Fire Ecology Lab

Fire Ecology Lab at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

The Fire Ecology Lab is broadly interested in understanding how fire shapes California’s ecosystems and how it can be used and managed responsibly to build landscape and community resilience. We combine field-based research with quantitative and modeling approaches to study the ecological impacts of fire and inform effective land management.

Research Areas

Fuel Treatment Monitoring

Monitoring and evaluating prescribed fire and fuel reduction treatments across the Central Coast, Sierra Nevada, and dry forests of the western US.

Post-fire Recovery

Examining how fire frequency and severity shape vegetation recovery, from chaparral biodiversity and post-fire carbon dynamics to reforestation planning.