Fire Communication & Education
Presenters:
Cathelijne Stoof, Wageningen University, Netherlands
Val Chalton, Landworks, South Africa
Tomás Withington, Administración de Parques Nacionales de Argentina, Argentina
Cristiano Foderi, University of Firenze, Italy
Erin Belval, Colorado State University, USA
Description: The event will provide leaders intent around the Cohesive Strategy moving forward and context for 2020 implementation to date.
Presenters: Vicki Christiansen, Chief, US Forest Service; Jeff Rupert, Director, Office of Wildland Fire, DOI; George Geissler, State Forester, Washington State DNR. Additional presenters will be announced in the coming weeks based on your suggested topics and questions.
Description: Solving complex environmental problems requires extensive discussions and studies conducted by researchers from diverse disciplines including the natural and social sciences. Solutions to these environmental challenges usually depend on conceptual models of how these systems are linked and the essential processes within them, also known as coupled-human natural systems or socio-ecological systems. This webinar will provide insights on how collaborations can be most effective between natural and social scientists, providing examples from the speaker’s past and current research projects.
Presenter: Melissa M. Baustian, Ph.D. is a Coastal Ecologist with The Water Institute of the Gulf. She has more than 15 years of experience in researching the ecological responses of aquatic ecosystems to nutrient enrichment, eutrophication and hypoxia.
Description: Wildfire has fundamentally shaped the western landscapes we seek to conserve. It is a source of renewal and central to the functioning of many ecosystems; as well as a destructive force that threatens communities and conservation values across public and private lands. Wildfire epitomizes myriad connectivities that we cannot escape. Yet as the frequency of large, severe wildfires has greatly increased over the past 20 years, it has called to attention the fragmented, sometimes conflicting approaches to natural resource conservation across different jurisdictions and organizations. Reducing threats and enhancing conservation benefits from wildfire will require synergistic collaboration and coordination to span these disconnects. Our discussants will provide a range of perspectives from applied social science and policy action around wildfire to suggest bold new ideas about how people in the western U.S. may live with fire in the 21st century, and how conservation policy could spur more effective collective action to address wildfire risk across public and private lands.
Presenters: Tony Cheng, Director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and Professor at Colorado State University; Emily Jane Davis Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist at Oregon State University; Tyson Bertone-Riggs, Policy Analyst for the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition; Cassandra Moseley Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation at University of Oregon.
Visit the Great Basin Coordination Center website, the focal point for coordinating the mobilization of resources for wildland fire and other incidents throughout the Great Basin Geographic Area. The Great Basin Geographic Area encompasses Utah, Nevada, Idaho-south of the Salmon River, the western Wyoming mountains and the Arizona Strip. GBCC is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and provides Intelligence and Predictive Services related products for use by the wildland fire community for purposes of wildland fire and incident management decision-making.
Access the videos ranging from about 1:30-10:00 in length.
The most common misconception of wildfire is that all fire is bad. But there are important benefits that smaller and more frequent fires offer to the environment. Matt Jolly, an ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, talks about the natural and important role of fire in maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
One of the most important topics today is the issue of wildfires and smoke in our Valley. Chris Chambers, The Wildlife Division Chief and Merv George the Forest supervisor on the rogue River Siskiyou National Forest are the perfect pair to speak to this issue Chris grew up in Ashland and worked both in the forest service and the Ashland fire and rescue service. Knowing the importance of gathering people and resources around this issue, Chris has been instrumental in getting the entire state of Oregon to share resources for this very important issue.
When wildfires happen, the news media plays an important role in covering events, providing information, and influencing public understanding. In this video, two scientists discuss recent research on how wildfire is covered in the news, and how this can sometimes be at odds with both local community impacts and the ecological role that wildfire plays, historically occurring in regular intervals across much of the U.S. West.