Sierra Nevada Fire Climatology.  These pages describe collaborative climate change research with The Sierra Nevada Global Change Research Program.  Return to the Start Page to read about the rest of the program.

Fire & Climate in the Southwestern United States.  Collaborative research and workshops with Southwest Climate Assessment Project (CLIMAS) and Institute for the Study of Planet Earth (ISPE), University of Arizona.

Paleo-Perspective of Drought & Fire in the Southwest.  Brief abstract of climate reconstruction in El Malpais by Henri Grissino-Mayer, and the long-term context of the recent (2002-2003) drought.  The lower part of this page contains a long-term perspective on fire history, with a link to maps comparing the 2002 fire year with the most extensive fire year in the fire scar record - 1748.

WALTER.  The Wildfire Alternatives project -- EPA funded research project involving spatial analysis and modeling of human factors, climate, biophysical processes, and fire in the Southwest.

Fire Ecology & Management in Sequoia & Kings Canyon NP  These pages contain a wealth of information on the fire ecology and fire management work that has been done in the Sierra Nevada parks, including numerous links to papers and reports.

International Multiproxy Paleofire History Database (IMPD)  These pages provide access to fire-scar and charcoal based fire history reconstruction datasets. I serve on the advisory board for IMPD.

Other Collaborations

Land Use History of the Colorado Plateau  These pages cover landscape ecology and history on the Colorado Plateau, including a few pages on our fire history work.

Climate Change Impacts on Southwestern Ecosystems.  These pages were part of a web-based workshop on climate change assessments, and they describe my collaborative research with Julio Betancourt.  Most of this research is published in our recent paper:  Swetnam, T. W. and J. L. Betancourt. 1998.  Mesoscale disturbance and ecological response to decadal climatic variability in the American Southwest. Journal of Climate 11:3128-3147.

A Sense of Place: A Place-Based Approach to Science for Land Management  These pages describe the work of Dr. Craig Allen in integrating landscape ecology and resource management in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico.  Craig and I have collaborated closely on a several aspects of this work, particularly disturbance ecology and the new experiment in land management at Valles Caldera National Preserve (see link below).

Valles Caldera National Preserve   This is a new federal "preserve" established by an Act of Congress.   While I was a member of the Board of Trustees (until 2004) my work focused on building an institutional framework for carrying out place-based science in support of adaptive management.

Arizona Forest Health Advisory Council.  I served as a member of this advisory board to Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano from 2004 to 2006.

Arizona Climate Change Advisory Group.  I served as a member of this advisory board to Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano in 2005 and 2006.

Climate Assessment of the Southwest (CLIMAS).  I am a co-PI of this interdisciplinary project at the University of Arizona, funded by NOAA, conducting climate impact research and outreach in the Southwest.

Western Spruce Budworm Dynamics.  Collaborative research with Dr. Ann Lynch, U. S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station (problem statement).

Desert Laboratory, Tumamoc Hill.  This is the historic laboratory in Tucson, Arizona where a long line of distinguished ecologists have conducted their research and maintained offices, including my close friend and frequent collaborator, Julio Betancourt