Center Directors

The Center is co-directed by Max Moritz (Cooperative Extension Specialist and Adjunct Assistant Professor) who is primarily responsible for outreach, and Scott Stephens (Associate Professor) who is primarily responsible for research.

Max Moritz: Cooperative Extension Specialist in Wildland Fire at Berkeley

Max Moritz is the Cooperative Extension Specialist in Wildland Fire with Berkeley's College of Natural Resources. His is the first Cooperative Extension position in the country that is completely focused on fire issues. The position provides general leadership for the outreach and applied research program within UC's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) in wildland fire management. It has been highly supported by local Firesafe Councils throughout the state, the Fire Workgroup, and others in the fire research and teaching arena within UC and various agencies. Max has broad expertise in fire modeling, fire effects, brushland fire ecosystems, and spatial patterns of fire disturbance.

For more information about the Moritz Lab (including links to publication downloads), check the website at http://nature.berkeley.edu/moritzlab/. Max Moritz can be reached at UC Berkeley, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, 137 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720. Phone: (510) 642-7329. Email: mmoritz (at) nature (dot) berkeley (dot) edu

Scott L. Stephens: UC's Fire Science Lab examines role of fire in ecosystems

Scott L. Stephens, UC Berkeley associate professor of fire science in the College of Natural Resources. Areas of expertise include interactions of wildland fire and ecosystems, including prehistoric fires, and current wildland fires and management implications for future fires. Stephens runs the Fire Science Laboratory at UC Berkeley. With nearly a dozen graduate students and staff, the lab conducts research on the history of fire in California forestlands and a wide variety of fire-related topics, such as the role of fire in forest and shrubland restoration, the effect of fire on forest wildlife and insects, how Sudden Oak Death is affecting fuel loads and wildfire hazard, and how climate and fire interact in a never-logged forest ecosystem with no fire suppression. "Many of California's ecosystems are fire adapted but our culture has tried to eliminate fire for the last 100 years," Stephens said. "Restoration is becoming a common land management objective, but we lack fundamental information of how fire and ecosystems interact." The goal of the Fire Science Lab is to assist in finding answers to these complex problems. Stephens is currently studying fire-climate interactions in the Southern California mountains.

For more information about the work of the Fire Science Lab (including links to publication downloads), check the website at http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/stephens-lab/. Scott Stephens can be reached at (510) 642-7304. Email: stephens (at) nature (dot) berkeley (dot) edu