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Partner Webinar: Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Prescribed Burning Atlas

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Host: Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC

Presenters: Naomi Stephens (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service), Prof Ross Bradstock (University of Wollongong), Dr Hamish Clarke (University of Wollongong and Western Sydney University)

Abstract: 

A website specifically designed for fire and land managers, the Prescribed Burning Atlas is a tool to inform prescribed burning strategies and tailor them to outcomes that will best reduce the risk in a target area within available budgets. Backed by eight years of CRC research incorporating thousands of fire simulations, the Atlas compares the level of risk reduction achieved from different combinations of prescribed burning techniques and compares the costs of different mitigation options and their effect on reducing the likelihood of life loss, property loss and environmental values, as well as the effects of climate change on prescribed burning effectiveness. This webinar will provide you with the full details and a guided tour of the Prescribed Burning Atlas, explaining how the website can support organisations to make the best decisions about where and how to undertake prescribed burning for different areas across New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland.

Additional information about the webinar can be found here.

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SFE LANDFIRE Remap Webinar Recording

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The SFE LANDFIRE Remap in the Southeast webinar with Dr. Jim Smith, TNC LANDFIRE Program Lead, is now available on the SFE YouTube Channel.  Dr. Smith discussed a new suite of changes to the LANDFIRE data layers for the region as well as some examples of how the changes appear in Southeastern landscapes.  Check out the recording and visit LANDFIRE.gov for more information.

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SFE Webinar: Prescribed Fire 101

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A free one hour webinar from Tall Timbers Research Station, the Southern Fire Exchange, the Southeast Prescribed Fire, Smoke and Air Quality Working Group and the University of Florida.

Society of American Foresters CFE Credit Expected.

Presenter: Kevin Robertson, Ph.D., Fire Ecology Program Director, Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, FL.

Webinar Description: This webinar will provide an introduction to the fundamental concepts of ecology and practice related to prescribed fire in the Southeastern U.S. This webinar is intended to provide non-practitioners with information regarding the “how” and “why” of prescribed fire in the region. Following the presentations there will be time for audience Q/A with the speakers.

Registration required. Register here.

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SFE Webinar: LANDFIRE Remap in the Southeast

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LANDFIRE Remap in the Southeast

A free one hour webinar from LANDFIRE, the Southern Fire Exchange, and the University of Florida.

Presenter: Jim Smith, Ph.D., TNC LANDFIRE Director

Webinar Description: LANDFIRE Remap is a multi-year effort to improve the usability of the product suite by recreating base LANDFIRE products using new plot information, new imagery and production techniques. Presenter Jim Smith, TNC LANDFIRE Program Lead, will review LANDFIRE product offerings, describe what has changed, what has not changed from previous versions, and provide information on future program plans, all from the perspective of a user in the Southeast US. Following the presentation there will be time for audience Q/A with the speaker.

Following the webinar there will be time reserved for audience questions.

Registration required. Registration Link

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SFE QUIC-Fire Webinar Recording Now Available

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The recording of the recent SFE webinar “QUIC-Fire: A Fast-Running Simulation Tool for Prescribed Fire Planning” with Dr. Rod Linn and Kevin Hiers is now on the Southern Fire Exchange YouTube Channel. The May 21st webinar was hosted by Los Alamos National Lab, Tall Timbers Research Station, the Southern Fire Exchange, the Joint Fire Science Program, and the University of Florida.

Webinar Summary: Recent advances in wildland fire behavior models (e.g. FIRETEC) utilizing high spatial and temporal resolution fluid dynamics calculations have facilitated complex modeling of fire-atmospheric feedbacks. Unfortunately, this fire modeling approach requires exceptional computational resources that are unlikely to be available to most wildland fire managers. QUIC-Fire is a new physics-based cellular automata fire spread tool that that offers advanced fire modeling capabilities without the demand for extraordinary computational resources. QUIC-Fire is a new step towards expanding next generation fire model access to a wider audience of practitioners and users.

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Partner Webinar: Air Quality and Healthy Hearts – Progress and Remaining Challenges

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Host: US EPA Air and Energy Research Program

Presenters: Dr. Wayne Cascio, director of EPA’s Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA), Dr. Ana Rappold, CPHEA statistician, and Dr. Cavin Ward-Caviness, CPHEA computational biologist.

Abstract:  EPA’s Office of Research and Development, Air and Energy National Research Program is working to assess the impact and improve our understanding of air pollution morbidity and mortality in vulnerable populations, including individuals with cardiovascular disease. Exposure to airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is associated with adverse cardiovascular health events including heart attacks, stroke, and death―particularly among those with pre-existing conditions. However, a better understanding of the relationship between air pollution and cardiovascular health is needed to develop strategies to protect vulnerable people with heart and vascular disease.

This webinar provides an overview of newly published research by EPA scientists and their colleagues that helps fill key knowledge gaps. The findings, published in leading scientific journals, offer new insights into the progress made to protect at-risk individuals with chronic health problems. The research also identifies remaining environmental health challenges, such as determining risks faced from sustained exposure to elevated PM2.5 from wildfire smoke, which is being observed due to more frequent and larger wildland fires in the United States.

Additional information about the webinar can be found here.

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SFE Webinar Recordings: Longleaf Pine Forest Patch Dynamics and The Case for Prescribed Fire Science

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The recordings from two recent Southern Fire Exchange webinars are now posted on the Southern Fire Exchange YouTube Channel webinar archive. “The Case for Prescribed Fire Science” with Dr. Morgan Varner from Tall Timbers Research Station and “Longleaf Pine Forest Patch Dynamics” with Dr. Kevin Robertson also from Tall Timbers Research Station were presented in April and May of 2020.

 

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SFE Webinar: Overview of the North Carolina Climate Science Report: Implications for Wildland Fire

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A free one hour webinar from North Carolina State University, the Southern Fire Exchange, and the University of Florida.

Presenter: Rebecca Ward, Assistant State Climatologist, Raleigh, North Carolina

Webinar Description: The North Carolina Climate Science Report, published in March 2020, is a scientific assessment of historical climate trends and potential future climate change in NC. The report was authored by North Carolina-based climate experts and was informed by the 4th US National Climate Assessment, the 5th IPCC Assessment Report, and up-to-date published research in credible scientific journals. This webinar will briefly describe the report’s development process before diving into the findings relevant for understanding fire potential and risk: what trends have been observed in NC over the past century, what can we expect over the next few decades to the end of the century, and what is our level of certainty in the projected changes.  Following the presentation there will be time for audience Q/A with the speaker.

Registration required. Registration Link

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SFE Webinar: QUIC-Fire: A Fast-Running Simulation Tool for Prescribed Fire Planning

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A free one hour webinar from Los Alamos National Lab, US Forest Service Southern Research Station, Tall Timbers Research Station, the Southern Fire Exchange, and the University of Florida.

Presenters: Rodd Linn, Ph.D., Los Alamos National Lab, Scott Goodrick, Ph.D., USFS Southern Research Station, and Kevin Hiers, Tall Timbers Research Station

Webinar Description: Recent advances in wildland fire behavior models (e.g. FIRETEC) utilizing high spatial and temporal resolution fluid dynamics calculations have facilitated complex modeling of fire-atmospheric feedbacks. Unfortunately this fire modeling approach requires exceptional computational resources that are unlikely to be available to most wildland fire managers. QUIC-Fire is a new physics-based cellular automata fire spread tool that that offers advanced fire modeling capabilities without the demand for extraordinary computational resources. QUIC-Fire is a new step towards expanding next generation fire model access to a wider audience of practitioners and users.  Following the webinar there will be time reserved for audience questions.

For more information:

Check out a QUIC-Fire YouTube video from Los Alamos National Lab.
Read the March 2020 QUIC-Fire publication in the journal Environmental Modeling and Software.

Registration required. Registration Link

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Late May US EPA Smoke Science Research Webinars

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Two interesting US EPA research webinars will take place Wednesday, May 20th and Thursday, May 28th presenting new research on smoke data visualization and the health effects of smoke / PM2.5 .  Members of the fire management and fire research communities of the Southeast may be particularly interested in these two webinars given the importance of smoke management for Southeastern prescribed fire programs.

EPA Tools and Resources Webinar: Wildland Fire Community Engagement and Data Visualization Tools

Wednesday 05/20/2020 3:00PM to 4:00PM EDT

https://www.epa.gov/research/epa-tools-and-resources-webinar-wildland-fire-community-engagement-and-data-visualization

Summary

“This presentation will highlight two wildland fire smoke and health projects. Smoke Sense is a crowdsourcing, citizen science app which engages the public to broaden awareness of wildland fire smoke locally as well as health protective measures and behaviors. This presentation will share findings from the past two wildfire seasons including community engagement and data visualization tools. The Smoke Ready Communities project offers a model and framework to help communities improve their response. It supports collaboration and capacity building and also fosters preparedness and response to wildfire smoke episodes. This presentation will share a solutions-driven approach for helping reduce the public health burden of smoke intrusion at the community level. Participants will learn about how these projects can integrate a community capacity lens with resources specifically related to wildland fire smoke, air quality and health.”


Air Quality and Healthy Hearts: Progress and Remaining Challenges Webinar

Thursday 05/28/2020 2:00PM to 3:30PM EDT

https://www.epa.gov/research/air-quality-and-healthy-hearts-progress-and-remaining-challenges-webinar

Summary

“This webinar provides an overview of newly published research by EPA scientists and their colleagues that helps fill key knowledge gaps. The findings, published in leading scientific journals, offer new insights into the progress made to protect at-risk individuals with chronic health problems. The research also identifies remaining environmental health challenges, such as determining risks faced from sustained exposure to elevated PM2.5 from wildfire smoke, which is being observed due to more frequent and larger wildland fires in the United States.”

Additional information about this webinar can be found here.

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