REBURN: A new tool to model wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and beyond

This image shows the site of the Tripod Complex Fire one year later, in 2007.

In 2006, the Tripod Complex Fire burned more than 175,000 acres in north-central Washington. The fire, which was within the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, was more than three times the size of Seattle. Yet while considered severe at the time, even larger wildfires in 2014, 2015 and 2021 have since dwarfed Tripod. Past research shows that large and severe wildfires like these were much rarer in the western U.S. 

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Are wildfires really getting worse? A Q&A with Brian Harvey

a wildfire burns in California

Whether you live in a rural community that grapples with annual threats of destructive wildfires or in a city that now spends part of every summer inundated with smoke, many across North America have found themselves wondering: what happened to cause such a sudden change in the way our forests burn? We sat down with Brian Harvey, assistant professor of environmental and forest sciences in the UW College of the Environment, to discuss some of the most frequently asked questions we encounter about the causes of wildfires, how they’re changing and what we can do to limit their impacts on human health and property. 

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In episodes 7 and 8, FieldSound podcast explores topics from mountains to sea

FieldSound podcast

Together with #UWEnvironment researchers and educators, we venture from the mountains to the sea in Episodes 7 and 8 of our FieldSound Podcast. Episodes 7 of our FieldSound Podcast features Randie Bundy, a researcher with the University of Washington School of Oceanography. Her complex work looks into the cycling of trace metals in marine environments, how bioactive metals such as iron, copper, and cobalt are acquired by marine phytoplankton and bacteria, and how the organic forms of these metals affect their uptake and cycling in the ocean. 

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Out of the frying pan: Coyotes, bobcats move into human-inhabited areas to avoid apex predators — only to be killed by people

Bobcat in the snow

Since their protection under the Endangered Species Act, wolf populations have been making a comeback in the continental United States. Conservationists have argued that the presence of wolves and other apex predators, so named because they have no known predators aside from people, can help keep smaller predator species in check. New research shows that in Washington state, the presence of two apex predators — wolves and cougars — does indeed help keep populations of two smaller predators in check. 

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