The splash of green on the ashen landscape was unexpected. Marc Hoshovsky, a naturalist retired from a career with California state agencies, was reviewing a satellite photo of areas burned in the LNU Complex fire last fall, hoping to tease … Read more
Reading the Landscape for Fire
In the beginning, fire burned the world. Don Hankins’ Plains Miwok ancestors passed on this understanding of fire through generations, and he draws from it as a traditional cultural practitioner pyrogeographer when burning landscapes in California.
How Do Wildfires Affect Ocean Ecosystems?
How does wildfire ash affect the organisms in our waterways? Since plankton form the foundation of our coastal ecosystems, what happens if their equilibrium is disrupted?
Wildfire Smoke Changes Dramatically as it Ages, and That Matters for Downwind Air Quality – Here’s What We Learned Flying Through Smoke Plumes
Smoke changes as it ages, with implications for human health.
Rethinking the Wildland-Urban Interface
What does it even mean to live in a fire-risk zone now?
Size Isn’t the Best Way to Talk About Fires
One million acres. It seems an astounding number for a single fire. Even many fire scientists, who know full well that fire belongs in these forests, struggled to contain their surprise at how large the August Complex fire in the … Read more
As Fires Continue, Land Managers Start to Survey Ecological Damage and Recovery in Bay Area Parks
Burns have varied in intensity throughout the Bay Area, leading to different ecological effects.
Where There’s Good Fire, There’s Good Smoke
To prevent megafires, we need more fire. But that also means learning more about smoke.
Climate Change and Forest Management Have Both Fueled Today’s Epic Western Wildfires
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. What is driving the wildfires that are ravaging California, Oregon and Washington? President Trump and state officials have offered sharply different views. Trump asserts … Read more
Why the Bay Area Felt Like the Set of a Sci-fi Flick
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. On Sept. 9, many West Coast residents looked out their windows and witnessed a post-apocalyptic landscape: silhouetted cars, buildings and people bathed in an … Read more