Past Conferences

This page lists the sessions and links to content from past conferences.

NILC 2025

The 2025 National Interdisciplinary Lookout Conference featured a series of panels, presentations, and lectures exploring various aspects of fire lookouts in the human environment. The Theme for the conference was β€œThe Past and Future of Fire Lookouts,” and content focused on exploring the history and the evolving role of fire lookout towers and related issues.

Conference Sessions

Care and maintenance: the Ethics of Lookouts

Chair: Michael Decker

Presentations:

  • Jenna Bruggerman: The 5S Organization System
  • Ben James: "Sunshine" AKA Filmmaking on Sundance Mountain
  • Billy Cooter and Cat House: Preserving Idaho's Fire Lookouts
  • Kevin Roach: Timeless Guardians: Human Fire Lookouts

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The Memories of Lookouts

Chair: Gary Weber

Presentations:

  • Connor Reakes: The Study of a Typological Artefact
  • Don Patterson: Tracing Lookouts Past: Fieldwork and Fire in the River of No Return Wilderness
  • Clare O'Connel: St. Mary Peak Fire Lookout: A Successful Partnership

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Placement, Displacement: Re-negotiating the Places of Lookouts

Chair: Jack Kredell

Presentations:

  • Simon Scott: The Unnatural Devolution
  • Jacob Riddle: Photogrammetry and Reflections on Resiliency
  • Michael Guerin: Red Hill Lookout: California's Most Unique Detection Station Historical, Architectural, and Cultural Context

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Re-enacting the Icons

Chair: Hannah Green

Presentations:

  • Mark Wetherington: Overexposed: Social Media and Three Fingers Lookout
  • Brayden Jones: Wylies Peak: Legend and Successor
  • Nancy Hammond: How Mabel Gray Became the First (But Not the Only) Lookout

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Policies and Regulations of Fire-fighting: Lookouts and Politics

Chair: Brandon Light w/ Gabriele Orlandi

Presentations:

  • Penny Morgan: Fire and Climate: Past, Present, and Future
  • Alyssa Kreikemeier: The Cerro Grande Wildfire
  • Emily Lane and Nick Koenig: Looking and Building for More Just Futures in the Climate Crisis at the Wildland Urban Interface

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Resistance, Resilience, Recovery: the Bones of Lookouts

Chair: Andrea A. Dutto

Presentations:

  • Andrew Shearman: Echoes of Fire: Reimagining Lookouts as Sites of Memory and Reflection
  • Rick McClure: Planning and Partnership and Plenty of Patience: Historic Preservation and High Rock Lookout
  • Leif Haugen: Restoring Fire Lookouts: A Step-by-Step Approach

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How to Restore, Establish, and Maintain a Volunteer Lookout Program

Chair: Bill Moore

Presentations:

  • Bill Moore: How to Restore, Establish, and Maintain a Volunteer Lookout Program

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Fire Lookouts and Research

Presentations:

  • Richard Holm: Fire Lookouts and Research

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Evolution of a Wilderness Lookout

Presentations:

  • Mark Moak: Evolution of a Wilderness Lookout

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Future Conferences

This page will be expanded to include sections from future National Interdisciplinary Lookout Conferences as they are held.

Archive

  • 2025: First National Interdisciplinary Lookout Conference - University of Idaho
  • Future conferences will be listed here