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Science, Society, Solutions
Fighting Fire with Science

Third in the 2002 "Science, Society, Solutions" series

Everyone is welcome to attend this briefing. Learn how the USGS is working with fire managers and land managers to bring fire science and technology to aid threatened communities and restore fire impacted ecosystems.

Other Science, Society, Solutions Briefings

A century of fire suppression on public lands, combined with several years of drought, has turned America´s wildlands into tinderboxes and the situation is getting worse. In 2001, 3.5 million acres burned and more than 700 structures were damaged or destroyed; fire season 2002 is likely to be even worse.

Deborah Martin

Deborah Martin is a research hydrologist with the USGS National Research Program. She received her undergraduate degree in geology from Princeton University and her master´s degree in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia. This multidisciplinary background has been especially useful in her work in the Amazon on an atmospheric chemistry project, in South Africa on a weather modification project, and most recently in research through the U.S. Geological Survey on the consequences of wildfire. Deborah has worked with the U.S. Geological Survey since 1983, first in Reston, Va., and currently in Boulder, Colo. Since the Buffalo Creek Fire in Colorado in 1996, Deborah has studied the erosion and flooding following wildfire and has a particular interest in the water quality effects of fire. Deborah lives in the wildland-urban interface west of Boulder and is an active volunteer in the Boulder County Wildfire Mitigation Group.

Larry Hamilton

Larry Hamilton became Director of the Bureau of Land Management´s National Office of Fire and Aviation in April 2000. He served as BLM´s state director of Montana and the Dakotas from 1993 to 2000; previous positions include associate state director for the BLM´s Eastern States office in Springfield, Va., and Director of the BLM´s National Training Center in Phoenix, Ariz. He has also held positions in Washington, D.C., Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado. Larry earned a doctoral degree in organizational communication from the University of Denver in 1973. He received a bachelor´s degree in political science and a master´s in speech communication from California State University, San Francisco, Calif. His honors include the Department of the Interior´s Meritorious Service Award, the President´s Award for Outstanding Leadership and the Golden Reel Award for Fish and Wildlife 2000. He has served on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, the Prairie Pothole Joint Venture Management Board, and the executive steering committee for the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project. Located in Boise, Idaho, the National Interagency Fire Center is a joint effort of the BLM, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, National Weather Service, and the Office of Aircraft Services. Together, they coordinate and support wildland fire and disaster operations.

For more information about fighting fire with science, please contact Stan Coloff.
For more information about this topic or the briefing series, please contact the USGS Office of Communications.