to collaborative wildfire research plan
According to the Congressional Research Service, as of Sept. 2, nearly 48,500 wildfires have impacted over 6 million acres of land in the U.S. in 2022. Wildfires are an increasingly frequent danger and socio-environmental challenge for the U.S. and the world.
“Fire is a complex, wicked problem that has far-reaching ecological and societal impacts,” Human-Environment Systems Assistant Professor Megan Cattau said. “Without a diversity of perspectives, it would be impossible to even understand the problem, let alone identify gaps in knowledge or effective solutions. Interdisciplinarity provides the depth and breadth necessary to evaluate wildfire.”
Fortunately, Boise State wildfire researchers Cattau, civil engineering Assistant Professor Mojtaba Sadegh, and Human-Environment Systems and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior doctoral students Tao Huang and Meg Dolman joined with more than 80 wildfire experts from across the world to develop a plan of attack for researching and responding to the wildfire crisis.