Reduce the risk of wildfire in this board game.
Forest fires get a bad rap, so students at the University of Pennsylvania worked together to change the perspective, creating a board game that demonstrates how conservation and fire management work together. Forest Futures tasks players with thinning an overstocked forest to reduce wildfire risk.
Courtesy Oliver Atwood, Associate ASLA; Caz Gagne; and Elliot Bullen.
Players remove various living materials and build out a ?diversified biomass campus? that generates wood products sustainably. The game board?s grainy texture and muted colors, as well as the translucent tree game pieces with unique canopies, give it a crunchy aura of technocratic management. Players can play action cards to remove tree biomass, which produces wood products and other outcomes, such as electricity. The ?campus? section of the game board is filled out with sawmills and cross-laminated timber factories, and event cards (?severe drought,? and of course, fire) keep things interesting. As in nature, there?s no triumph over fire or the forest itself. The winning condition is remaining resilient. The game earned an Honors Award in the Student Communications category.
Oliver Atwood, Associate ASLA; Caz Gagne; Elliot Bullen

Faculty Adviser: Nicholas Pevzner, ASLA
See more of the project here.
A view of the board game Forest Futures. Courtesy Oliver Atwood, Associate ASLA; Caz Gagne; and Elliot Bullen.
Courtesy Oliver Atwood, Associate ASLA; Caz Gagne; and E...