In May 2018, SSU hosted a three-day Living with Fire in California’s Coast Ranges Symposium. Access the collection of proceedings and video of full-length presentations by national experts at https://www.pepperwoodpreserve.org/livingwithfire/
The symposium included 22 presentations by CAL FIRE officials and national experts on fire ecology, meteorology, fire resilient building techniques, fire safe community strategies, and other topics. It also featured a day of field trips, including to areas impacted by the Tubbs Fire and Nuns Fire. More than 400 people attended and participated in a public dialogue about the relationship between humans and fire in our region.
- Expert presentations and a selection of live videos produced by KRCB Northern California Public Media, are now available online and include:
- Intro to fire ecology - Dr. Scott Stephens of UC Berkeley's Stephens Lab for fire science
- Creating defensible space by Ben Nicholls - CAL FIRE's pre-fire division chief for Sonoma, Lake and Napa counties
- Home design and retrofitting techniques for wildfire defense by Yana Valachovic - of UC Cooperative Extension
- Meteorology and weather associated with extreme wildfire - by Dr. Craig Clements of San Jose State University
We hope you'll find these resources helpful in furthering your understanding of wildfire and what agencies, communities, and citizens can do moving forward to enhance community resilience to fire. There is no single solution to solving this complex challenge—but by creating dialogue we can learn from the 2017 fires and work towards a safer future.
Access these presentations and more at https://www.pepperwoodpreserve.org/livingwithfire.
Please share this email with anyone you think would be interested, and consider organizing a group of friends, neighbors, or colleagues to discuss fire safety and resilience.