ESPM professor Scott Stephens is quoted in this Sacramento Bee article on the Clayton Fire. Stephens is reluctant to connect Lake County's consecutive damaging wildfire seasons to long-term trends, noting he wouldn't say it's different than nearby counties. "t just seems Lake County has had a lot of ignitions that have impacted people,” Stephens said.
ESPM professor Scott Stephens and alum Lenya Quinn-Davidson (B.S. '04) are featured in this KQED radio segment on the 2016 fire season. Stephens notes that "“higher temperatures do really big things like reduce snowpack time on the ground. You melt the snow off earlier, that means you have a longer period where you have drier soils.” Quinn-Davidson comments on the Soberanes Fire in Monterey County: “In Big Sur, they had the perfect storm of an ignition at a bad time and really inaccessible, steep terrain, on top of a lot of dry fuels.”
ESPM lecturer Tina Mendez (Ph.D. '07) is highlighted in this KQED Science article on the caddisfly and its ability to spin waterproof silk "tape." Unlike typical glues, caddisfly glue bonds more readily to biofouled surfaces.
Emeriti ESPM professor emeritus Reginald Barrett is featured on this Scientific American blog article on wild turkeys that are infiltrating urban/suburban neighborhoods. Barrett notes that "we can't really complain about the havoc turkeys cause since it was the Department of Fish and Game that brought them into the state in the first place and the public that keeps feeding them."
Faculty ESPM professor Scott Stephens is featured in this Capital Public Radio segment on the still-burning Soberanes Fire. Stephens notes that the Soberanes Fire is "a very difficult fire to access, very dangerous for firefighters."
Faculty ESPM professor Scott Stephens is featured in this Capital Public Radio segment on California's extended fire season. Stephens says firefighting costs in the urban-wildland interface, borne by state and federal agencies, should also be partly shared by the counties that approve the development projects in those areas.
ESPM CE specialist Max Moritz and his recent publication on coexisting with wildfire is featured in this New York Times Dot Earth blog article. Moritz article noted that "promoting the right kind of fire - and smarter development - is safer and more cost-effective than fighting a losing battle.
ESPM CE specialist Max Moritz is quoted in this East Bay Times article on the Soberane fire in Monterey County. With the Southern California region in a critical drought, Moritz noted that recent fires "do seem to indicate that we're in for a difficult fire season ahead."
ESPM Ph.D. candidate Nathan Van Schmidt and professor Steve Beissinger are featured in this TakePart article on a new study on newly created wetlands. Flooded rice fields, which bolster wetland ecosystems, are establishing new habitats for stabilized populations for rare birds.
ESPM CE specialist and adjunct professor Matteo Garbelotto is quoted in this Daily Californian article on this week's California wildfires - the Sand and Soberanes fires. Garbelotto noted the high density of trees in forests because of cumulative years of lack of effective forest management and fire exclusion methods is also a cause of the increase in wildfires.
