Fire Lab Seminar Series

The Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory has been hosting an annual seminar series since 1998. Hour-long seminars are presented by Fire Lab employees and other researchers from throughout the world. Seminars cover current research and management about the natural world from a broad range of disciplines, but most seminars usually have a wildland fire theme. The Fire Lab Seminar Series provides a platform for researchers and managers to present their work in an environment that encourages critical thought, the free exchange of ideas, and knowledge discovery.

Seminars are offered each Thursday, October to May, from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm (Mountain time) via the online web application Microsoft Teams. If you are interested in using this service, please use the below information. Please note, this presentation will be set for listen mode only. At the end of each presentation, a Q&A session will be held via the Chat Box. Please sign up for the Seminar News for notifications and details for the seminars.

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+1 202-650-0123   U.S., Washington DC (Toll)
Conference ID: 666 226 992#

View seminars and videos from the past several years: Seminar Series Archive

2021-2022 Seminar Series Schedule

Fire Modeling Services Framework: Bridging the gap between science and technology

Reginald Goolsby, RMRS Fire Application Specialist
Theme: Life with Fire: Next Generation IT Fire Modeling Forest Service & Department of the Interior (Wildland Fire Management Research Development & Applications / Office of Wildland Fire) are excited to present the Fire Modeling Services…

The Athens Prescribed Fire Technology Hub, an integrated approach to informing prescribed fire management

Dr. Joe O'Brien, Project Leader, Center for Forest Disturbance Science
The need for science to improve the application of prescribed fire has never been greater. Increasing complexity, be it from altered land use patterns, changing climate, or invasive species is challenging Rx fire managers ability to maintain, let…

From wind to fire; IBHS test chamber

Dr. Faraz Hedayati and Dan Gorham, M.S.
IBHS test chamber is a unique facility to study the effects of wind on fire. The test chamber area is equal to four basketball courts which allows researchers to perform large scale wind and fire tests. The test chamber is equipped with 105 fans…

Discussing the State-of-the-Science on Climate and Wildland Fire: Part I: The State of Climate Science

Dr. Xianglei Huang, Dr. Phil Mote, Dr. Isla Simpson
The Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory will hold a virtual two-part panel discussion on the state-of-the-science regarding climate and wildland fire during the upcoming fall semester of the recurring Fire Lab Seminar Series. Weather is a key driver…

Understanding Post-Wildfire Management Effects on Stand Structure and Woody Fuel Loadings

Dr. Morris Johnson, Research Fire Ecologist
Following large wildfires on federal, state, and private forest lands, the conventional policy is to initiate post-fire management activities, which includes the harvest of a portion of fire killed trees to recuperate the economic value of…

Wildland Fire Deep Dive Project

Matthew Carroll, Social Science Analyst, RMRS
The Deep Dive project is a centerpiece of a learning pilot program collaboratively initiated by WEPO’s, Policy, Accountability and Analysis and RMRS’s Office of Innovation and Organizational Learning (IOL) to build organizational learning capacity…

Discussing the State-of-the-Science on Climate and Wildland Fire: Part 2: Intersection of climate and wildland fire

Dr. Cliff Mass, Dr. Alexandra Syphard, Dr. Sean Parks
The Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory will hold a virtual two-part panel discussion on the state-of-the-science regarding climate and wildland fire during the upcoming fall semester of the recurring Fire Lab Seminar Series. Weather is a key driver…

High Resolution Meteorology During Daily California Wildfire

Patrick Murphy, Graduate Student UW
We compare 18 years of hourly mesoscale weather (wind and dryness) observations to daily fire emissions across California’s forest and savanna fuels (~80,000 “days of fire”). We find that severe weather and fire are insufficient but necessary…

Air Quality Coordination Developments

Alex Lukinbeal, Meteorologist, NWS
The NWS mission is to provide weather data, forecasts, warnings, and decision support services for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy. You may be asking yourself, how does air quality fit into this…

The Dynamic Behavior of Fires: from Wildfires to Fire Whirls

Michael Gollner, Associate Prof. & Deb Faculty Fellow, Dept. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
Large wildfires of increasing frequency and severity threaten local populations and natural resources while contributing carbon emissions into the earth-climate system. Although wildfires have been researched and modeled for decades, no verifiable…

The role of structure in flame spread through porous wildland fuel beds

Zakary Campbell-Lochrie, Research Associate, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Despite well-developed theories for solid surface flame spread we still lack a coherent theory to describe flame spread through porous wildland fuel beds. This motivates ongoing global efforts, including those at the Missoula Fire Lab, to undertake…

Cal Poly Wildland Urban Interface FIRE Institute

Dan Turner, Cal Poly Faculty, Director WUI Fire Institute
The purpose is to introduce the Cal Poly Wildland Urban Interface FIRE Institute to the RMRS and the potential for increasing bandwidth for RMRS, especially in the areas Jack Cohen previously occupied. Cal Poly's focus is the interface and…

Understanding when hotter and drier means more or less wildfire

Maureen Kennedy, Associate Professor in Quantitative Fire, Ecology and Forest Mgmt, University of Washington
Understanding when hotter and drier means more or less wildfire. Modeling processes governing feedbacks among vegetation, fuels, climate, and wildfire. It is obvious and true that, all else being equal, hotter and drier summers tend to be associated…

Characteristics of whitebark pine growth & defense

Nick Kichas, Graduate Student, Montana State University, Bozeman
Characteristics of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) growth & defense in disturbance-prone, high-elevation, montane ecosystems of the northern Rocky Mountains Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a high-elevation conifer, recognized as a…

Thriving in an unfriendly environment: Persistence of sagebrush in a fire-dependent landscape

Ryan Limb, Associate Prof. Range Science Program, North Dakota State University
Fire refugia and patchiness are important to the persistence of fire-sensitive species and may facilitate biodiversity conservation in fire-dependent landscapes. Playing the role of ecosystem engineers, large herbivores alter vegetation structure…

The Role of Xylem Hydraulics in Post-fire Tree Physiology

Andreas Bär, Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Forest fires of low and moderate intensity often do not constitute a direct lethal threat to mature trees, but rather may leave behind trees with a variety of injuries, subsequently affecting their physiology. Post-fire physiological processes and…

Leveraging emerging technologies to support fire management and emergency response in Latin America

Matt Jolly, Research Ecologist, RMRS

Conserving wildlife under changing fire regimes

Gavin Jones, Research Ecologist, RMRS Wildlife and Terrestrial Ecosystems Program, Albuquerque
Fire regimes are changing. What will this mean for wildlife? In the face of rapid environmental changes, animals have three choices: adapt, move, or die. Wildlife responses to changing fire regimes will be no different. In this talk, Dr. Gavin Jones…

Factors associated with home survival in the 2018 Camp Fire, California

Eric Knapp, Research Ecologist, Pacific Southwest Research Lab
The 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed 18,804 structures in northern California, including most of the town of Paradise, provided an opportunity to investigate housing arrangement and vegetation-related factors associated with home survival. We…

Landscape fuel treatments and wildland fire management

Susan Pritchard, Research Scientist, College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, Seattle
Landscape fuel treatments and wildland fire management strategies within recent large fire events of north-central Washington State. Over the past two decades, large wildfires have burned the majority of forested area in north-central Washington…

Fire and Snow across the West

Kelly E. Gleason, Ph. D
Snowpacks act like high mountain reservoirs, but are vulnerable to climate change, while the vast majority of forest fires occur in the seasonal snow zone. Forest fires further exacerbate the influence of warming climate on snow-water storage…