Wildfire is rapidly expanding across the Himalayas — in Nepal, Bhutan, and Northern India — burning in places that have never seen wildfire before. Ancient Buddhist monasteries, the monks who live in them, and the sacred texts they protect are increasingly at risk.

We are retired Alaska Smokejumpers launching the Himalayan Wildfire Resilience Project (HWRP) to help remote monastic communities understand wildfire danger and protect themselves.

This fundraiser directly supports a reconnaissance and assessment mission. Every dollar goes toward travel to high-risk monasteries, meeting with monks and officials, and conducting on-the-ground wildfire assessments so we can build a practical, culturally-appropriate wildfire safety program.

This trip is the critical first step:

• identifying which monasteries face the highest wildfire exposure

• mapping where the monks can shelter in the event of a wildfire

• evaluating building vulnerability

• determining what training and equipment the monks actually need

• laying groundwork for long-term partnerships with local leaders

Our long-term goal is simple and lifesaving:

teach monks the same field-tested wildfire survival tactics that have kept us alive on the fireline for decades.

Your support does one thing only:

it gets us into the Himalayas so we can assess the threat firsthand and design the right protection strategies before more monks are killed and more monasteries are lost.

Thank you for helping us launch this work. Lives, culture, and thousand-year-old heritage depend on getting this right.