We want to honor Earth Day 2025 by introducing three past graduates who completed Master’s Projects in wildfire research. Each of these projects addressed the growing concern for wildfire intensity in California, the toll of climate change, and how to analytically approach future mitigation.

Also, check back in with the MSEM social media pages to see what is happening at USF during Earth Week 2025, April 21-25!

Post-burn forest in Lassen National Park, CA.
Wildfire destruction leaves Northern California with lasting effects on the mixed conifer tree populations, such as that found in Lassen National Park near Plumas National Forest (Photo credit: Amanda Rosales).

Wildfire Action Measures

Assessing the Efficacy of California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan 

By Chloe Nelson, MSEM ‘22 | National Environmental Policy Act Reviewer for U.S. EPA

Chloe, a graduate from Spring 2022, analyzed California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan against the Arup Resilience framework to assess its efficacy, equitability, and to identify gaps where further development may be needed. The framework utilizes four dimensions, twelve drivers, and fifty sub-drivers to determine a geographic area’s most prominent needs as it pertains to fire resiliency. Her project notes that resilience efforts should be bolstered in areas of California that are at a higher risk for wildfires – specifically in Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas and Tribal lands. The former sees a greater intermingling between residents and the natural landscape, which correlates with a greater wildfire risk. The latter sees a suppression in traditional land stewardship strategies, also referred to as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), which heightens the risk of wildfires. Through her research, Chloe gives three primary recommendations for improvement on The Action Plan:

  1. Increase tribal sovereignty to redistribute power over land management more equitably, and integrate TEK strategies into non-tribal trainings.
  2. Create greater transparency and accountability for work being done toward wildfire and forest resilience via systems like the proposed Forest & Wildland Stewardship Interagency Tracking System.
  3. Leverage horizontal policy coordination to bolster both state and county emergency planning through shared planning strategies and jurisdictional efforts.
(Left) Map visual of California with highlighted locations of wildland urban interface. (Right) High fire potential areas highlighted in California similar to the left image.
Fig. 1 (left) From Chloe’s project, a map of WUI areas correlates with Fig. 2 (right), where high-risk fires are located across California (respectively, Bar- Masada, 2021 and USFS, 2022).

Wildfire Awareness Measures

“A Comprehensive Look at the Benefits of Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Native American Indigenous Communities for Fire Management Practices in Northern California” 

By Christopher Mishima, MSEM ‘20 | Environmental Justice Program Coordinator for U.S. EPA

Christopher’s Master’s Project, a graduate from 2020, also examines the value that TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) has toward fire management practices. Specifically, he looked at the connections between three aspects of fire management: Native American TEK, non-native ecological field studies and modeling, and current government fire policies and management practices. Through understanding these connections, Christopher postulates that a more successful framework for fire management would arise (below).

He cites TEK’s emphasis on ecosystem interconnectedness as a key reason for its success. Native communities have developed many natural resource management practices that create both balance and mutual benefits between the people and the environment. One of the key practices of maintaining this balance is through prescribed burns, which allow for an area’s plants and trees to enhance their resilience toward fires through controlled measures. Through generations of careful implementation, Native communities have developed a robust system for prescribed burns that vary depending on location and objective. However, due to an overgeneralization of the practice and an undervaluing of its methodology of knowledge transference, there have been policies and regulations put in place that suppress the Native communities’ ability to carry out prescribed burns.  

Christopher concluded that taking both non-native research and TEK into consideration when creating policies and regulations could result in a net positive change. His recommendations for the necessary steps to be taken were as follows:

  • Returning Land: This would allow for the Native American Indigenous communities to revitalize their culture and revive their traditional practices.
  • Education: Create opportunities for Native American Indigenous communities to educate the public about their practices, for it has the potential to positively influence policy.
  • Developing Climate Adaptation Plans on Fire Management: Bringing together these two different sets of knowledge, through Climate Adaptation plans, to avoid the generalization of TEK and to build veracity around its practices. 
  • Federal and State Policies: Developing a different set of regulations that involve tribal knowledge and adopting policies that include tribal members as experts with regard to land management would lead to more effective and equitable policies at both the federal and state levels. 
  • Collaboration between Native and Non-native researchers: These two sets of knowledge represent two sides to management that are necessary to make positive change in today’s climate.
Triangle diagram listing three successful fire management steps.
Fig. 3 Christopher’s proposed framework for successful fire management.

Wildfire Regenerative Measures

“Evaluating the Impact of Wildfires on Mixed Conifer Forest Regeneration and the Effectiveness of USFS Management Strategies on Restoring Ecosystem Services” 

By Wyatt Farino, MSEM ‘24 | Project Manager for Spatial Informatics Group, LLC (SIG)

Wyatt, a graduate in 2024, developed a Master’s Project that also looked at the devastating effects that wildfires have on California lands, focusing on how wildfires directly impact the many mixed-conifer forests in California. These forests play a critical role in maintaining the ecological integrity of the Sierra Nevada, and they provide many fundamental services including: carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, and air and water purification. Additionally, the mixed-conifer trees also boast resilience traits that allow them to survive and repopulate following low-intensity wildfires. However, due to the fact that fire regimes have greatly deviated from their historical norm and the impacts of climate change, these resilience traits are not able to adapt quickly enough to meet the increasing severity, duration, and frequency of modern wildfires. Wyatt examined both the emergency response and reforestation and regeneration efforts of the United States Forest Service (USFS) to assess if they were aptly meeting the nuanced needs of mixed-conifer forests following wildfires. To assess the effectiveness of USFS’s efforts, Wyatt utilized three analytic methods – a literature review, a policy and program evaluation, and a geospatial analysis. 

Through these analyses, objectives and proposed strategies from the USFS were somewhat effective, although lacking a certain level of proper integration and implementation. From the perspective of reforestation efforts, Wyatt cited a lack of adequate resources (i.e., adequate staffing to carry out efforts) as a major obstacle to USFS being able to sufficiently conduct necessary tasks, like seedling growth and replanting. He also noted that a more comprehensive approach to the management of fire regimes and forest health would benefit the efforts of USFS. Another key insight from the analyses was that USFS would benefit from updated evaluation and quantification methodologies of land management strategies in order to properly assess if their efforts are having the intended effect. Wyatt noted that the use of geospatial technologies could be a particularly beneficial assessment tool. He concluded his project by providing the following management recommendations: 

  1. There should be a greater emphasis on the ecological impacts that occur during USFS’s initial emergency assessments, as they set the framework for restoration efforts. Having a more standardized method for reporting could assist in gaining continuity in their restoration efforts. 
  2. There is a need to adopt adaptive management strategies in order to prevent forest type conversion; long-term monitoring should be enacted to ensure forest ecosystems remain stable amidst management efforts. 
  3. Weather conditions and seasonal variations should be taken into account when planning for certain interventions like replanting. 
  4. Consolidation and integration of available models and decision-support tools would allow USFS staff to create comprehensive and specific restoration strategies.
GIS imaging of regenerative forests after fire had occurred in California.
Fig. 4 Wyatt’s GIS imaging of regeneration probability of mixed conifer forests after fire.

Building Environmental Connections with Master’s Projects

With each wildfire Master’s Project, the increasingly tragic situation in California brings awareness and proactive adjustment for fire management. Earth Day strives to recognize such environmental challenges and call science and citizens to action on what must be done. Progressively more intense and more frequent wildfires are making it difficult to recover land and biodiversity back to historical distributions. Chloe brought attention to the WUI in Northern California, where there are high risks of wildfires, and highlighted the importance of implementing TEK, non-native practices, and the influence of state and federal policy, just like Christopher had. In Wyatt’s analysis, the reforestation project brought attention to the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as an effective tool for observing conifer growth and regeneration. 

If you would like more information and insight about these prevalent topics, click on their highlighted titles for direct links! Also, check back in with the MSEM social media pages to see what is happening at USF during Earth Week, April 21-25!