Experts emphasize need for Interior Alaska wildfire mitigation

Burned boreal forest trees

photo by Brendan Rogers

Experts emphasize need for Interior Alaska wildfire mitigation

Burned boreal forest trees

Earlier this summer, Interior Alaska wildfires were so widespread, Fairbanks resident Nettie La Belle-Hamer had to prepare a go-box in case the flames encroached too closely on her home.

La Belle-Hamer, deputy director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, brought that firsthand experience along with plenty of scientific knowledge to this year’s Arctic Encounter Symposium, an annual conference focused on the region.

La Belle-Hamer was joined by four other panelists — three of whom live in the Interior — to discuss methods to address wildfires in the Arctic, as well as strategies to implement fire mitigation in the Arctic to protect permafrost melt.

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