present and under the right combination a fire will start: fuel, ignition source, and oxygen.  Fuels can be anything that burns and the forest contains fuels in the form of leaves, twigs, and trees.  Over time, unless these fuels decompose or are removed from a prescribed burn they tend to accumulate.  In a balanced system, with enough water, smaller fuels would decompose and turn to dirt.  However in times of drought these fuels dry out and accumulate on the forest floor.  Think about starting a fire in your fireplace.  Would you want to start it with a wet paper towel or a piece of dry newspaper?  Next, an ignition source needs to be available to ignite these fuels which can be natural or manmade.  The most common natural spark comes from lightening.  However, manmade ignition includes coals from campfires or discarded cigarette butts to name a few.  The final and third element is oxygen or air.  This is everywhere. With the right amount of wind to an ignited fuel a fire can spread really fast in drought conditions and turn into a wildfire quickly.

Why is Fire Important in the ecosystem?  Fire has been a forest and agricultural practice dating back to the Native Americans who were very effective in using fire to keep the forest healthy.  Really hot fast burning wildfires were used to clear land for farming and slow burning cool fires were used to reduce smaller fuels and undesirable species and allow desirable species (Oak, Hickory, Chestnut etc.) to grow with less competition and more nutrients.  This area becomes prime habitat for hard and soft mast (acorns, nuts, berries etc.) producing species to grow which feed both man and animals that lived in the forest.

How can you start a Donating Wildfire?

In recent times there have been many challenges that have spread across social media.  In the past there was the ice bucket challenge which raised money for ALS.  I think that, similar to the 3 element s that can start a wildfire, by donating one time you could start a Donation Wildfire.  The fuels are your friends and network in Social Media.  The Ignition Source is you, and the Air is the One Donation platform with its 1.5 million Charities in our database.  To start the wildfire you need to make one monetary donation to a charity of your choosing then share the charity that you donated to on Linked In, FaceBook, Twitter, etc.  When you share with your network, challenge every member to donate and share as well.   You do not have to stop with just one charity, try to start several donating wildfires by donating to several of your favorite charities.

Why is this important?

There are millions of charities and non-profits out there that need donations.  You may be the one that opens the door to a member in your network about a particular charity that they never knew about.  You can change the world ONE DONATION AT A TIME.