Chad Hanson, PhD, is a research ecologist and the director of the John Muir Project. Decades of in-forest study and observation about which forests burn hottest, most frequently and why, have led Chad to very different conclusions about how best to manage wildfire than what the public typically hears from media and other sources. Learn the truth about wildfire and forest regeneration, about the destructive effects of “cleaning up” forests after fire, and how forest thinning increases damage and severity. Even more importantly: what strategies ARE most effective in protecting homes from fire. In this 90 min presentation and Q&A, Chad will cover key research findings detailed in his newly released book, Smokescreen and the current issues facing the forests of New Jersey.
Please register for this webinar if you want to learn the truth about: wildfire and forest regeneration; the destructive effects of “cleaning up” or "restoring" forests after fire; how forest "thinning" and other types of logging can actually invigorate wildfire effects and put communities at greater risk; and the most effective steps we can take to protect homes from wildland fire.
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Presenter Biography: Chad Hanson co-founded the John Muir Project in 1996. He first became involved in national forest protection after hiking the 2,700 mile length of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada with his older brother in 1989. During this hike he witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by rampant commercial logging on our National Forests in California, Oregon and Washington.
In 2003 Chad returned to school, and earned his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis in 2007, with a research focus on forest and fire ecology and the rare wildlife species that depend upon post-fire habitat in forests of the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere in the western U.S.. He has published an impressive list of scientific research papers on forest and fire ecology, burned forest as essential habitat for wildlife and fire history and trends. In 2015 Chad co-edited The Ecological Importance of Mixed- Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix, the first text book to focus on mixed-severity fire. He also co-authored several of it's chapters, including Ecological and Biodiversity Benefits of MegaFires and Climate Change:Uncertainties, Shifting Baselines, and Fire Management, to name a few. His latest book Smokescreen was published in May 2021.
MarieClaire Egbert
