A PIO for more than 20 years, Jim Whittington has responded to over 90 large and complex wildfires. He has been the spokesperson for incidents of national and international interest, including the Cerro Grande, Rodeo-Chedeski, Wallow, and Yarnell Hill fires. He also worked with media as part of the Granite Mountain Hot Shots Memorial Service team and led the PIO function for the Iron 44 Memorial Service.
Read MoreCharles Brooks is the Executive Director of Rebuild Paradise. Charles is a graduate of CSU Chico with a degree in Business Administration. Charles and his wife Jennifer have been Paradise Residents since 2004 and Butte County since 1998. Charles has always had a heart for service. He is an Eagle Scout and been involved in several volunteer civic organizations including; Boy Scouts of America Students in Free Enterprise, Butte County Search & Rescue, Paradise Citizens’ Alliance and coached his boys’ soccer teams for many years. Founding Rebuild Paradise was an easy choice and necessary step to assist the Butte County community recover in a meaningful way over the many years to come.
Read MoreSusan Jane Brown is a Senior Attorney and the Wildlands Director for Western Environmental law Center (WELC). She joined WELC after serving as Natural Resources Counsel for Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) in Washington, D.C. She also worked as a staff attorney with the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, Lewis and Clark Law School’s environmental law clinic. A nationally recognized expert on forest law, she has been appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to co-chair the Federal Advisory Committee on the National Forest Management Act. Susan Jane is a recipient of the Wilburforce Foundation’s Conservation Leadership Award, honoring her years of hard work protecting wildlife and wildlands in the western United States and recognizing her outstanding leadership in the conservation movement. She also served as executive director of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force from 2000-2003. Susan Jane graduated from Vanderbilt University and earned her law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School.
Read MoreMike is originally from Northwest Arkansas and attended Carleton College in Northfield, MN, where he received an undergraduate degree in Chemistry. He received his first wildland firefighting “red card” as a volunteer in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1984. His first land management post was as a Park Naturalist at Mt. Rainier National Park in 1987. He was on an NPS hotshot crew and started one of the first NPS Fire Use Modules, acting as its Module Leader from 1995 through 1998. Mike was the Deputy Fire Chief while working eight years at Yosemite National Park between 2001 and 2009. In 2009 Mike moved to Humboldt County and served as Deputy Fire Chief of the Six Rivers National Forest and finished his career at the end of 2015 as the Interagency Fire Chief for the Inyo National Forest and Bishop BLM in Bishop, CA. Mike was a Founding Board Member of FUSEE and continues to assist with large fire management through his work as a Fire Behavior Analyst on one of California’s incident management teams. He splits his time between his family home in the Ozarks, rural Northern California and Eugene, OR.
Read MoreTimothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D. is co-founder and executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE) and is a faculty research associate at the University of Oregon. Timothy began his career as a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service. In 1993 Timothy received the Oregon Conservationist of the Year Award by the Oregon Natural Resources Council. Timothy co-founded and directed the Cascadia Fire Ecology Education Project from 1994-2004, and created and directed the Western Fire Ecology Center from 1997-2004. Timothy is a senior wildland fire ecologist certified by the Association for Fire Ecology.
Read MoreDavid Ferguson has worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service since 2004. He is a member of the Klamath-Lake County Forest Health Partnership and the Umpqua Oak Partnership. David was the lead conservationist for the Taylor-Klondike wildfire recovery project and is currently for many other projects in both Josephine and Douglas counties.
Read MoreJanet Lancaster is a community organizer and wildfire preparedness advocate. Months after retiring to Merlin in 2018, the US Forest Service published a report naming Merlin the community most at-risk of wildfire in Oregon. This began her quest to learn - and share with her community - what homeowners can do to prevent, prepare for and survive wildfire. She co-founded Firesmart Merlin in January 2019, which offers free community meetings on wildfire readiness and related topics.
Read MoreJessica Halofsky’s research is focused on assessing potential effects of climate change on forest vegetation and disturbance regimes, using both modelling and field-based approaches. Jessica also facilitates development of climate change vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans for national forests and other partners across the western United States.
Read MoreRich Fairbanks is a local fire professional and speaks about the importance of securing a perimeter and how creating and maintaining defensible space around homes is a year-long process. Even in the summer when we won’t be doing controlled burns or running a chainsaw, there is much we can do to protect homes, communities, and lives from fire. Rich lives in southwest Oregon and has over 40 years of experience in firefighting and forest management, including in our local Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Read MoreBelinda Brown is an enrolled Kosealekte Band member of the Ajumawi-Atsuge Nation (Pit River Tribe). She is honored to bring the collective voice of tribal communities to the leadership of Lomakatsi and the Rogue Basin as the Tribal Partnerships Director of Lomakatsi. She works to include and maintain a tribal presence as the first, best stewards of the land, incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into current best practices in ecosystem and ecocultural restoration. Her work has spanned 30 years of intergovernmental affairs coordination in Indian Country as a tribal leader.
Read MoreRichard F. O’Rourke III is an indigenous fire practitioner and the Fire Coordinator for the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC). He is a Yurok Tribal member, and has lived on the banks of the Klamath River for the majority of his life. He has been using fire as a defensive tool against wildfire for over 30 years. As Fire Coordinator for the CFMC he has started using fire on a landscape level for the revival of cultural resources, fuel reduction, and returning the landscape into a healthy, biologically diverse ecosystem.
Read MoreElizabeth Azzuz is of Yurok and Karuk descent. She grew up in the traditional Yurok village of Weitchpec, where she currently resides. She is a cultural practitioner, gathering and propagating traditional food and medicine plants. She is the Cultural Fire Management Council Board of Directors Secretary, a key planner for TREX, responsible for logistics and permitting. She is an active community member, a mom, and a grandma.
Read MoreMargo Robbins is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Cultural Fire Management Council (CFMC). She is one of the key planners and organizers of the Culture Burn Training Exchange (TREX) that takes place on the Yurok Reservation twice a year. She is also a co-lead and advisor for the Indigenous People's Burn Network. Margo is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe, she gathers and prepares traditional food and medicine, is a basket weaver and regalia maker. She is the Indian Education Director for the Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School district, a mom, and a grandma.
Read MoreDr. Doug Bird is Associate Professor of ecological anthropology, with broad interests in how social and ecological factors interact to influence patterns of resource use and their archaeological expressions. He focuses especially on questions about livelihood decisions and habitats, exploring the dynamics of human subsistence practices, their role in ecosystem function, and their archaeological implications in Australia and Western North America.
Read MoreBill Kuhn has been the Area Ecologist for the US Forest Service Southwest Oregon area since 2017, and leads a small team of ecologists that support the Rogue River-Siskiyou and Umpqua National Forests. As an applied ecologist, Bill utilizes published research, models, datasets, and inventory and monitoring data to inform forest specialists and managers about recommended management direction. His work focuses on forest restoration needs, objectives, and implementation, as well as vegetation, fire effects, and climate impacts monitoring. His management interests and expertise lie in the fields of vegetation and forest ecology, fire ecology, climate change adaptation, and restoration ecology.
Read MoreTaught Biology and Environmental Science for thirty years at Southeast Missouri State University, was active in the local Sierra Club group, and formed the Southeast Missouri Climate Protection Initiative. After relocating to Southern Oregon with wife Kathy Conway Alan built an energy efficient passive/active solar home in the Applegate Valley. Finding no grassroots climate activist organization in the region, Alan and Kathy established Southern Oregon Climate Action Now, of which he serves as Co-facilitator and Board President.
Read MoreAn Ashland native, Chris has worked at Ashland Fire and Rescue since 2002. A graduate of the Oregon State University College of Forestry, Chris worked for the US Forest Service and BLM for 5 seasons in silviculture, fire, botany, and wildlife and fisheries biology. For Ashland Fire & Rescue, Chris coordinated National Fire Plan grants for 6 years with hundreds of private landowners, co-authored the 2004 Ashland Community Wildfire Protection Plan and 2005 Jackson County Integrated Fire Plan and participated in the genesis and ongoing implementation of the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project.
Read MoreDr. Christopher J. Dunn, is a post-doc researcher at Oregon State University, who focuses on wildfire management strategies, and how fire behaves across the checkerboard landscape of public and private ownership in southern Oregon. Dunn has published many studies using satellite imagery and local data to analyze the factors that drive fire severity.
Read MorePam Marsh is an American Democratic politician currently serving in the Oregon House of Representatives. She represents the 5th district, which covers southern Jackson County, including the city of Ashland.
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