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Overview

Wildfire Smoke and Air Quality

Explore Stanford research about health impacts and solutions

Factsheet

Learn more about wildfire research at Stanford.

Expert Tip Sheet

Stanford scholars are available to comment on wildfire-related issues.

Videos

Catch up on briefings and interviews with Stanford experts.


Wildfire News and Media Coverage

A brush fire burns on a hillside.
August 7, 2023 | Stanford News Service
Michael Wara & colleagues find that low-income communities in Califonia face a "wildfire safety deficit" as a result of longstanding policies about who should pay to move power lines underground.
August 2, 2023 | EOS
Noah Diffenbaugh and Alexandra Konings write about increase of wildfires associated with extreme weather.
A prototype BurnBot RX1 remote-operated prescription burning machine is in operation during the California Central Coast Prescribed Fire Training Exchange burn in San Juan Bautista (San Benito County).
July 21, 2023 | San Francisco Chronicle
Chris Field discusses controlled burn options for California.
A helicopter bucketing a forest fire in British Columbia
As smoke from Canadian wildfires is polluting air across much of the northeastern US, Stanford wildfire experts have been quoted and interviewed in multiple media outlets. To learn more about...
forest
July 11, 2023 | Stanford Law School
Implementing “climate-smart” forestry practices—such as expanding urban forests, integrating trees into pasture lands, and accelerating reforestation activities—can increase carbon removals even more...
The Moose fire pictured, here in southeastern Idaho in July 2022, sent smoke across southwest Montana.
July 6, 2023 | Billings Gazette
Jeff Koseff and colleagues create model to analyze wind impacts on wildfire.


Wildfire Research Projects

Fire with Fire

A practical system focused on fuels, ignitions, relocation, and extensive and intensive health impacts (FIRE) can benefit California and other areas under threat from wildfires around the globe.

Prevention Treatment

A preventive treatment developed by Stanford researchers led by Eric Appel involving an environmentally safe gel-like retardant provides season-long protection against wildfire ignitions.

Zombie Forests

California’s zombie forests — forests established under a prior climate regime now out of climate equilibrium — represent a critical, and as yet unaccounted for, high risk factor for catastrophic wildfire.

Michael Wara, Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program, and other Stanford researchers are working with state officials and stakeholders to inform wildfire policy and understand the role utilities play in catastrophic wildfires.

Marshall Burke, professor of Earth System Science, and colleagues bring together data on the changing risk and societal burden of wildfire in the U.S. and use satellite data and statistical modeling to estimate indirect mortality. 

Researchers at Stanford's Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research study the health impacts from wildfire smoke.


Wildfire Research and Prevention Experts

For assistance in reaching experts, contact Madison Pobis or Chris Black

Assistant Professor of Material Science and Engineering

Wildfire prevention, new technology to prevent ignitions, human-caused wildfires

Associate Professor of Earth System Science

Wildfire smoke and air pollution mortality risk, wildfire costs and economic statistics

Professor of Earth System Science

Climate and wildfire risk, drought and precipitation, extreme events

Director, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

Wildfire and climate change, wildfire ecology, forest management

Professor of Earth System Science

Wildfires and greenhouse gas emissions, fire and forest ecology

Assistant Professor of Earth System Science

Tree mortality, wildfire prediction, forest ecology, climate risk, remote sensing

Director, Climate and Energy Policy Program

Wildfire policy and law, electric utilities and wildfire prevention

Assistant Professor of Earth System Science

Psychology and human behavior, human impacts of wildfires


Wildfire Publications

Past wildfire Events

Mar
08
2023
12:30pm
Virtual via Zoom

Wildland Fire Seminar | Indigenous led fire management

Mar
01
2023
12:30pm
Virtual via Zoom

Wildland Fire Seminar | Utilities' efforts to mitigate wildfire risk and partnerships needed to ensure success

Feb
22
2023
12:30pm
Virtual via Zoom

Wildland Fire Seminar | NFTs to fund fire prevention, forest stewardship and land back