The Oregon State University Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Fire Program created a StoryMap to aid in wildfire recovery. The StoryMap describes the events that caused the Labor Day wildfires, contains a map showing relevant spatial data (e.g. burn severity), and lists resources covering a variety of post-fire topics.

People living in the Pacific Northwest confrontrisks associated with environmental hazards such as wildfire. Vulnerability to wildfire hazard is commonly recognized as being spatially distributed according to geographic conditions that collectively determine the probability of exposure. For example, exposure to wildfire hazard is higher for people living in rural, forested settings than in a strictly urban neighborhood because rural housing is built in close proximity to the threat source, e.g., flammable landscapes such as forests and chaparral. Yet, even if levels of exposure are held constant, not all people are equally susceptible to wildfire events. In other words, some people are more vulnerable to harm than others.

In order to meet preidentified objectives, prescribed burns are lit under specific conditions to produce desirable results such as favorable plant response, healthy forest and rangeland conditions for grazing and wildlife habitat, silvicultural treatments, indigenous cultural practices, and reduced wildfire hazard.

Prescribed fire liability from escaped fire in the United States falls under one of three Standards of Care: strict liability, simple negligence, or gross negligence.

Among the values at risk from wildfire are community drinking water supplies, as forested watersheds on public land are often a primary or significant source of drinking water. In some places across the West, watershed protection partnerships have formed to address this threat by bringing together the stakeholders of these watersheds for collaborative planning and investment in source water protection. This webinar will explore the concept of watershed protection partnerships and how they span organizational boundaries for collective action to address wildfire and other risks. We will offer lessons learned from how these partnerships have been implemented in Colorado and New Mexico, and direct implications and applications for communities in Oregon. 

Courtney Schultz associate professor of forest and natural resource policy at Colorado State University and director of the Public Lands Policy Group and Heidi Huber-Stearns associate director of the Ecosystem Worksforce Program at the University of Oregon presented on "Strategies for increasing Rx fire application on federal lands from case studies in the US West" watch the video on our YouTube channel.

Jessie M. Dodge in the Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID presented on "Effects of scale on remote sensing assessments of burn severity in a ponderosa pine forests." Watch the video on our YouTube channel.

Stephen Pyne, emeritus professor at Arizona State University presents "Winter isn't Coming. Prepare for the Pyrocene." Watch the video on our YouTube channel. Closed captioning available.

Fire researchers discuss the return of fire to western U.S. landscapes in the context of wildfire history.

Watch the video on our YouTube Channel

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.

Watch the video on our YouTube Channel