Jessica Hass discusses how the confluence of society and nature leads to catastrophic wildfires and what we can do to combat them. Wildfires are naturally occurring events with many ecological benefits. However, with more and more people moving into the lands adjacent to fire adapted ecosystems, the probability of catastrophic wildfires is increasing. Learn how foresters, hydrologists, architects, engineers, and community planners must work together to design future fire resistant and adapted communities.

As a lover of wide open wild spaces, Jessica Haas is passionate about creating better solutions for urban development to coexist with the natural world. Currently, Jessica is an ecologist with the Rocky Mountain Research Station where she conducts research on wildfires, natural hazards, and community planning. Her work has been used nationally to support hazard mitigation by major land managers and various state forestry departments and her research is published in both peer-reviewed scientific journals and news media sources from the Wall Street Journal to the Boston Globe. Jessica received her M.S. in Resource Conservation in 2010 from the University of Montana, where she is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Forestry. In a former life Jessica was a ski bum in Big Sky, Montana and in her free time she can still be found skiing and climbing throughout the mountains of the region.