Oregon Post-Fire Research and Monitoring Symposium: Abstract Compendium
Citation:
Wall, S., J. Halofsky, C. Friesen, AND James Markwiese. Oregon Post-Fire Research and Monitoring Symposium: Abstract Compendium. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-23/312, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
Large fires have adverse effects across landscapes and the Pacific Northwest is facing a grim future as the threat of wildfire grows in the western United States. In response to the 2020 Labor Day fires raging through central Oregon, Governor Kate Brown established a Task Force to develop a wildfire recovery strategy from impacts to human health and natural resources. This effort entailed a massive coalition of government, academic, and private partners, resulting in the Oregon Governor’s Wildfire Monitoring and Research Council. In a spirit of shared stewardship, the Council encompasses individual institutional missions and objectives to promote opportunities for synergistic collaboration and inform post-fire management and regulatory actions. The team promoted collaboration across agencies and organizations (including state, federal, tribal, municipalities, academia, and the public), and contributed to and promoted leveraging resources for fire prevention, mitigation, restoration, research, and monitoring and communication. These efforts are having a significant, positive impact on the protection of human health and the environment from fires in Oregon and surrounding states. The work has had a measurable impact over an extended period of time, as evidenced through the research connections and synergies sparked by the “lessons-learned” wildfire meeting in Corvallis, OR supported by the Oregon Governor’s Post-Fire Research and Monitoring Team. This was a highly successful public meeting (we were expecting 75 attendees and there were more than 700 registrants) that was organized by the Council science team with extensive EPA team-member contributions and leadership. The effort has been impactful by engaging important community stakeholders often missing from high-level governmental planning efforts (i.e., universities, municipalities, and tribes). Hundreds of professionals and students shared their post-fire work and interacted on topics from community wildfire resiliency to wildfire effects on drinking water quality.
Description:
This EPA report is based on the 2023 Post-fire Research and Monitoring Symposium that was organized by the Oregon Governor’s Post-fire Science Team and was held February 7-9, 2023 at Oregon State University. The Symposium aimed to increase awareness among those conducting post-fire research and monitoring in Oregon to provide an opportunity for scientists to share what they are learning or hoping to learn from the recent westside Oregon fires. The symposium also provided an opportunity for practitioners and policy makers to begin discussions on how new discoveries can inform future decision making. Ultimately, the symposium was held to promote collaboration between groups involved in post-fire research, monitoring, and management, and to create networks that will be important after fires in following years.