As wildfires raged across the Western U.S. this summer, members of Scott Fendorf’s research group drove ahead of the flames in Oregon and Idaho with portable pumps to sample particles in the air for analysis.
As wildfires raged across the Western U.S. this summer, members of Scott Fendorf’s research group drove ahead of the flames in Oregon and Idaho with portable pumps to sample particles in the air for analysis.
For Fendorf and his team, the rising frequency of wildfires represents both a danger and an opportunity. “We now take advantage of the large number of wildfires that are occurring,” said Fendorf, the Terry Huffington Professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “When a wildfire comes up, we deploy to the closest place that we can get to, then work backwards from where smoke is coming up and collect particles in the air.”
Fendorf’s team has discovered that wildfires alter metals within soils that impact air pollution, water quality, and potentially plant growth. Their research seeks to inform fire management strategies and help people understand exposure risks during and post-fire.
Read more at: Stanford University
An area startup piloted its BurnBot machine at the Stanford Dish to create fire fuel breaks in one of Stanford’s grasslands. (Photo Credit: Harry Gregory)
