Fire Communication & Education

Webinar, video, audio icon

Data, science, and methods behind the Wildfire Risk to Communities website

Webinar recording.

Description: Learn about the science and data used to calculate and map wildfire risk nationwide in the new Wildfire Risk to Communities website. Hear from the project’s technical lead about the use of LF and other input datasets, the methods for modeling and mapping wildfire risk, and the data products available through the website. See a demonstration of the website and how to download geospatial and tabular data.

Presenters: Greg Dillon, Frank Fay, Jim Menakis, Kelly Pohl, Joe Scott

Webinar, video, audio icon

Using the Wildfire Risk to Communities website

Webinar recording.

Description: See a demonstration of the new Wildfire Risk to Communities website, including use of the interactive maps, charts, and resources available for every community, county, and state in the U.S. Learn how the website and downloadable resources can help community leaders such as elected officials, community planners, and fire managers prioritize actions to mitigate risk. Wildfire Risk to Communities is a new easy-to-use website with interactive maps, charts, and resources to help communities understand, explore, and reduce wildfire risk. It was created by the USDA Forest Service under the direction of Congress. Wildfire Risk to Communities builds on nationwide LANDFIRE data to provide new information about wildfire risk to communities across the U.S.

Presenters: Greg Dillon, Frank Fay, Jim Menakis, Kelly Pohl, Joe Scott

Webinar, video, audio icon

A public engagement protocol: Social science support of planning efforts

USFS webinar recording.

Description: Forest planning and management efforts, including both forest plan revision and comprehensive river management planning, require extensive public engagement. Social science approaches that are practically applied by practitioners within the public engagement process are limited. Armatas and colleagues have developed a “social vulnerability” protocol focused on peoples’ human-nature relationships that can support both decision-making and public relations.

Presenter: Chris Armatas, RMRS research social scientist

Webinar, video, audio icon

Fire Adapted Communities (FAC) and Ready, Set, Go!

Webinar recording.

Description: Oregon State University’s Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Fire Program and its partners present a webinar series on Wildfire Preparedness and Prevention in Oregon. The last of three webinars focuses on fire adapted communities (FAC) and what it means to be Ready, Set, Go! This webinar is 1.5 hours and the last 30 minutes will include a live demonstration from a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member showing us what’s in their go packs!

Presenters:
Alison Green, Oregon: Living with Fire
Jennifer Dietz, International Fire Chiefs Association
Aaron Crawford, CERT member
Dave Busby, Fire Emergency Planning Manager

Webinar, video, audio icon

Fire behavior and home ignition zone

Webinar recording.

Description: Oregon State University’s Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Fire Program and its partners present a webinar series on Wildfire Preparedness and Prevention in Oregon. The second of three webinars focuses on fire behavior and the home ignition zone (HIZ). We’ll discuss the fire environment and the built environment. Presenters will break down the HIZ and discuss what people can do in each zone. Further, they’ll talk about opportunities to support your mitigation efforts.

Presenters:
Daniel Leavell, Oregon State University
Stephen Fitzgerald, Oregon State University
Jenna Trentadue, Oregon Department of Forestry
Ryan Gordon, Oregon Department of Forestry
Megan Fitzgerald-McCowan, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Firewise USA

Webinar, video, audio icon

Wildfire preparedness and prevention

Webinar recording.

Description: Oregon State University’s Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Fire Program and its partners present a webinar series on Wildfire Preparedness and Prevention in Oregon. The first of three webinars focuses on wildfire awareness. What is the wildfire problem? What are the current conditions? How could the COVID-19 pandemic affect wildfire response? How can we prevent wildfires from starting? These are questions that will be addressed by a panel of speakers.

Presenters:
Mike Totey, Oregon Department of Forestry
Daniel Leavell, Oregon State University
Kristin Babbs, Keep Oregon Green

Webinar, video, audio icon

Southwest fire season review for 2019 and outlook for 2020

Webinar recording.

The purpose of this webinar is to review 2019 fires and look ahead toward conditions for 2020. Dr. Zander Evans presented an overview of the largest fires in the Southwest during 2019. He will share summaries of forest types and burn severities for each of the fires. In addition, Rich Naden, Fire Weather Meteorologist with the Southwest Coordination Center, discussed the fire season outlook for 2020 in the Southwest.

Conference/meeting icon

4th Annual National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop

Visit the workshop website for more information.

The 4th Annual National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop theme was: Hard truths, fantastic failures and magnificent successes of cross-boundary, landscape level and community-wide implementation and focused on the following themes:

  • Significant wildland fire events that are changing the way future fires are addressed,
  • “Fantastic Failures” where alignment of ideas and resources did not produce the desired outcomes,
  • “Magnificent Successes” where collaborative, cross-boundary collaboration, prioritization and investments have led to better wildland fire and landscape scale outcomes.
Journal article icon

Perceptions of land use planning to reduce wildfire risk in eight communities across the US

View article.

Wildfires are increasingly common in the United States, the result of climate change, altered wildfire regimes, and expanding residential development in close proximity to wildland vegetation. Both suppression expenditures and damages are increasing as a result. Accelerating wildfire losses have been observed in other countries as well: Australia, Canada, Chile, Greece, and Portugal have all experienced record destruction due to wildfires in the past decade. Reducing wildfire losses is a daunting goal requiring a multi-part strategy across all levels of government. In the U.S., federal fire policy seeks to: create resilient landscapes and vegetation; use effective and efficient suppression; and promote fire-adapted communities where human populations and infrastructure can withstand wildfire, reducing loss of life and property.

Webinar, video, audio icon

An introduction to the new US National Fire Danger Rating System

Webinar recording.

In this webinar, Matt Jolly (Research Ecologist, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station) presents the structure and function of the current version of the US National Fire Danger Rating, NFDRS2016. He shows how this system can be used to assess seasonal variations in fuel moisture and fire potential and how it can be used to quantify fire season severity anywhere in the country. Jolly demonstrates the use of FireFamily+ Version 5.0 to explore local fire weather conditions and suggests ways to use both tabular and graphical displays to communicate fire danger conditions to a variety of audiences such as firefighters, IMT members, fire management officers, line officers and the public. Finally, he introduces new spatial fire danger assessment tools and discuss the future of NFDRS.

Narrow your search

Stay Connected