COLORDAO – Eighteen USDA Forest Service scientists’ publications are featured in a special anniversary edition of the International Journal of Wildland Fire. IJWF, the official journal of the International Association of Wildland Fire, has published over 1800 research and review papers since its inception in 1991. To celebrate 30 years of delivering latest research on all aspects of wildland fire, the journal released a virtual issue, Celebrating 30 Years of Wildland Fire Science Publication.

The 30th anniversary issue includes 15 key review papers published in IJWF over the past 12 years that highlight the wide range of disciplines in wildland fire research. Five of the publications selected for this issue for their excellence in the wide range of disciplines in wildland fire research include authors from the USDA Forest Service. The special issue will be free to read online until August 31st.

The featured publications by Rocky Mountain Research Station, Northern Research Station, Pacific Northwest Research Station, and Northern Region authors include:

• Applications of simulation-based burn probability modelling: A review by Carol Miller (RMRS)
• A review of US wildland firefighter entrapments: Trends, important environmental factors and research needs by Wesley Page (RMRS), Patrick Freeborn (RMRS), Bret Butler (RMRS) and Matt Jolly (RMRS)
• Fire behavior and smoke modelling: model improvement and measurement needs for next-generation smoke research and forecasting systems by Ronan Paugam (PNWRS), Matthew Dickenson (NRS), Andy Hudak (RMRS) and Shawn Urbanski (RMRS)
• A review of challenges to determining and demonstrating efficiency of large fire management by Matt Thompson (RMRS), Dave Calkin (RMRS) and Michael Hand (RMRS)
• Challenges of assessing fire and burn severity using field measures, remote sensing and modelling by Bob Keane (RMRS), Greg Dillon (RMRS), Terrie Jain (RMRS), Andy Hudak (RMRS), Eva Karau (RMRS), Pamela Sikkink (RMRS) and Zachary Holden (NRS)

“What honor to have our paper selected for this special issue. It’s gratifying and validating to see the journal’s support for R&D in operations research and management science,” says Matt Thompson, Rocky Mountain Research Station research forester and first author of A review of challenges to determining and demonstrating efficiency of large fire management. “We continue to see a growing need for risk and decision analysis to support wildfire management and hope we can continue to work with practitioners to co-produce actionable science like this.”