Professor Mark Cochrane of the South Dakota State University Natural Resource Management Department has been studying the impact wildfires for nearly two decades. The senior scientist at the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence is using satellite imagery to help improve forest management techniques. One of his projects is designed to determine which management techniques, including thinning and prescribed burns, work best in which forests in the United States. The study focuses on 630 large wildfires that occurred in the last decade in U.S. National Forests. In addition, Cochrane has done extensive work on fire regimes in Australia and the Brazilian Amazon, focusing on how climate change and land cover and use/management affects fire occurrences.
Changing climate is also an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to wildfires. “Looking at how these fire regimes change as a function of climate,” Cochrane predicts “these types of fire will get worse over time.”
Contact him at [email protected] or call (517) 281-8881.
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