Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation win Smokey Bear Award
Raging bonfires, with only beer and a couple of water bottles on hand to put them out. “Fire Ban—NO FIRES” pin flags pulled from firepits, then replaced the next morning—in fresh embers. Pallets burned, leaving hundreds of nails and toxic chemicals behind. Fire restriction signs vandalized or destroyed.
Our summer Ambassadors have seen it all at campsites across the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
In 2026, Ambassadors extinguished 94 abandoned campfires. Since the program began tracking that work in 2022, they’ve put out a total of more than 426. And that’s only part of the story: this summer, camping ambassadors also made 10,656 visitor contacts with the goal of helping people recreate responsibly before problems start.
That combination of action and education recently earned the program a bronze Smokey Bear Award—and we couldn’t be prouder.
A national honor for hands-on work
Smokey Bear Awards are presented annually through the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention program, a partnership among the U.S. Forest Service, the Ad Council, and the National Association of State Foresters.
Friends of the Bridger-Teton, which works closely with BTNF staff to implement the Ambassador program, learned of the honor in April. Wyoming State Forester Kelly Norris accepted the award on our behalf September 23 at NASF’s annual meeting in Lexington, Kentucky.
BTNF staff nominated the program.
“We see it as an affirmation of what we’ve been doing,” says Julie Butler, who has spent six summers teaching campers about wildfire prevention and extinguishing abandoned campfires on the Forest.
Carlie Ideker, FBT’s Program Manager and current interim Executive Director, says, “the bronze Smokey Bear Award recognizes the tangible impact of Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation and the dedicated efforts of many volunteers in stewarding our public lands. Friends of the Bridger-Teton is honored to support such a critical program.”
The awards’ three levels recognize the scope of recipients’ work, not a ranking: gold honors national efforts, silver multi-state efforts, and bronze statewide efforts.
At every level, “The Smokey Bear Awards are reserved for individuals, teams, and organizations that provide outstanding service with significant and sustained program impact in the wildfire prevention arena,” says NASF’s website.
Six districts, one campsite at a time
Our Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation program was formalized in the North Zone in 2021. This summer, more than 40 ambassadors served across the 3.4-million-acre Forest and on all six districts.
Most volunteers work in popular dispersed and designated dispersed camping areas. Others focus on wildlife, assist visitors at trailheads, or help staff district office front desks. Wherever they’re posted, Ambassadors answer questions and help visitors care for the Forest.
Camping Ambassadors typically live on-site in RVs or campers. They talk with visitors about campfire safety, provide reminders about fire restrictions, check that they have enough water to put fires out until cold, and extinguish abandoned fires.
Over six summers, Julie and her husband, also an ambassador, have put out more than 180 abandoned campfires. Like other camping ambassadors, they carry five or six one-gallon containers of water to leave with campers who haven’t brought enough. This summer, a larger UTV allowed the couple to carry a 65-gallon water bladder, too.
“But campers should not expect to get water from us. When you camp in an area where there are no services, you should be bringing—and then taking with you—everything you need for your comfort and your safety,” Julie says.
The fires that never happen
Abandoned fires are easy to count. The abandoned fires prevented through face-to-face check-ins with campers? Not so much.
In 2026, camping ambassadors reported 10,656 visitor contacts. Julie and Chris logged 2,331 of these.
They usually made their rounds in the early evening, when campers had returned from the day’s adventures and were starting to think about a campfire.
“We visit every occupied site,” Julie says.
When fires are allowed, she asks campers whether they know how to put one out and how much water they have on hand. Occasionally, she asks them to repeat a few familiar Smokey Bear lines: “Only you can prevent wildfires” and “It only takes one.”
“We do have many campers that are very grateful to learn how to properly extinguish their campfire,” says Julie, who wears a Smokey Bear hat or Buff on campsite visits. “There are a lot of people who think they know, and then realize that they don’t. It almost always takes more water than people think and it really has to be cold to the touch.”
She usually leaves behind Smokey Bear stickers, temporary tattoos, or both. For campers who arrive with extra water or report an abandoned fire, she goes one step further and gifts them a fun sticker created by local artist Erica Holly Mazzeo.
“It is good to reward people,” Julie says. “By leaving behind something with Smokey Bear on it, we hope it keeps wildfire prevention front-of-mind for their group. The Holly Sage stickers are a ‘thank you’ from us to people who are being responsible.”
BTNF staff highlighted this educational role in their nomination:
“The ambassador program not only actively extinguishes campfires but also educates millions of [forest] visitors to prevent potential wildfires. Friends of the Bridger-Teton is an invaluable partner to the National Forest and continues to increase wildfire prevention capacity. We hope that this programming will serve as inspiration for other organizations and future wildfire prevention initiatives.”
Thanks to our funding partners
Keeping ambassadors in the field takes support from grants, area travel and tourism boards, federal funding, and donors.
The Visit Jackson Hole Board, which manages visitor-paid tax funds in Teton County, has generously provided most of the funding for ambassadors on the Jackson and Blackrock ranger districts since 2021. The Town of Star Valley Ranch Travel & Tourism Board and Alpine Travel & Tourism Board support ambassadors on the Greys River District and the Sublette County Visitor Center Board supports ambassadors on the Big Piney and Pinedale districts.
Through their allocations, these boards have chosen to uplift community-led stewardship, visitor education and sustainable tourism management in their communities.
“The ambassador program’s destination stewardship and visitor education impacts on our national forest are clear and outsized,” Visit Jackson Hole Board Chair Sam Pope says. “The bronze Smokey Bear award affirms that the most effective stewards are those who pair a love of the place with the patience to teach others how to care for it.”
Jeremy Larsen, chair of Alpine Travel and Tourism Board says, “We’re fortunate to be surrounded by incredible public lands, and we understand the wildfire risks that come with increased recreation. Ambassadors extinguish campfires, connect with visitors, promote responsible recreation, and help protect the forest and communities around it. Proactive education and prevention make a real difference.”
Ideker says, “This generous award cements the ambassador program as a credit to the long legacy of volunteerism in the Forest. The program’s success shows how much our public lands and wildfire prevention mean to the local communities, businesses, nonprofits, volunteers, and USFS staff who give time, resources, and funding to see it continue.”
We’re thankful for each and every ambassador who gave their time to help take care of and educate people about the Bridger-Teton National Forest this summer.
Stay tuned for the official end-of-season report covering the great work of all our ambassadors—camping, wildlife, and visitor services.
We acknowledge with respect that our facilities are situated on the aboriginal land of the Shoshone Bannock.Eastern Shoshone.Northern Arapaho.Crow.Assiniboine.Sioux.Gros Ventre.Nez Perce.
