About the event
In June and July 2020, Tucsonans watched as a lightning-caused fire swept across the Santa Catalina Mountains, a rolling inferno that engulfed most of the range. By July 23—the official containment date—the Bighorn Fire had burned 119,978 acres, from upland desert along the Front Range to the pine forests at 8,500 feet. The Arizona Institutes for Resilience (AIR) three-part webinar Fire on the Mountain in August 2020 looked at the fire in depth to help us better understand what transpired.
A year later, we are starting to find answers to some of the most critical questions of 2020, as well as to look to the future:
- What was the role of invasive plant species in the behavior of the fire, especially at the wildland-urban interface?
- What studies are being undertaken to understand the changing role of fire in increasingly vulnerable landscapes?
- Climate change is our new reality, what are the short- and long-term trends for weather extremes and their effects on species not just in the Southwest but on a continental scale?
- What are the key governance and policy issues from the local to the national level?
This free public webinar by AIR, the SW CASC, and the University of Arizona brings the expertise of our community to address the evolving and expanding role of fire in the west. Please join us to better understand not only the fire itself but the complex interactions between climate change, invasive species, management practices, policy, and economics that are shaping our future. |
