Current Projects

ArcBurn: Decision support tools for minimizing fire effects to cultural resources in the Western US

Multi-agency project linking archaeologists, fire scientists, and ecological modelers to build cultural resource risk models to evaluate dangerous fuel conditions, effective interventions, and pre-/post-fire monitoring strategies using fire behavior models, fuel characterization, and archaeological material science. Project includes modeling and data collection during prescribed fire/wildfire incidents.

Link to ArcBurn project page

The Central Cascades Alpine Land-use and Fire History Project

Partnership with the USDA Forest Service in Central Washington to evaluate the spatial distribution and chronology of high elevation land-use, including the artifactual and paleoecological evidence for anthropogenic burning practices in the alpine/subalpine zone to rejuvenate berry harvesting patches and maintain meadow openness.

Link to Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

Download poster presented at 2020 Society for American Archaeology meetings

Francis Marion National Forest Tar Kiln Project

USFS collaboration using advanced geospatial modeling and computer vision techniques to identify archaeological tar kiln production sites for management of both cultural (archaeological features) and ecological (historical longleaf pine stands) resources.

Link to Francis Marion National Forest

Link to International Paleofire Network seminar outlining this project (Part 1) (Part 2)

Emergence and Evolution of a Colonial Economy Project

Interdisciplinary project examining the origins and evolution of the cattle industry within the South Carolina coastal plain and how it relates to economically motivated social and environmental change.

Link to Francis Marion National Forest

Link to Facebook Live video describing the paleofire and environmental reconstruction for this project

Previous Projects

Landscape, Encounters, and Identity (LEIA) Project

Interdisciplinary project and field school (University of Washington and Universitat de les Illes Balears) examining landscape transformation and cultural change in pre- and proto-historic Mallorca, Spain.

Link to LEIA project webiste

Wildfire probability mapping based on regional soil moisture models

Modeling and mapping soil moisture across the western US to predict changing in wildfire occurrence and risk. Collaboration between the USGS and USDA SW Climate Hub.

Link to CASC project website

Anthropogenic Fire and the Origins of Agricultural Landscapes Project

NSF-funded archaeology and paleoecology project to explore the process of niche-construction and anthropogenic fire during the transition to agro-pastoral subsistence in eastern Spain.

Link to NSF project website

The Emergence of Coupled Natural and Human Landscapes in the Western Mediterranean (MedLanD) Project

NSF-funded project evaluating the emergence of coupled social-ecological systems on landscape dynamics through modeled and empirical archaeological and paleoecological data from eastern Spain.

Link to MedLanD project website

Link to MedLanD modeling laboratory in CoMSES / OpenABM

Long-Term Vulnerabilities and Transformations Project (LTVTP)

Modeling long-term social and ecological resilience of prehispanic (AD 900-1540) societies in the Greater U.S. Southwest using soil, climate, and archaeological data.

Link to webinar outlining this project, hosted by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center

Link to tDAR archive of project publications and datasets

Prehistoric Fire Project at Chavez Pass, AZ

Developing and testing GIS models of charcoal dispersion and deposition as related to prehistoric fire regimes on the Colorado Plateau.

Link to Coconino National Forest