The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and Krotona Institute of Theosophy are partnering to offer a presentation on Wildfire Ecology with ecologist, photographer, and author George Wuerthner.
This past year both northern and southern California were struck, once again, with wildfire. Our own community was hard hit with the Thomas Fire, the largest in modern California history. This presentation will focus on how and why wildfires happen, what we can do to mitigate their destructive force, and how climate change is aggravating wildfire.
We know that extreme fire weather—which includes drought, low humidity, high temps, and most importantly high winds—drives all large wildfires. Under extreme fire weather, fire suppression efforts will fail—you just have to wait until the weather changes. However, while wildfire in your community is bad, many ecosystems depend on wildfire for ecological integrity and stability.
George Wuerthner is an ecologist and has been studying fire ecology for decades. He is also a writer who has published 38 books including Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy and Yellowstone and the Fires of Change. In addition, he has written books about California Wilderness Areas, Yosemite NP, and the Sierra Nevada, so he is intimately familiar with the California landscape. Wuerthner has previously worked as a biologist and botanist for the BLM, a backcountry ranger in Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic NP, and river ranger for the BLM in Alaska. For his undergraduate work, he studied wildlife biology and botany at the University of Montana, then attended the University of California, Santa Cruz where he got a master’s in science communication, and finally did additional graduate work at the University of Oregon studying fire ecology.
This is a free event but donations are welcome. Space is limited so reservations are requested. For more information contact Marti Reid at (805) 649-6852 ext 2, or marti@ovlc.org.
Thank you to The Shanbrom Family Foundation for a generous grant to make this event possible.
Register Here
January 31st
6:00 pm
The Krotona Institute Auditorium
2 Krotona St, Ojai, CA 93023
