Cal Fire has awarded $5.9 million to support 15 scientific research studies, including a grant for UC San Diego.
These studies, according to Cal Fire, will provide critical information and tools to forest landowners, resource agencies, fire management organizations and policymakers.
UCSD researcher Ilkay Altintas received $745,000 to study how to scale “science-driven vegetation treatments through immersive BurnPro3D landscapes for Cal Fire prescribed fire planning and training.” BurnPro3D is a platform to help those in fire management understand the risks when planning and conducting prescribed burns.
The statewide projects include attempts to better understand certain vegetation types like chaparral, mountain meadows and oak woodlands; work to strengthen frameworks for evaluating costs and benefits of fuel treatment strategies, and expansion of the use of cutting-edge tools for forest monitoring and prescribed fire planning.
The grant winners, awarded through the Forest Health Research Program, include the University of California, California State University, Colorado State University, Desert Research Institute, USDA Forest Service, and Resources for the Future.
“These grant awards from the Forest Health Research Program are filling critical gaps in our knowledge of fire, forest, and other vegetation management,” Chris Keithley, CAL FIRE’s assistant deputy director of fire and resource assessment, said in a news release.
These research projects are expected to produce scientific publications, outreach and education events, and decision support tools.
In addition, six of the awards, which range from about $75,000 to $750,000, support research led by graduate students.
Funding for the grants comes from Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds through the California Climate Investments program and the Wildfire and Forest Resilience budget package.
