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
Presentations
Topics: rangeland fire; university of idaho; climate change; fire regimes; research; outreach; fire management; fuels inventory; environmental history; northern rockies
Fire and Climate: Past, Present, and Future
Speaker: Penny Morgan
Abstract:
How do we balance the need to protect people and property from f ires with the ecological realities and imperatives of forest and rangeland fires? Fires will occur, and we are likely to have more large, severe fires in the northern Rockies as climate changes. Extensive, widespread fires occurred in the past whenever warm, dry summers followed warm springs 1650-2003. Since 1986, fire seasons have become 78 days longer. With more people living in fire-prone areas and invasive species often fueling fires, fire managers and our society face many challenges. Idaho has often been a place for innovative solutions, both at the University of Idaho through education, research, and outreach, and in fire management.
Topics: fire management; cerro grande wildfire; national park service; environmental history; craig allen; bandelier national monument; new mexico
The Cerro Grande Wildfire
Speaker: Alyssa Kreikemeier
Abstract:
From the 1980s to 2016, national politics, large wildfires, and federal-Indigenous relations created a complex administrative environment at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. The monument had a significant influence on fire and resource management, integrating archeologists into firefighting as early as 1977 and collecting long-term fire ecology data from ecologist Craig Allen’s arrival in 1982. Bandelier also hosted one of NPS’s first prescribed fire modules. The 2000 Cerro Grande wildfire, sparked by a prescribed burn, became New Mexico’s largest wildfire, leading to major investments in fire management and reigniting debates about fire policy. This talk explores the evolution of wildland fire management at Bandelier, focusing on the Cerro Grande wildfire.
Topics: yosemite national park; environmental justice; climate change; architecture; colonialism; prison labor; geography; fire management; fire regimes; improvement; innovation
Looking and Building for More Just Futures in the Climate Crisis at the Wildland Urban Interface
Speaker: Emily Lane and Nick Koenig
Abstract:
This talk features Emily Lane, an architectural designer at AECOM, and Nick Koenig, a climate change educator and activist, exploring how the climate crisis challenges architectural design while offering opportunities for more just futures. Nick will discuss the impact of intensified fire events due to settler fire regimes and shifting policies, from suppression to prescribed fire management. Emily will present a case study on the Fire Barracks at El Portal, a prefabricated structure for seasonal firefighters in Yosemite National Park, offering a replicable model for future fire management infrastructure. Finally, Nick will connect fire barracks and lookouts to climate projections, prison labor, and critical geography, reflecting on proactive versus reactive fire management.