University of Nevada, Reno Faculty Wildfire Retreat

About the Retreat:

Wildfire is one of the pressing issues facing society and our environment today. The local to global impacts of wildfire and opportunities for conserving, restoring, and recovering landscapes present a unique opportunity for our University to invest in finding solutions and paths forward for sustaining our society and environment. University of Nevada, Reno faculty, staff, and students actively bring their disciplinary strengths to answering questions related to wildfire. In this ‘retreat,’ we welcome faculty and staff to engage with each other, share their knowledge and interests related to fire, and discuss how we might overcome challenges in conducting interdisciplinary research that focuses on wildfire and identify, via a summary presentation, the opportunities moving forward to enhance collaborations in this topical area.

Agenda

May 21, 2024

9:00 – 9:30 Introductions and Welcome – (Moderator: Sudeep Chandra)
9:30 – 10:30 Ignite Talks Session 1 - (Moderator: Sudeep Chandra)
- Environmental philosophy, an introduction – Carlos Mariscal
- Extreme fire behavior: observations and simulations – Neil Lareau
- Interdisciplinary fire research: macro, micro, and in between – Lesley Morris
- Indigenous use of fire and its effect on Sierran biota – Christopher Morgan
- Plume dynamics of three prescribed fires in western states – Stephen Drake
- Click the fire: profiling the reactive organic carbon – Yu Yang
- Integrating models and data for wildfire actions – Hamed Ebrahimian
10:30 – 10:45 BREAK
10:45-11:30 Ignite Talks Session 2 (Moderator: Lesley Morris)
- Associations between smoke and cardiorespiratory visits in Reno, NV – Matthew Strickland
- A multi-scale approach to assessing the effectiveness of targeted grazing treatments to reduce fuel loads in cheatgrass-invaded rangelands – Tracy Shane
- Wildfire smoke: distribution, particle characterization, and impacts on freshwaters – Sudeep Chandra
- Great Basin Fire Science Exchange – Genie Montblanc
- Wildfire impacts to drinking water source quality – David Hanigan
- Convergence Zone – Scott Hinton
11:30-1:00 LUNCH
1:00 – 2:30 Group Exercise: Strategic thinking about the state of fire science and research at UNR. (Moderator: Christina Restaino)
2:30 – 2:45 BREAK
2:45 – 4:00 Group Exercise: Chart a path forward for UNR Fire Science collaborations and initiatives. (Moderator: Christina Restaino)
4:00 – 5:00 ADJOURN – Free time
5:00 – 6:30 Art show with Professor Scott Hinton
7:00 DINNER at Alibi Ale Works

Wednesday, May 22: The Road Forward

8:30 – 9:30 BREAKFAST
9:30 – 10:30 Ignite Talks Session 1 - (Moderator: Hamed Ebrahimian)
- Coproduction of socioecological systems knowledge to enhance climate resilience – Loretta Singletary
- Wildland fuels: questions that need answering – Jonathan Greenberg
- Snow-climate-fire interactions in mountain forests – Anne Nolin
- Computational fluid dynamics fire simulations – Miles Greiner
- Unpacking implicit bias in community wildfire education – Megan Kay
- Subterranean subterfuge or revelation of belowground biomass in sagebrush steppe – Robert Washington-Allen
- Wildfire effects on drinking water supplies – Krishna Pagilla
- Post-fire regeneration and restoration across ecosystems – Stephanie Yelenik
10:30 – 10:45 BREAK
10:45-11:30 Ignite Talks Session 2 (Moderator: Jonathan Greenberg)
- Community outreach and education to increase wildfire resilience – Christina Restaino
- Nemo: An open-sourced transformer-supercharged benchmark for fine-grained wildfire smoke detection – Lei Yang
- Decline of keystone tree species in response to changing climate and wildfire regimes – Hall Cushman
- Climate warming and wildfire effects on stream fishes and aquatic habitats – Jeff Falke
- UAS-based autonomous mapping of Northern Nevada sagebrush landscapes – Christos Papachristos
- Wildfires & Mercury AND How can the Core Analytical Lab help? – Sarrah Dunham-Cheatham
- TBD – Adrian Harpold
11:30-1:00 LUNCH
1:00 – 2:30 Group Exercise: Working towards research synergies and collaborations, groups will identify research opportunities and will work towards developing proposals. (Moderator: Christina Restaino)
2:30 – 2:45 BREAK
2:45 – 3:30 Continue Group Exercise
3:30 – 4:00 Wrap-Up and Next Steps

Travel, Venue, and Parking

Please plan on arriving at the University of Nevada, Reno Lake Tahoe campus (999 Lake Tahoe, Blvd, Incline Village, NV) on May 21 by 8:30 am to check in. The meeting will occur over two days (May 21-22), please try to attend both days.

University-permitted (e.g. Blue) and pay-by-phone parking is available at the Lake Tahoe campus. We recommend parking near the Prim Library off Country Club Drive.

The meeting will occur in the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences Building which is located near the Prim Library across from the recommended parking area.

Lodging and Food

To maximize participation and engagement, we encourage attendees to stay overnight using accommodations at the campus. Please indicate if you are interested in reserving an overnight accommodation on May 21 or have specific dietary restrictions, in the registration form at the bottom of this page.

Your Organizing Committee has contacted various units and the VPRIs office for support for this faculty-driven workshop/ retreat. We have received positive news and financial commitments for this retreat from the College of Engineering, the Lake Tahoe campus, Ozmen Institute for Global Studies, and Global Water Center and the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources. This means we are fully funded for the retreat!

Convergence Zone Exhibition

Scott Hinton with the UNR Department of Art, Art History and Design is organizing the Convergence Zone exhibition at the University of Nevada, Reno Faculty Wildfire Retreat and is requesting submissions.

This is a request for photographs or other 2D Art from fire science researchers documenting research sites, methods, post-fire landscapes and or maps of your research areas. These images will be printed out and curated in the exhibition that will be on exhibit from May 8 through August 30, 2024, at UNR at Lake Tahoe.

Scott Hinton will be printing the photographs to exhibition standards.

Submission Details: