That's why the fire department, South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks and the Great Plains Fire Safe Council installed a demonstration garden on the Outdoor Campus West grounds. The garden is a fire landscape demonstration that models plants and materials people can use to make their property more resistant to wildfires.

Lt. Tim Weaver with the Rapid City Fire Department says, "There's a lot of different factors in a wildland fire that dictates your property or your structures flammability and so this is a way to demonstrate how to kind of tackle all those things at one time, the surface, landscape and what you have on the surface next to the structure and the plants you use and this is a good way to get the community out and enjoy the outside and come visit the Outdoor Campus and at the same time they can see how they can make their property more fire resistant."

Weaver says these vegetation choices and placement could ultimately save your home from a wildland fire.

Tessa Thomas