On 4/17 @ucmerced.bsky.social Fire Resilience Center will host John Mills, CEO and co-founder of @watchduty.org AND have discussion with @climate-guy.bsky.social and Dr. Sandie Ha on:
1) The upcoming fire season in CA
2) How you can prepare, esp. for smoke

We're streaming it online - join us!

Here's the reality about the #LAFires this week: this isn't the first time ANY of these places have burned. Not even close. In 2018, we mapped CA fire history to look at fire frequency across SoCal. Santa Monica Mtns area burns more than anywhere else -- up to once per decade in a given spot. 🧵

Also, for my remote sensing peeps who teach, Palisades Fire offering an excellent example of VIIRS saturating in the IR and bleeding over into downpath pixels. Neither the Pacific Ocean or central Santa Monica are actually on fire (right now anyway). #remotesensing #NASAcanyoufixthis

Finally, they fell in love with the Park, and talked of needing to protect nature. A small victory in an ongoing battle.

"We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune."
-TR

Many were scared because they didn't know anyone nor much about the outdoors. But they spoke of new friends, gaining confidence in themselves, and feeling welcomed and comfortable. 9/10

They spoke of being surprised at just how relaxed and at peace they felt in nature. We know that nature is good for the soul and for reducing stress, but having students make that realization on their own, and carry it back to campus and their everyday lives, makes my heart happy. 8/10

That was two months ago. I wasn't sure how my students felt about the experience, or what they took away from it. Until today, when I read their Reflection assignment. I asked them to reflect on the experience, what they learned, how it made them feel. 7/10

I *might* have fangirled a bit. But he pulled our students in with his soft, gentle voice and told them that they owned the park. It belongs to them. And friends, those 24 mostly minority students, many of whom had never been to Yosemite, hung on his every word. It was beautiful. 6/10

And in a magical, magical moment that none of us anticipated, we met Ranger Shelton Johnson. Friends, I have seen (and love) the Ken Burns National parks series on PBS. But nothing prepared me for the magic of this man. He LOVES this park. He LOVES to talk to people about it. And he is MAGIC. 5/10

They cooked meals as teams and met new friends. They heard from upperclass peers and graduate students about their pathways, and the types of zigzags that everyone goes through as their evolve and grow. They nature journaled and observed and asked questions about their surroundings. 4/10

They took a night hike to Chilnualna Falls and looked at the stars. They helped gather black oak acorns in Yosemite Valley with Irene Vasquez, the Park's fantastic cultural ecologist. It was at least 50 pounds of acorns (probably a lot more), and they will go to elders for food use this winter. 3/10

They learned from the amazing Garret Dickman about how low-intensity fire keeps those sequoias health and happy, and they helped conduct the annual sequoia demography study. They learned how to measure carbon in trees with me, and did their own carbon footprints. They came up with nature names. 2/10

Friends, I have hope again. In October I taught a weekend field class at Yosemite NP for 24 first year students from any major, who are required to take what we call a "SPARK" class to introduce them to the research university @ucmerced.bsky.social. They saw giant sequoia trees. 1/10

Major kudos to CALFIRE for upping their game substantially on their Incident pages this year. On the #MountainFire, they have posted an 'impacted demographics' dashboard pulling from census data to show the population impacted by the fire, including the most vulnerable groups. 1/3

Welcome friends! For those just joining us, I'm a former USFS firefighter and a pyrogeographer ("studying Fire on Earth"). I direct the Fire Resilience Center at UC Merced where we seek to understand the causes and consequences of wildfire disasters and identify solutions.