A practical system focused on fuels, ignitions, relocation, and extensive and intensive health impacts (FIRE) can benefit California and other areas under threat from wildfires around the globe.
A preventive treatment developed by Stanford researchers led by Eric Appel involving an environmentally safe gel-like retardant provides season-long protection against wildfire ignitions.
California’s zombie forests — forests established under a prior climate regime now out of climate equilibrium — represent a critical, and as yet unaccounted for, high risk factor for catastrophic wildfire.
Michael Wara, Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program, and other Stanford researchers are working with state officials and stakeholders to inform wildfire policy and understand the role utilities play in catastrophic wildfires.
Marshall Burke, professor of Earth System Science, and colleagues bring together data on the changing risk and societal burden of wildfire in the U.S. and use satellite data and statistical modeling to estimate indirect mortality.
Kari Nadeau, Director of Stanford's Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research, has active research projects in Fresno, California, studying health impacts from wildfire smoke.
Wildfire Research and Prevention Experts
For assistance in reaching experts, contact Devon Ryan or Chris Black
Assistant Professor of Material Science and Engineering
Wildfire prevention, new technology to prevent ignitions, human-caused wildfires
Associate Professor of Earth System Science
Wildfire smoke and air pollution mortality risk, wildfire costs and economic statistics
Professor of Earth System Science
Climate and wildfire risk, drought and precipitation, extreme events
Director, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Wildfire and climate change, wildfire ecology, forest management
Professor of Earth System Science
Wildfires and greenhouse gas emissions, fire and forest ecology
Assistant Professor of Earth System Science
Tree mortality, wildfire prediction, forest ecology, climate risk, remote sensing
Ph.D. Candidate in Environment and Resources
Wildfire management and policy, wildfire prevention, human impacts of wildfires
Director, Climate and Energy Policy Program
Wildfire policy and law, electric utilities and wildfire prevention
Assistant Professor of Earth System Science
Psychology and human behavior, human impacts of wildfires
Decades of fire suppression, climate change, and the development of homes and businesses next to dense forests and wild areas called the “wildland urban interface” have made California’s forests a matchbox. In recent years, wildfires have killed over 150 people, destroyed over 35,000 homes, and caused more than $125 billion in societal losses. Diverse and disadvantaged populations, including Native Americans and migrant worker communities, are among the most vulnerable to wildfire and smoke exposure, which can have grave public health impacts. Fighting wildfires costs billions, and current practices are allowing the risks to grow.