Private briefings for California state and congressional legislative staff (2025)
Organized by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, this private briefing series brought together leading researchers and experts to share cutting-edge science and practical insights on wildfire risks, health impacts, and community resilience. Sessions were designed to inform legislative decision-making and staff engagement with constituents and stakeholders, with a focus on evidence-based, ecosystem-responsive, and community-informed strategies.
About the Program
The increasing frequency and severity of wildfires in recent years have necessitated that Congress and state and federal governments focus on identifying effective policies to reduce the risk of wildland fire and its threat to humans and infrastructure. Given the complexities and evolving understanding of wildfires’ causes and potential solutions, the task is daunting. The Woods Institute and UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge (SLAGC)—through its Climate & Wildfire Research Initiative—served newcomers to the issue and knowledgeable policy veterans with a wildfire briefing series. Led by Stanford, in collaboration with UCLA, and California fire experts, the series will offer seminars on the mechanisms and contributing factors that produce mega fires, equity and safety issues following fire, and conditions required to maintain resilient, healthy ecosystems. The program culminated in an in-person workshop in Sacramento for California state legislative staff.
Session 1: Ecosystem-Responsive Fuels Management
This virtual briefing explored varied approaches to fuels management that reflect ecosystem dynamics, community risk, and science-based planning for both wildland and WUI (wildland-urban interface) areas. The session also touched on personal and community-level hardening strategies and frameworks.
Speakers:
• Alex Hall, University of California, Los Angeles (moderator)
• Chris Field, Stanford University
• Hussam Mahmoud, Vanderbilt University
• Travis Longcore, University of California, Los Angeles
Session 2: Toxins and Public Health Following Fire
This virtual briefing focused on emerging science around post-fire health impacts of toxins in the air, water, and soil. It featured insights from environmental health scientists and researchers working at the intersection of fire, health equity, and long-term resilience planning.
Speakers:
• Chirs Field, Stanford University (moderator)
• Scott Fendorf, Stanford University
• Gregory Pierce, University of California, Los Angeles
• Yifang Zhu, University of California, Los Angeles
Session 3: Risk Quantification, Perception, and Decision-making
This virtual briefing examined risk, including how fire risk in California is expected to change over time, and how fire risk is modeled, communicated, and acted upon—at community, utility, and government levels. It considered the human and economic dimensions of risk perception, how that affects decision-making, and how government can process and use fire risk information for sound policy.
Speakers:
• Chris Field, Stanford University (moderator)
• Ali Mosleh, University of California, Los Angeles
• Michael Wara, Stanford University
• Megan Mullin, University of California, Los Angeles
Session 4: In-Person Legislative Workshop
This capstone workshop brought together experts on the webinar themes and state-level legislative staff for an interactive, policy-forward convening. The group distilled key takeaways into actionable frameworks and legislative strategies.
Speakers:
• Chris Field, Stanford University
• Alex Hall, University of California, Los Angeles
• Scott Fendorf, Stanford University
• Alexandra Syphard, Global Wildfire Collective
• Michael Gollner, University of California, Berkeley
About the Organizers
The Woods Institute for the Environment has served for two decades as Stanford's hub for research focused on critical environmental issues. Now a cornerstone of the recently launched Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; the Institute is positioned to draw upon the unique knowledge of leading scholars and experts to offer an educational enrichment experience exclusively for Congressional staff.
UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge brings together world-class researchers and community stakeholders to facilitate interdisciplinary, solutions-oriented, and societally relevant sustainability research. A central initiative of SLAGC is the Climate and Wildfire Research Initiative (CWRI) which builds diverse interdisciplinary research coalitions to understand the intricate dynamics that drive wildfires and their impacts on communities in the region. SLAGC works closely with UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES).
