Climate Change in the Era of Megafires

 

The climate crisis affects our global ecosystem. There is no way to contain its impacts to the borders or boundaries of one region. Smoke from Australia’s fires reach around the globe. The burning of the Amazon impacts the whole earth. Some landscapes feel more impacted than others. But in truth, there is no place to escape the impacts of climate change. When the landscape and environment of a region changes, it also affects the community, the people that are living there. Climate change induced fires are affecting our social values such as water and our way of life.

In this episode of One Foot in the Black, we look closer at how climate change is impacting fire behavior in the West, and how we’re living through an era of Megafires. We talk to fire professionals and climate scientists about the increasing intensity of fire behavior, and ask the questions: how are we going to manage fires in the era of climate change? And what does climate adaptation look like in the context of fighting fire or preparing for fire season?

Listen & Subscribe:

Links & Resources

CalFire statistics on incidents from 2020: https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/

Pyne, Stephen J. (2021, August 18). Welcome to the Pyrocene. Grist. https://grist.org/wildfires/welcome-to-the-pyrocene/

Pyne, Stephen J. (2019, November 20). The Planet is Burning. AEON. https://aeon.co/essays/the-planet-is-burning-around-us-is-it-time-to-declare-the-pyrocene

Show Credits

Featured guests:

Mike Beasley, Founding Board member, Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE)

Tim Ingalsbee, Executive Director, Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE)

Chris Chambers, Ashland District Wildlands Division Fire Chief

Jessica Halofsky, Director Northwest Climate Hub

Hosts: Joseph Vaile and Alexi Lovechio

Producer: Jessica Klinke

Editorial Support: Dean Hawn

Episode Transcript (Coming Soon)

Episode Guests:

Presenters & Collaborators
Michael Beasley
Michael Beasley

Mike is originally from Northwest Arkansas and attended Carleton College in Northfield, MN, where he received an undergraduate degree in Chemistry. He received his first wildland firefighting “red card” as a volunteer in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1984. His first land management post was as a Park Naturalist at Mt. Rainier National Park in 1987. He was on an NPS hotshot crew and started one of the first NPS Fire Use Modules, acting as its Module Leader from 1995 through 1998. Mike was the Deputy Fire Chief while working eight years at Yosemite National Park between 2001 and 2009. In 2009 Mike moved to Humboldt County and served as Deputy Fire Chief of the Six Rivers National Forest and finished his career at the end of 2015 as the Interagency Fire Chief for the Inyo National Forest and Bishop BLM in Bishop, CA. Mike was a Founding Board Member of FUSEE and continues to assist with large fire management through his work as a Fire Behavior Analyst on one of California’s incident management teams. He splits his time between his family home in the Ozarks, rural Northern California and Eugene, OR.

Dr. Timothy Ingalsbee
Dr. Timothy Ingalsbee

Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D. is co-founder and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE) and is a faculty research associate at the University of Oregon. Timothy began his career as a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service. In 1993 Timothy received the Oregon Conservationist of the Year Award by the Oregon Natural Resources Council. Timothy co-founded and directed the Cascadia Fire Ecology Education Project from 1994-2004, and created and directed the Western Fire Ecology Center from 1997-2004. Timothy is a senior wildland fire ecologist certified by the Association for Fire Ecology.

Jessica Halofsky
Jessica Halofsky

Jessica Halofsky’s research is focused on assessing potential effects of climate change on forest vegetation and disturbance regimes, using both modelling and field-based approaches. Jessica also facilitates development of climate change vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans for national forests and other partners across the western United States.

Chris Chambers
Chris Chambers

An Ashland native, Chris has worked at Ashland Fire and Rescue since 2002. A graduate of the Oregon State University College of Forestry, Chris worked for the US Forest Service and BLM for 5 seasons in silviculture, fire, botany, and wildlife and fisheries biology. For Ashland Fire & Rescue, Chris coordinated National Fire Plan grants for 6 years with hundreds of private landowners, co-authored the 2004 Ashland Community Wildfire Protection Plan and 2005 Jackson County Integrated Fire Plan and participated in the genesis and ongoing implementation of the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project.

PodcastGuest UserEpisode 4, Climate, Climate Change, Fire behavior, Fire, Fire science, Megafires