Covering wildfire: A toolkit for editors, reporters, and media professionals

This document is a practical resource to strengthen wildfire journalism in Canada. It builds on the outcomes of the 2025 Wildfire Journalism Bootcamp, which convened journalists, Indigenous Firekeepers, scientists, and community leaders to co-create tools for more nuanced and solutions-oriented reporting. The toolkit emphasizes that wildfire is not just an environmental crisis but a societal challenge that affects health, housing, infrastructure, culture, and the economy. It highlights the need for year-round, trauma-aware, and context-rich coverage that includes diverse and underrepresented voices, builds trust between media and wildfire agencies, and counters misinformation.

The resource lays out seven key pathways for improving coverage: treating wildfire as a year-round story, centering overlooked perspectives, reporting with trauma awareness, providing systemic context, strengthening media-agency collaboration, highlighting resilience and solutions, and addressing misinformation. It also offers practical tools such as a wildfire story bank, trauma-aware reporting strategies, and tips for navigating misinformation. The document concludes by encouraging collaboration, shared resources, and ongoing learning between journalists and wildfire professionals, framing thoughtful wildfire journalism as essential for building public understanding, resilience, and trust in a fire-prone future