Research Ecologist
karen.c.short@usda.gov
(406) 329-4973
Karen Short
Research Topics
- Wildfire hazard and risk assessment
- Hazardous fuel treatments and risk mitigation
- Foundational geospatial datasets for wildland fire science and management
Personal Summary
Karen's current work focuses on wildfire risk science and applications, including development of national products used in research and management.
Current projects include:
- Wildfire risk assessment and fuelbreak/fuel treatment scenarios for the sagebrush biome
- FPA FOD: A spatial wildfire occurrence dataset for the US (6th edition)
- ICS-209-PLUS: An all-hazards dataset mined from the US National Incident Management System (2nd edition)
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Selected Publications & Products
St. Denis, Lise A.; Short, Karen C.; McConnell, Kathryn; Cook, Maxwell C.; Mietkiewicz, Nathan P.; Buckland, Mollie; Balch, Jennifer K. 2023. All-hazards dataset mined from the US National Incident Management System 1999-2020. Scientific Data. 10: 112.
Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive.
Short, Karen C.; Finney, Mark A. 2022. Agency records of wildfires caused by firearms use in the United States. Fire Safety Journal. 131: 103622.
Short, Karen C.; Finney, Mark A.; Vogler, Kevin C.; Scott, Joe H.; Gilbertson-Day, Julie W.; Grenfell, Isaac C. 2020. Spatial datasets of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the United States (270m). 2nd Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive.
Short, Karen C. 2015. Sources and implications of bias and uncertainty in a century of US wildfire activity data. International Journal of Wildland Fire.
Short, K. C. 2014. A spatial database of wildfires in the United States, 1992-2011. Earth System Science Data. 6: 1-27.
Other Products:
Webinar 3/22/2023: Assessing wildfire risk and mitigation opportunities in the sagebrush biome.
Images
Karen Short working in the field.