2024 Student Poster Contest Winners at the 4th Southwest Fire Ecology Conference
1st Place: Abelino Fernandez Leger, New Mexico Tech
I focus on using statistical methods to predict remote sensing measures of post-fire burn severity such as dNBR and rdNBR from pre-fire remote sensing metrics embedded in LANDFIRE data. I account for uncertainty by using Bayesian inference with Monte Carlo Markov Chain replications to obtain a distribution of possible burn severities. These statistical predictions are to be used as inputs into a larger regression model predicting post-fire debris flow risk and volume. My debris flow predictions are applied to the donor watersheds for interbasin water transfers in the Southern Rocky Mountains.
2nd Place: Cara Caruolo, Northern Arizona University
I am a Ph.D. student at Northern Arizona University's School of Forestry under Dr. Catrin Edgeley. Currently, I am studying wildfire recovery in the Southwestern United States. My current research focuses on federal wildfire recovery funding and social resilience to future wildfire events. The research presented here is about creating a database of all available federally funded wildfire recovery assistance. It is currently in the preliminary stages but once completed will be available on Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network (FAC Net).
3rd place: Tessa Putz, University of California-Davis
How Does Prescribed Fire influence Yellow Pine Persistence Potential Across California (PDF)
Tessa is a PhD student at UC Davis studying the effectiveness of prescribed fire in meeting ecological and wildfire management goals. Her current work focuses on exploring whether prescribed fire can create conditions to promote pine regeneration and building an understanding of pile burning benefits, risks, and limitations.
