Wildfire workshop urges Lawrence residents to prepare before drought returns

Lawrence residents who live along wooded edges, creek corridors and other natural areas will get a chance Thursday night to hear how a small fire can become a costly home loss when drought returns.

Sustainability Action Network is hosting a wildfire-prevention workshop from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, June 4, in the Flory Building at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St. Shawna Hartman, a wildfire prevention specialist with the Kansas Forest Service, will lead the session.

Hartman has served as a Fire Protection Specialist with the Kansas Forest Service since 2005 and has also worked for years as a Public Information Officer with regional Incident Management Teams. She holds a forestry degree with a minor in range management from Oklahoma State University.

The workshop is aimed at the wildland-urban interface, the places where homes, outbuildings and natural vegetation meet. In Lawrence, that includes neighborhoods near trails, brush, creek bottoms and the city’s outer growth areas, where a fast-moving grass fire can reach structures before many people expect it.

A Kansas Rural Center listing said Hartman will cover defensible zones around a home, landscape clearance to buildings, fire-resistant building materials, especially roofing materials, home emergency preparedness plans, and having an outdoor water source and hose ready. Those are the kinds of steps that can lower the chance of structural damage, reduce cleanup costs and make insurance claims less punishing after a fire sweeps through a yard or fence line.

The timing matters because the region has seen steady rain lately, but wildfire officials say that can change quickly. The Kansas Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal says wildfire continues to threaten people and property across Kansas, and points to rapid population growth into wildland-urban interface areas and long-term drought as major concerns. K-State Extension has said the 2026 fire season was forecast to be above average.

Douglas County has already felt that risk. In March 2025, a roughly 200-acre fire east of Stull triggered evacuation orders in rural Douglas County, and county officials later determined it started accidentally from an ember from an old, unattended campfire. In April 2025, Douglas County declared a state of local disaster emergency after two large grass fires, a move that opened the door to state suppression and mitigation resources.

For homeowners on the edge of town, the message from Thursday’s workshop is straightforward: cut the fuel, harden the house and prepare before the next dry stretch turns grass and brush into a direct threat.