Only YOU can prevent wildfires! Smokey Bear and his signature catchphrase, “Only YOU can prevent wildfires!” are recognized by an impressive 96% of adults nationwide.

On May 9, a fire crew brought a badly singed bear cub into the fire camp. They had found the frightened cub clinging tenaciously to the side of a burnt pine tree. Badly burned about the buttocks and feet, he was given the name "Hotfoot", a description soon to be changed to Smokey Bear.

Smokey Bear was born on Aug. 9, 1944, when the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council agreed that a fictional bear would be the symbol for their joint effort to promote forest fire prevention.

Smokey Bear teaches people how to prevent human-caused wildfires and protect habitats. Children learn that forests, grasslands, and plains are homes to animals… create a Word/Picture Wall about these areas…

All art and advertising using the image of Smokey Bear must be approved by the US Forest Service prior to its use. Smokey may not be depicted as endorsing a product, but he may appear with the product. Smokey's message should always address wildfire prevention. For example: Remember, Only YOU Can Prevent Wildfires!

Smokey has black bear relatives who weigh as much as 800 pounds. Some of his grizzly bear cousins weigh almost a ton! WEIGHT AT BIRTH: About 1-1/2 pounds. In other words, he weighed about as much as a big loaf of bread.

For much of the last century, Smokey was the pitchman for the federal government's aggressive wildfire suppression policy. That tactic, some scientists believe, may have contributed along with climate change to making American forests vulnerable long-term to combustion. They call it “the Smokey Bear effect.”

The Smokey Bear Show was shown by ABC in 1969 - 1970 at 8:30am EST. Casper and Smokey ran opposite of Heckle and Jeckle on CBS.

Finally, they spot Bear. Bear, it turns out, is their chocolate-colored Newfoundland dog.

Smokey is a proper noun and first name, whereas smoky is an adjective referring to an object being filled with or smelling of smoke. Until recently smokey was an accepted spelling of smoky in the Oxford English Dictionary. However, it is now thought of as old-fashioned.

The Bear teaches us COURAGE. The Bear provides many lessons in the way it lives, but courage is the most important teaching it offers. Though gentle by nature, the ferociousness of a mother Bear when one of her cubs is approached is the true definition of courage.