Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team

Susan Prichard

I am a forest ecologist with a specialty in fire ecology. My main interests are in the effects of fire and other disturbances on forest dynamics, climatic change on forest ecosystems, and fuel treatment options to mitigate wildfire effects. I work with the Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory (U.S. Forest Service) in Seattle, Washington and live full-time in the Methow Valley near Winthrop, Washington.

Current Projects

• Evaluation of past-fire burn mosaics on subsequent wildfire behavior, severity, and fire management strategies. JFSP Project 14-1-02-30. (PI with co-PIs Robert Gray, Paul Hessburg, Richy Harrod, Penny Morgan and Camille Stevens-Rumann).
• Evaluation of smoke and fuels management tradeoffs in the Lake Tahoe Basin. (co-PI with Jonathon Long (PI) and co-PIs Brandon Collins, Malcolm Hunter, Roger Ottmar, Jens Stevens, Leland Tarnay, and Andrea White).
• Integrated study of post-fire burn severity, vegetation recovery and forest insect activity following the 2014 Carlton Complex fires. Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center funding. (co-PI with David W Peterson (PI) and co-PIs Darci Dickinson and Connie Mehmel).
• Mapping fuels for regional smoke management and emissions inventories. JFSP Project 15-1-01-1 (co-PI with Nancy French (PI) and co-PIs Don McKenzie, Maureen Kennedy, Michael Billmire and Roger Ottmar)
• Planning support for the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) Phase I.
• Development of the Fuel and Fire Tools application (project manager)

Recently Completed Projects

• Fuel treatment effectiveness following the 2006 Tripod Fires
• Landscape analysis of fuel treatments in the 2006 Tripod Fires
• Scientific and application development of the Fuel Characteristic Classification System, Consume 3.0, and Fire Emissions Production Simulator
• Assessment of potential fire behavior at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina