California Fire Science ConsortiumActivity Overview and Outreach/Collaboration Potential

Tim Kline, CFSC Coordinator May 3rd, 2012

CFSC organization

UC Berkeley "Hub" Scott Stephens (UCB)Max Moritz (UCCE)Bill Stewart (UCCE)Tim Kline (UCB)Susie Kocher (UCCE)

Northern CACarl Skinner (USFS PSW)Yana Valachovic (UCCE)Lenya Quinn-Davidson (UCCE)Chris Lee (UCCE)Morgan Varner (Humboldt SU)

WUI (covers entire state)Chris Dicus (Cal Poly SU)Dan Turner (Cal Poly SU)

Central and Southern CAJon Keeley (USGS)Marti Witter (NPS)Liz van Mantgem (USGS)

DesertMatt Brooks (USGS)Russell Scofield (DoI)Fon Duke

Sierra NevadaHugh Safford (USFS)Chris Mallek (UCD)Susie Kocher (UCCE)R5 Ecology Team

Membership breakdownOrganizations represented(data from March 2012)

Number of people

USDA Forest Service (USFS) 687

USDI National Park Service (NPS) 70

USDI Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 5

USDI Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 50

USDI Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) 45

Universities 53State agencies (CALFIRE, ARB, Energy Commission, Water Boards, regional commissions)

70

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) 41

Landowners 98Unknown 36

Total 1022

Deliverables: In-person outreach

• 2011 Strategy: Establish CFSC presence and identity through participation in existing groups, events

• Outreach Talks/Poster presentations about CFSC– Examples:• Regional Fire Safe Council Meetings (multiple)• Northern CA Rx Fire Council

• Workshops and Conferences– Ex: Southern Sierra Prescribed Fire and Smoke Symposium• Included AQ Regulators, Federal and state forest

managers, scientists, tribes. • Didn’t include public – this has been a missing link!

Regional advisory groups

• Development of local steering committees– Agency managers, NGOs, regulators, community

stakeholders– Guide regional efforts– Sierra Nevada and Central/Southern CA/Northern

CA Teams• Developed own groups

– Desert and Northern CA Teams• Built on relationships with existing groups• NorCal Rx Fire Council, CA Desert Managers Group

Deliverables: Written / Web work• Monthly email newsletter

– Maintains engagement with base, provides means to publicize new CFSC resources and events

• Blog– For sharing and highlighting CFSC and third-party fire resources

• Research briefs– Highlight the management implications of fire science research– 28 released since March 2011

• Bibliographies for resource managers– Intended to identify pertinent scientific articles– Organized by region and subject

• Research Syntheses– A more in-depth analysis of existing research regarding a particular topic– One released so far: “Balancing the Carbon Costs and Benefits of Fuels

Management”– Potential for a synthesis of western smoke science?

Deliverables: Webinars

• Engage a large and diverse group of our participants– Facilitates interaction (albeit limited) with presenters

• Free, easily accessible for participants• Simple to set up and plan– Fall 2011 Series– Spring 2012 Series– Ongoing WUI Series

• Recordings hosted on CFSC website– 15 recorded to date

Information flow to/from CFSC

Research CFSC Land managers

RegulatorsPublic

• Management decisions (treatment timing, size, restoration goals, etc)

• Research briefs• Webinars• Field trips• Meetings/

symposia

• Scientific Articles

• Data• Research

sites

• Complaints• Acceptanc

e

• Burn permits• AQ advisories

How to increase the success of outreach and education efforts?

• Research briefs for the public and the media– 1-2 page briefs on the ecological role of fire,

historical prevalence of smoke and fire, etc– Have ready for distribution before a Rx fire or in

response to a wildfire event• Social media (facebook and twitter)– Common medium for media to pick up stories and

for public to get immediate info– CalFire has had success with twitter during events

(Daniel Berlant, CalFire PIO)

Importance of collaboration and repetition

• “One message, many voices”• Like politics, if we can repeat an agreed-upon

message enough, people will start to listen

Questions?

Tim KlineCoordinatorCalifornia Fire Science Consortiumlab: 510-642-4934mobile: 415-516-0701tkline@berkeley.eduCaFireSci.org