California Fire Portal

We are looking to support a PhD student (stipend, tuition, health coverage) to work on a NSF project, Managing Future Risk of Increasing Simultaneous Megafires starting as early as summer 2021. This project will involve colleagues at the University of Washington and National Center for Atmospheric Research with expertise in climate science, public policy, and fire ecology. Elements of this work are to understand biophysical influences on fire activity at different scales, particularly related to widespread lightning-ignited fires, and develop convergent approaches for understanding how the confluence of fire suppression and land management approaches can ameliorate future synchronous large fires.

Spatial Informatics Group - Natural Assets Laboratory (SIG-NAL) seeks a Wildfire and Landscape Resilience Program Manager to coordinate and support the implementation of a new Regional Wildfire Mitigation Program (RWMP) in the south coast region of Santa Barbara County, California. The successful candidate will have expertise in wildfire recovery and preparedness planning, as well as landscape ecology, to develop a coordinated ecological restoration and fire-safe buffer and “greening” project for wildfire resilience across the region’s wildland-urban interface. The applicant selected will work closely with numerous organizations and wildfire experts, providing advisory services to land managers, scientists, community groups and nonprofits, state and local agencies for this progressive and collaborative program.

Application Deadline: Applications will be continuously reviewed until a suitable candidate is identified. Interviews will be on a rolling basis.

The Sequoia-Kings Canyon Field Station (USGS) is currently searching for people interested in summer 2021 Biological Science Technician positions in Forest Ecology.

Duties: Collect field data for long term forest research projects in Sequoia and Yosemite NPs. Measure forest demographics, including mapping and measuring trees and determining cause of death. Collect fuels data. Gain knowledge and experience in ecological research, identifying Sierran trees, forest pathology, and mapping trees. Up to 10 positions will be filled. Positions are full-time, start in approximately mid-May, and will last about 4-5 months.

As part of advancing Stanford University’s IDEAL vision and commitment to diversity (broadly defined) among its faculty, students, and staff, the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University (Stanford Earth) has established the Stanford Earth Postdoctoral Fellows program. This fellowship will support two outstanding scholars in the fields of Earth, energy, and environmental sciences, as well as other emerging fields in this area, whose research and mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students will contribute to diversity, equity, inclusion and scientific excellence within the school.

Applications will be considered beginning on December 11, 2020. Candidates are strongly encouraged to submit complete applications by that date for full consideration; however, applications will continue to be accepted until the fellowship positions are filled.

The Stanford University School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth) seeks candidates for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor. Consistent with Stanford University’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEAL) vision and commitment to diversity (broadly defined) among its faculty, students, and staff, we especially seek to attract applications from promising scholars with historically underrepresented backgrounds in traditional STEM fields, as well as in emerging areas of Earth, Energy, and Environmental sciences, including research areas that intersect with societal issues. All four Stanford Earth departments are partnering in this search and a successful candidate will be appointed in one of the following:

Earth System Science - We study the world’s air, water, land, and life as an integrated system. As scientists, we unite basic and purpose-driven research to chronicle how the Earth functions, the many ways it is changing, and what the consequences of changes will be for people and other species. We believe that science can improve the world by enabling us to understand, predict, and solve the pressing issues of global environmental change.

Energy Resources Engineering - We train future leaders in the science and engineering of Earth's energy resources. We combine theory, experiments, and computation to understand and influence the global energy resources landscape. We are committed to leading the way to provide the people, methods, and tools for sustainable management of the Earth's energy resources.  

Geological Sciences - We study the properties of minerals, rocks, soils, sediments and water, using multiple lenses -- stratigraphy, paleobiology, geochemistry, and planetary sciences. Their work informs our understanding of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and floods. It helps us meet natural resource challenges through environmental and geological engineering, mapping and land use planning, surface and groundwater management, and the exploration and sustainable extraction of energy and minerals. It also helps us answer fundamental questions about the origin, history, and habitability of planets.

Geophysics - We study Earth and planetary processes through laboratory experiments, computational and theoretical modeling, remote imaging, and direct observation. At Stanford, our teaching and research focus on understanding systems critical to the future of civilization. We apply expertise to fundamental research sustaining life on Earth, combining underlying science with studies of Earth’s environment and resource needs.

Audubon Canyon Ranch (ACR), an innovative North Bay conservation science and education organization, is hiring a full‐time Prescribed Fire Project Coordinator for Fire Forward. The Prescribed Fire Project Coordinator coordinates and conducts site visits with new partners to potential fuels treatment sites around the region, assessing feasibility of such partnerships and collaborations, and maintaining professional and collaborative relations with key partners. The Coordinator reports the outcomes and findings of these visits and provides updates regarding relationship building to the team. They participate in assessment and mapping of burn units, support the drafting of burn plans and smoke management plans, and work closely with on-the-ground partners and landowners in the development of local collaborative efforts and implementation. The Coordinator works with the team to plan, prepare, monitor, and implement prescribed burns. The Coordinator represents Fire Forward and ACR in media, partner, collaborator, and volunteer community relations, and works with ACR staff and with partners from other agencies to plan potential work on ACR preserves and other lands.

The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, seeks applicants for five tenure-track positions at the level of Assistant Professor in the thematic area of restoring and protecting global biodiversity. The Faculty of Science, together with the Faculties of Arts, Forestry, and Land and Food Systems, is sponsoring this unique cluster hire, which builds on existing excellence in this area at UBC. These new hires will join an interdisciplinary research and scholarship team focused on solutions-oriented approaches to biodiversity loss, and its connection to sustainability and adaptive capacity for humanity. For further information see https://biodiversity.ubc.ca/cluster-hire

As part of the cluster, we seek a Conservation and Restoration Scientist to be jointly appointed in the Departments of Botany, and Forest & Conservation Sciences, with opportunities for strong interaction with UBC’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Biodiversity Research Centre. The Conservation and Restoration Scientist will conduct research broadly investigating how to conserve and protect biodiversity, and restore functioning ecosystems in a changing world. Applicants should have an interest in integrating fundamental research on restoring biodiversity, ecosystem functions or adaptive capacity, with applied research on conservation and restoration strategies that involve engagement with communities, industry or governments. Their expertise will be in ecology (including applied ecology), conservation, evolutionary biology, forestry, geography, or related disciplines. We encourage applicants who use a range of empirical or theoretical approaches, applying them to real-world problems from local to global scales, in terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems, and working in plant, animal or fungal systems.

On April 6, 2020, the Fire Management Board (FMB) established the Wildland Fire Medical and Public Health Advisory Team (MPHAT) to address medical and health-related issues specific to the interagency administration of mission critical wildland fire management functions under a COVID-19 modified operating posture.  The COVID-19 MPHAT is tasked with providing medical and public health expertise, advice, coordination, and collaboration with external subject matter experts and developing protocols and practices for all aspects of COVID-19 planning, prevention, and mitigation for wildland fire operations.  Guidance found on this page has been issued via FMB Memorandum. They may be updated as appropriate and necessary to respond to the evolving situations and work conditions surrounding COVID-19.

With multiple agencies/entities, groups and task forces all working to find solutions for operational concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, the need for a space to share information is apparent. This forum serves as a platform to ask questions, as well as to share ideas, information, and solutions.