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The California Fire Science Coalition and the Society of American Foresters invite you to join us for Southern California Oak Woodlands: Fire, Change, and Collaborative Stewardship on May 13, 2026 at Quail Hill Community Center in Irvine, CA from 9 - 3 PM.
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Join us for the 4th annual Fish & Fire Workshop, hosted as part of the 43rd annual Salmonid Restoration Conference! This workshop builds on a growing body of interest and momentum around the ecological, cultural, and spatial intersections of fish and fire.
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Wildfires can be a powerful regenerative force for nature. However, modern wildfires in frequent fire forests across the Western U.S. have become uncharacteristically severe, largely due to climate change and more than a century of fire suppression.
The Common Ground: Prescribed Fire, Vineyards and Community Resilience event, hosted by the Climate & Wildfire Institute and CAL FIRE on April 14, 2026, in Napa, California brought together vintners, grape growers, prescribed fire practitioners, researchers, local organizations, and public agencies to advance open dialogue around the role of prescribed fire in winegrowing regions.
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Native people have successfully stewarded the land for thousands and thousands of years pre-contact. This presentation will delve into fire's role in ecosystem function. Fire is meant to be part of the ecosystem and its absence has had devastating effects on the environment.
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The goal of this webinar is to take an in‑depth look at two of the most influential long‑term fire research efforts supported by the Joint Fire Science Program: the Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) Study and the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP).
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In the Western United States, wildfire has become seasonal, altering ecosystems and setting records for acreages burned. For millennia, Tribes around the world engaged in fire stewardship, or cultural burns, as eco-cultural land tending responsibilities. However, removal of Indigenous Peoples and persistent “no burn” fire suppressive policies have contributed to the current wildfire predicament.
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Join Pepperwood’s Learn and Burn (LAB) Days — hands-on training events focused on prescribed fire and fire-resilient land management. LAB Days provide regularly scheduled opportunities for community members to learn how fire can be used as a safe and effective stewardship tool. These sessions build participants’ comfort with fire, provide hands-on practice, and foster shared learning with experienced fire…
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Fire is a critical and natural part of many ecosystems, but the nature of fire is rapidly shifting due to climate change. From a biological perspective, fire is a regular disturbance that affects the distribution and abundance of species and has shaped evolution for millions of years. Nevertheless, we are entering an unprecedented period where the dominant nature of fire is rapidly changing, disrupting both human…
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We use a range of data to quantify the past and future drivers of wildfire smoke across the US, the impacts of exposure to this smoke on a range of health outcomes, and the efficacy of proposed solutions to reduce smoke emissions and exposures. We find that smoke exposure is undoing decades of air quality improvements in the US and leading to tens of thousands of premature deaths across the US per year, a…
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Join the Northwest Fire Science Consortium, Oregon State University, the Fire Adapted Communities Network, and partners for an engaging workshop to transform how we adapt and coexist with wildfire in light of dynamic ecological, social, and economic challenges. As new fire policies and adaptation strategies have grown across the Northwest, it is essential that we work together to learn, share, and craft actionable…
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Wildfire smoke is becoming a challenge for California’s agricultural regions, affecting both crop production and the communities that sustain it. This talk examines how wildfire and wildfire smoke are reshaping risks to California agriculture, using the wine grape sector as a central case study.
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For today’s forestry and natural resource professionals, relevance extends beyond research alone. It means adapting to changing landscapes, embracing new technologies, exploring forest product markets and engaging with communities to lead through collaboration.
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Join us for a free morning workshop at the California Forest Science Symposium (CFSS)!
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We conducted a retrospective assessment (1986–2023) of USFS post-fire reforestation projects to evaluate whether historical planting patterns align with policy to close the national reforestation gap, while also assessing the potential of spatial optimization tools to strengthen that alignment.
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This presentation explores the role of Prescribed Burn Associations (PBA's) and community-based fuel reduction programs in expanding the use of “good fire” in California, with a focus on work taking place in Butte County.
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PG&E operates over 130,000 KM of overhead electric lines in Northern and Central California that can fail during weather events and present risk of wildfire ignition when fuels are receptive. Operational grid mitigations such as proactive deenergizations and sensitive relay settings effectively reduce ignition probability but lead to increased customer outages.
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The escalating frequency and damage of catastrophic fires are accelerating faster than social systems can adapt, presenting disruptive and systemic risks.
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The escalating frequency and damage of catastrophic fires are accelerating faster than social systems can adapt, presenting disruptive and systemic risks.
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California’s fire regimes are shifting at an accelerating pace, driving ecosystem degradation and increasing risks to human communities. Effective, science-based responses require a strong foundation of evidence. As the use of fire as a management tool expands, it is critical to demonstrate its ecological benefits while carefully considering trade-offs such as smoke emissions.
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Land managers and practitioners need reliable, empirical evidence about which forest treatments reduce wildfire impacts—and how long those benefits persist. This seminar introduces a framework designed to meet that need. Part 1 presents findings from Yackulic et al.
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Wildland fire managers and practitioners can access the latest fire and fuels science and connect with other wildland fire professionals while completing Introduction to Fire Effects (RX-310) in conjunction with the 11th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress in New Orleans, LA.
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Join this interactive fire circle to hear tips from experienced fire science communicators and explore real-world examples from across the country. A panel discussion and hands-on showcase will help participants strengthen their science communication and collaboration skills in fire management.
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The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) established the Fire Science Exchange Network to bridge the gap between research and practice, ensuring wildland fire science meets the evolving needs of landscapes and communities. Now more than ever, the urgency of wildfire challenges—across ecological, cultural, and social dimensions—demands innovation and collaboration. This session will showcase eight examples from across…
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The California Fire Science Consortium (CFSC) strives to accelerate the awareness, understanding, and adoption of fire science information by decision-makers across the region. Applying research to land management decisions can be challenging due to limited actionable findings, information overload, researcher-practitioner disconnects, and findings that don’t always align with local conditions.
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Participants will learn about fire behavior in our local vegetation types and how to function as an effective burn crew memeber.
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Join us to explore a new tool developed by American Forests and the University of California Cooperative Extension that supports post-fire reforestation planning across California’s non-industrial private forestlands (NIPF).
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In this webinar, we will discuss how Behave v7 differs from BehavePlus v6 by highlighting the Surface, Surface/Crown, Surface/Mortality, and Surface/Contain modules and enhancements that will be included in the next few releases in 2025-2026. This webinar will be useful for both burn bosses and RX-300 cadres. This webinar will be most useful for both burn bosses and RX-300 cadres.
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Wildfires are ubiquitous and an integral part of the Earth System. Although they can be a destructive force, they are vital for maintaining the biodiversity and functioning of many ecosystems. Wildfire-induced changes in vegetation and landscape properties also have important feedbacks to climate through modulating water- and energy-exchanges and the carbon cycle.
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Join CFSC PI, Lenya Quinn-Davidson, for a continuation of the Fish and Fire conversation at the upcoming Fish and Fire 2025 Workshop, which will take place during the 42nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference.
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Following an unprecedented period of fire exclusion in many western North American forests, wildfires are not only returning but also increasing in their area burned and severity. These trends are expected to intensify under climate change. However, recent research on reburned landscapes reveals strong negative feedbacks on future fire severity through the process of burning and returning landscapes.
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After a successful fire workshop tailored for cooperative extension professionals in Raleigh, North Carolina last year, we are taking the workshop on the road!
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Wildfires are a major driver of biodiversity patterns globally. In many ecosystems of North America, fires are becoming increasingly frequent and/or severe due to a combination of past land management practices and climate change. These shifts are likely to impact plant and animal populations and communities in complex and perhaps surprising ways.
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Given the increasing severity of wildfires and their associated impacts across the country, there is significant attention on the tools that are available to address these challenges. Recent research highlights that conservation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems may play an important, yet overlooked, role in wildfire management.
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This symposium brings together researchers, land managers, and practitioners to share new knowledge on forests and their management.
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Historical and contemporary policies and practices, including the suppression of lightning-ignited fires and the removal of intentional fires ignited by Indigenous peoples, have resulted in over a century of fire exclusion across many of the United States’ landscapes.
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Many houses still stand among the blocks of fire-ravaged neighborhoods of both the Palisades and Eaton Fire footprints, each offering clues about what they and the humans who were around experienced during January 7-8, 2025. A squirt gun, a blender used to scoop water from a pool, fence panels on the ground with cut lines or broken edges, gates off their hinges, rub marks from fire hoses on cement, and a shovel in…
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Shifts in seasonality and increases in hydroclimate whiplash are increasing California wildfire risk
Abundant evidence suggests climate change has already increased wildfire risk in California, mainly due to increases in both mean and episodic extreme landscape-scale vegetation aridity. Warming temperatures and increasing evaporative demand have directly driven most of this observed trend, and will continue to be prominent with further warming.
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Area burned by wildfires has substantially increased in recent decades in western US forests. Over this time period (mid-1980’s –present), western US forests have experienced individual years with exceptionally high area burned, leading some to conclude that recent years are ‘unprecedented’.
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This presentation will explore evolving approaches to fire in the Klamath Mountains, focusing on shifting perspectives and practices. Through discussion, the speaker will examine current challenges, emerging strategies, and collaborative efforts aimed at rethinking fire management in the region.
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Enactment of the Clean Air Act (CAA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), three of the primary federal environmental laws, all coincided with the height of fire suppression and exclusion in the United States.
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Fire exclusion was first implemented across large areas of California and other areas of western North America in the late 19th or early 20th centuries but few studies have investigated how forests in the early decades after this decision were impacted. Jeffrey pine-mixed conifer forests of northern Baja California, Mexico, offer an area where this can be examined since fire suppression did not begin until the early…
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Red flag warnings (RFWs) are issued to alert management and emergency response agencies of weather conditions that are conducive to extreme wildfire behavior. Issuance of RFWs also can encourage the public to exercise extreme caution with activities that could ignite a wildfire.
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Oak woodlands and riparian forests are among the rarest California ecosystems. They support considerable biodiversity and provide many additional benefits which can be enhanced through frequent fire. Indigenous peoples recognize these outcomes, and their stewardship practices illustrate opportunities to achieve ecosystem resilience as illustrated through applied fire studies in these systems.
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From 2000 through 2021, nearly half a million people in Oregon, Washington, and California lived within the perimeter of a wildfire. And from 2011 through 2021, the number of people experiencing high social vulnerability to hazardous events who were exposed to wildfire in those states more than tripled compared to the previous decade. As we will detail, the cause of that inequity varied among the three states.
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Understanding of the conditions that contribute to wildfire ignitions and impacts increases capacity to mitigate wildfire risks. The Fire Program Analysis Fire-Occurrence Database (FPA FOD) contains information on the location, jurisdiction, discovery time, cause, and final size of more than 2 million wildfires from 1992 through 2020.
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The science of post-wildfire debris flows has evolved rapidly over the past few decades as wildfires have become more frequent, larger, and more severe, impacting human health and the developed landscape. Post-wildfire debris flow science encompasses a wide variety of fields, including hydrology, geomorphology, engineering, remote sensing, atmospheric science, ecology, and data science.
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The science of post-wildfire debris flows has evolved rapidly over the past few decades as wildfires have become more frequent, larger, and more severe, impacting human health and the developed landscape. Post-wildfire debris flow science encompasses a wide variety of fields, including hydrology, geomorphology, engineering, remote sensing, atmospheric science, ecology, and data science.
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Fire is still used as a cultural process and management tool in different regions worldwide. We focus on the examples of the Pyrenees, northern Spain and the open forests of South America. In these areas, local communities of shepherds, farmers, and hunters have continued to use fire actively as an uninterrupted landscape management tool for millennia.
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Fire is still used as a cultural process and management tool in different regions worldwide. We focus on the examples of the Pyrenees, northern Spain and the open forests of South America. In these areas, local communities of shepherds, farmers, and hunters have continued to use fire actively as an uninterrupted landscape management tool for millennia.
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Wildfires are becoming bigger and more severe around the world, overwhelming firefighters’ capacity to control them. Prescribed fires can be used to safely introduce fire in the landscape and regulate fire regimes through fuel management and by building landscape resilience. Is this approach working?
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California is a crucible for the western US’s wildfire problem and efforts to mitigate the loss of life, homes, and forest ecosystems. Public land management agencies such as the Forest Service and CALFIRE have set ambitious forest treatment objectives, but are struggling to define what qualifies as a ‘treatment’ to meet their targets.
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Fire suppression and past selective logging have fundamentally changed frequent-fire adapted forests. Management options available to address this problem include mechanical treatments (Mech), prescribed fire (Fire), or combinations of these treatments (Mech + Fire). We quantify changes from a 20-year forest restoration study in the northern Sierra Nevada.
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In the inaugural seminar of this series, four fire experts will provide an overview of prescribed fire from different viewpoints, disciplines, and regions. They will discuss the role of prescribed fire in ecosystems, connections to culture and community, best practices and performance metrics for evaluating outcomes, and they will speculate on the future of prescribed fire.
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California’s Sierra Nevada forests are a stage upon which the interacting effects of historic management and anthropogenically-driven climate change are playing out in real time. A vast body of literature provides evidence that these forests are out of character and poised for abrupt ecological changes under the status quo.
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Urban fires pose a persistent hazard in Japanese urban areas. To address this, various fire spread models have been developed, with many relying on empirical formulations. However, to enhance model generality, a shift towards physics-based formulations is explored.
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CAL FIRE, Berkeley Forests, and the California Fire Science Consortium are sponsoring an afternoon workshop at the 10th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress to highlight ongoing fire-related research programs in California.
Presented at the California Association of Environmental Planners. Hot Topic Alert: Wildfire and the Environment Session. San Diego, April 5, 2016.