Today is Smokey Bear's 75th Anniversary! DEC is teaming up with the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, and the Ad Council to celebrate 75 years since the 1944 launch of the Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign, the longest-running public service advertising campaign in U.S. history.
New York State has 18.5 million acres of public and private forest lands susceptible to seasonal wildfires, and DEC's forest rangers are the state's lead division tasked with forest fire mitigation and the control and prevention of wildfires. In 2018, DEC forest rangers extinguished 105 wildfires that burned a total of 845 acres.
Visit DEC's website for a list of events across the state this month celebrating Smokey Bear's anniversary.
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