Virtually gather with us on Thursday, August 5th 2021 at 6:30 PM.

Our meeting will feature Aaron Groth, who works with OSU Extension Services as the Regional Fire Specialist for the coast. He will be joined by Debbie Pickering, the Oregon Coast Ecologist from The Nature Conservancy, to discuss local fire management practices.

Prescribed fire serves land managers as an essential tool. This talk will cover the use of prescribed fire on the Oregon Coast, with special attention to The Nature Conservancy's Cascade Head Preserve. It will also provide an overview of ecological objectives and goals for using prescribed fire. Prescribed fire’s use at Cascade Head and other sites must be differentiated from catastrophic wildfire, such as the Echo Mountain Fire Complex (September 2020).

In addition to his work at OSU Extension services, Aaron is completing a Ph.D. degree program from University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Geography and the Environment in Geography, focused on landscape ecology and management, forest conservation, biogeography, and integrated watershed studies. Aaron is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, where he worked in the areas of agroforestry and reforestation in the Andes Mountains of Peru during 2006 – 2008. Aaron holds a B.A. degree in History and International Studies from the University of Wisconsin and an M.A. in Geography from the University of Missouri. Aaron also holds graduate certificates in Conservation Biology and Geographic Information Science.