wildfire risk

I am currently working with collaborators at the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, University of Montana, University of Colorado-Boulder, Northern Arizona University, and Vibrant Planet to develop a framework for incorporating carbon storage into Quanitative Wildfire Risk Assessments and PODs. Focusing on large-diameter trees, which contain a disproportionate amount of aboveground carbon and would not be recovered during the human lifespan if lost to wildfire, our approach combines lidar data with spatial modeling to map where wildfire mitigation could help avoid wildfire-caused loss of irrecoverable carbon. We are piloting our framework in three of the USFS’s Wildfire Crisis Priority Landscapes: Washington’s Central Washington Initiative, Colorado’s Front Range, and Arizona’s Four Forest Restoration Initiative.

This project is funded through the Biden Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.