BDEI 3 - Participant Details: Andrew Wilson

Name:

Andrew Wilson

Affiliation:

USDA Forest Service

Bio

With the USDA Forest Service, I have been involved in regional and national spatial analysis, including studies such as the Northwest Forest Plan and the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Plan. I have examined issues and constraints with GIS from the timber industry perspective, and am currently involved in fire management and fire meteorology research with the Forest Service's Riverside Fire Lab.

Work:

Wildfire and regional ecosystem analysis have broad, multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional scope. Consistent data is necessary to work with modeling of these systems. Up to this point, I have fallen back to trying to push the least common denominator of disparate data sets as high as I can with expert opinion, then capturing that level for analysis and posterity (or FOIA). To be able to continue modeling fire impacts and probabilities of burning in the future, we will have to progress to a more open approach to avoid focusing solely on data acquisition, maintenance and duplicity. Consistent data coverage, without regard to administrative boundary, is essential for modeling, reporting and understanding of the dynamics of fire in our social, political and boilogic systems.

Recommended URLs:

www.icbemp.gov

www.fs.fed.us/fire/wfsa/WFSAmacgregor.htm

www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/wildland_fire_management/

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