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In the fourth episode of our series sponsored by Protect our Winters, we spoke with self-proclaimed snow nerd Andrew Schwartz about his work as the lead scientist at the the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, where he explores all sorts of snowpack-related science but also how wildfires are impacting that snowpack. From less canopy to protect the snow from the sun to ash on the snow attracting more solar energy, Andrew talks us through all the ways that our snowpack and glaciers will continue to be impacted by wildfires that are increasing in size and creeping further into the alpine.&nbsp;



To see more of what Andrew&#8217;s doing, give&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/snow_d0c?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">him</a>&nbsp;and<a href="https://twitter.com/UCB_CSSL">&nbsp;the Snow Lab</a>&nbsp;a follow on Twitter.&nbsp;



Learn more about Protect our Winters and their Stoke the Vote campaign at their&nbsp;<a href="https://protectourwinters.org/stoke-the-vote/">website</a>.&nbsp;



Support Life with Fire by donating to our&nbsp;<a href="https://lifewithfire.simplecast.com/episodes/www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod">Patreon!&nbsp;</a>We&#8217;ll send you some swag for your troubles, and really appreciate the support.&nbsp;



Music featured in POW Ad: The Times They Are A Changin&#8217; by Goth Babe.&nbsp;

How Do Wildfires Impact Snowpack? With Andrew Schwartz

Today we&#8217;re talking trails! What do trails have to do with wildfire, you ask? Well, ask any trail builder that question and they&#8217;ll tell you that they&#8217;re kind of a pain to rebuild (and cut out) after wildfires. Today&#8217;s guest Dillon Osleger is a trail builder, an environmental advocate, scientist and Executive Director of the Sage Trail Alliance, and also works with Protect Our Winters as both a creative and an athlete. He&#8217;s done a fair bit of both trail building and trail rehab in the aftermath of wildfires, and has some great perspectives on how folks who like to use trails can become more engaged in keeping those trails looking good both before and after wildfire impacts.&nbsp;



To see what Dillon&#8217;s been up to, check out his&nbsp;<a href="https://dillonosleger.com/">website</a>&nbsp;as well as a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q056hYXdtdM">film</a>&nbsp;he worked on about the impacts of drought, beetle kill and wildfire on trails in southwest Colorado.&nbsp;



To learn more about Protect our Winters, the sponsor of our wildfire and recreation series, and their Stoke the Vote campaign, check out their&nbsp;<a href="https://protectourwinters.org/stoke-the-vote/">website</a>.&nbsp;



Music featured in the POW ad by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gothbabemusic.com/">Goth Babe</a>.&nbsp;



To support Life with Fire, check out our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod">Patreon</a>.

Building Trails in Burn Areas, with Dillon Osleger

Welcome to the first episode of our four-part series discussing the impacts of wildfire on recreation, sponsored by Protect Our Winters! For this episode, Jamie Ervin of the Outdoor Alliance walked us through the myriad ways that wildfires create barriers to recreation access and enjoying the outdoors. From air quality impacts to forest closures, Jamie talks about what recreationists can continue to expect from worsening wildfire seasons, while also talking about why it&#8217;s important to remember fire&#8217;s place in many of the landscapes we all love to recreate in. Jamie has a background in wildfire policy and currently works as a policy associate for the Outdoor Alliance—making him a perfect guest guide us through the growing relevance of how wildfires will continue to impact recreation and public lands access, as well as what we can do about it.&nbsp;



Protect our Winters is a climate advocacy organization that engages the outdoor community in on-the-ground and legislative climate action. We encourage you to check out their&nbsp;<a href="https://lifewithfire.simplecast.com/episodes/www.stokethevote.com">website</a>, where you can pledge to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, learn more about what they do as well as how to support them.&nbsp;



You can learn more about the Outdoor Alliance&nbsp;<a href="https://www.outdooralliance.org/">here</a>.



If you&#8217;re feeling extra benevolent today, consider becoming a Patron and donating to the Life with Fire Patreon:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod">https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod</a>



Music from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gothbabemusic.com/">Goth Babe</a>.

How Wildfires Are Impacting Outdoor Recreation, with Jamie Ervin

Have you seen that C̶o̶l̶l̶e̶g̶e̶ Hotshot shirt from Hotshot Brewery (you can look at it&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hotshotbrewing.com/products/college-hotshot">here</a>&nbsp;if you&#8217;re unfamiliar)? This episode&#8217;s guest Harrison Raine walks us through doing both of those things at once—and shares why he thinks more firefighters should pursue fire-adjacent degrees and careers that can make use of that invaluable, on-the-ground fire experience.&nbsp;



During his undergrad, Harrison scored a fellowship that allowed him to travel the world to explore fire management practices in places like South Africa, Greece and Australia, among others. The result of that work (which can be found&nbsp;<a href="https://www.harrisonraine.com/">here</a>) provided a profound framework for his continued work in academia, which has largely been funded by his work as a wildland firefighter through the summers.&nbsp;



Harrison encourages firefighters to lean in to the unique experiences they&#8217;ve had if they leave fire, especially as so many agencies, organizations and businesses are trying to find solutions in the wildfire space. We also spoke about his fellowship experiences, as well as what he is researching as a grad student at UC Berkeley, working primarily in the wildland urban interface realm.&nbsp;



A few things that Harrison mentioned that we wanted to link to:&nbsp;



<a href="http://mountainlegacy.ca/project/lookouts/">The Mountain Legacy Project</a>



<a href="https://www.paucostafoundation.org/en/">The Pau Costa Foundation</a>



As always, we owe a massive thanks to MYSTERY RANCH for sponsoring this episode of Life with Fire, as well as a number of previous episodes. MYSTERY RANCH is proud to be the first pack company to provide women’s specific harnessing in their HOTSHOT Line as well as their HOT SPEED pack in our engine/IA category. To see their entire line of fire packs—including their women&#8217;s packs and packs for international firefighters who don&#8217;t use fire shelters—check out their website&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mysteryranch.com/Packs/Fire">here</a>.&nbsp;



Finally, if you&#8217;d like to support Life with Fire with a monthly donation, please check out our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod">Patreon</a>&nbsp;for tier options—Patrons who donate at the $7 tier and above will get some Life with Fire and Mystery Ranch swag!&nbsp;

Hotshot Crew to Grad School, with Harrison Raine

Listen—we know that prescribed fire liability insurance is a big, scary topic. But we encourage you to check out this episode, because while liability insurance is one of the bigger challenges in getting more &#8220;good fire&#8221; on the ground, it&#8217;s also one of the least understood and more infrequently talked about challenges, likely because it is such a complex topic. With that in mind, learning more about those challenges and how people are working to solve them is critical to having a full understanding of prescribed fire and its usage (or lack thereof).



Thankfully, our guest this week—Daniel Godwin of the&nbsp;<a href="https://emberalliance.org/">Ember Alliance</a>—agreed to guide us on this journey into all the behind-the-scenes liability and insurance business that needs to happen before any driptorches are lit. Daniel—who is the director of programs and partnerships at the Ember Alliance in Colorado—brings an obvious passion and long-honed wit to how he talks about wildfire, and our conversation covered the gamut from how these policies affect our current fire reality, why they&#8217;re impacting prescribed fire initiatives and what is being done to make it better.



If you&#8217;re more the reading type, Daniel just published a piece over on the Ember Alliance&#8217;s blog about this same topic. You can check it out&nbsp;<a href="https://emberalliance.org/2022/06/28/prescribed-fire-liability-insurance-unavailable-unaffordable-and-vital/">here</a>.&nbsp;

Underdiscussed, Poorly Understood: Prescribed Fire Liability Insurance with Daniel Godwin

Life with Fire Podcast

Life with Fire Podcast

Episodes

Ep. 40—How Do Wildfires Impact Snowpack? With Andrew Schwartz

Ep. 38—Building Trails in Burn Areas, with Dillon Osleger

Ep. 37—How Wildfires Are Impacting Outdoor Recreation, with Jamie Ervin

Ep. 36—Hotshot Crew to Grad School, with Harrison Raine

Ep. 35—Underdiscussed, Poorly Understood: Prescribed Fire Liability Insurance with Daniel Godwin

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