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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden

@pyrogeog.bsky.social
5.9K followers 85 following 142 posts

Pyrogeographer. I study wildfire in the era of anthropogenic climate change. Former wildland firefighter. Opinions are my own. *she/her* 🔥🔥🔥

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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Sharing our new open-access paper in J. Pyrogeography on the 2024 Las Tablas Fire near Valparaiso, Chile that killed >135 people. It was the deadliest wildfire globally since the 2008-2009 Black Saturday Fires in Australia. We ask: what made it so deadly? doi.org/10.1016/j.py...
doi.org
Redirecting
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I often note that CA seismic codes are required everywhere, even far from fault lines, and argue we should do the same for wildfire. Even though this was only a small shake here in Fresno, I felt it 175 miles away. Hazards travel and have far-reaching effects!
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
As a fire scientist, I am devastated for my many good friends and colleagues who will be affected by the mass closure of so many research stations and offices. Many will leave the agency. USFS has pioneered so much foundational fire science. The consequences of this will be catastrophic.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
The presser was to confuse everyone and bury the announcement about dismantling the US Forest Service. "the Forest Service will begin transitioning to a state-based organizational model..." HQ in Utah. The state that sued for state control over Public Lands. www.usda.gov/about-usda/n...
usda.gov
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
When I was in my 20s and spent thousands of hours driving all over the country, I had ample time to listen to a LOT of music. Todd Snider was a poet of a songwriter whose lyrics and rambling stories between songs made the miles go by quickly. One of my favorites. RIP.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Published today: our new paper showing a 44-year trend of increasing global wildfire disasters (fatalities and economic losses) due to climate change-induced extreme weather. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires
Climate change and land mismanagement are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments. However, despite worsening fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in socially ...
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
We have a 5.9kW solar system for 2,700 sq ft house in HOT 🥵 Fresno, CA. We charge a plug-in hybrid daily. Current house: $24/yr for electricity (PG&E) Old house (no solar): >$6,000/yr Our $20K system is paid for in ~3 yrs. Solar is a scientific miracle. www.motherjones.com/environment/...
motherjones.com
Trump is trying to kill solar power—here's how to fight back
Rooftop solar is a clean power miracle. Why are we killing it with red tape?
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
It's 2025, and it's still climate change driving major forest loss through wildfires. With insights from @climate-guy.bsky.social and @calxcunningham.bsky.social @ucmerced.bsky.social @utas.edu.au www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/c...
nytimes.com
Climate Change Is Making Fire Weather Worse for World’s Forests
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
I've been calling myself a pyrogeographer for over two decades, and now we have a journal just for us, led by the fantastic @mattwjones.bsky.social (full disclosure: I sit on the editorial board). We warmly invite you to submit to #Pyrogeography today! www.sciencedirect.com/journal/jour...
sciencedirect.com
Journal of Pyrogeography | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Read the latest articles of Journal of Pyrogeography at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Marco Turco @marco-turco.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Happy to share our new paper: we show that human-caused climate change is raising the odds of extreme climate-driven fire years across forested regions of the globe @climate-guy.bsky.social @pyrogeog.bsky.social rdcu.be/evJkX #ClimateChange #Wildfires
rdcu.be
Climate change has increased the odds of extreme regional forest fire years globally
Nature Communications - The authors show that extreme fire years in global forests align with rare fire weather extremes. Climate change has made such extremes 88-152% more probable. These findings...
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Also, if you're not following @mattwjones.bsky.social please give him a follow. He's the Editor-In-Chief of the new journal Pyrogeography!
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
More amazing teamwork led by the fantastic @mattwjones.bsky.social to develop a global database of prescribed fire.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
My theory: some DOGE minion Googled "Hatch Act" and saw the 1939 law preventing political actions by govt employees and said "Let's cut it!" Not realizing, of course, that the 1887 Hatch Act funds agricultural research at Land Grant schools that directly benefits farmers.🙄
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Spent a delightful week in Vienna last month for EGU. What a model for people (not car)-oriented living! 1) Huge car-free areas in the historic city center 2) Amazing public transit system (my 10-yr olds LOVED the subway) 3) Phenomenal bike paths Rating: 14/10 - I would live there! #waroncars
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Kylie Mohr @thatsmohrlikeit.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
feels like a good day to re-up this reporting. “Every single state in the US where we have vegetation, and particularly where we have vegetation intermixing with communities, we have the potential for extreme fire disasters,” @pyrogeog.bsky.social www.vox.com/climate/2386...
vox.com
Wildfires are coming... for New Jersey?
Climate change is expanding the list of areas at risk for the worst wildfires.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
TOMORROW! There's still time to register: 1pm - Introductions and talk by John Mills of @watchduty.org 2pm - A look ahead at the 2025 Fire Season in CA with @climate-guy.bsky.social 2:15pm - Mitigating smoke with Dr. Sandie Ha 2:30pm - Q&A with all speakers MEDIA is welcome. Please join us!
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Climate change continued to have unpredictable impacts on wildfire in 2024. Unexpected shifts, like the Americas producing 40% of C emissions (normally it's <25%), and anomalous events, like the fatal Feb '24 Chile fire or the Pantanal wetlands burning, occur more often.
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment @natrevearthenviron.nature.com · 11/04/2025
Kolden et al. document 2024 wildfires, finding: - 367 Mha burned - Burned area decreased 5.4% from 2023 - Fires released an estimate 1965 Tg C www.nature.com/articles/s43... (rdcu.be/ehnTP) @pyrogeog.bsky.social @climate-guy.bsky.social @mattwjones.bsky.social @ueaenv.bsky.social [6/n]
nature.com
Wildfires in 2024 - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
Wildfire burned area was 367 Mha in 2024, ranked 17th since 2001. An estimated 1,965 Tg C was released from these fires, 41% of which came from the Americas, far exceeding their usual 25% contribution...
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
On 4/17 @ucmerced.bsky.social Fire Resilience Center will host John Mills, CEO and co-founder of @watchduty.org AND have discussion with @climate-guy.bsky.social and Dr. Sandie Ha on: 1) The upcoming fire season in CA 2) How you can prepare, esp. for smoke We're streaming it online - join us!
Flyer header that shows a photo of John Mills and states the date and time as April 17, 2025 from 1-3 pm for the 2025 Wildfire outlook.QR code to register for the zoom seminar and get full schedule.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
This is your regular reminder that ALL buildings in California must build to seismic codes, but only those in CALFIRE's designated high hazard areas must build to WUI fire codes. Why the discrepancy? Who the hell knows...but it means the cycle of rebuild and burn again will continue.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Ed Abbey words to live by: “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” “Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.” “Anarchism is democracy taken seriously.”
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Worried about wildfires this year? You should be. Preparedness is the absolutely most effective way to mitigate disasters, and the firing of thousands of employees and hiring freeze means that there is almost no one to prepare. WHEN wildfires start (not if), suppression will be a mess.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
"Training is preparation for the known; education is preparation for the unknown." Just remember that we train AI, but we educate humans.
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Out today in @globalchangebio.bsky.social is our (brief!) rapid-response piece on the broader context surrounding the January 2025 Southern California wildfires & relevance of wet-to-dry hydroclimate whiplash to fire both locally and globally on a warming Earth. [1/8] onlinelibrary.wiley....
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Wanted to reshare the webinar event associated with this white paper release. You can watch the event here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkAP... All of the messages discussed by me and the panelists require greater focus after what we have just experienced.
youtube.com
A New Strategy for Addressing the Wildfire Epidemic in California | Webinar
YouTube video by Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
🔥 Fire peeps... @wildland-zko.bsky.social joined us. Give him a follow.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
I am shocked* that the Trillion Trees guy ends up being a problem dude. They won't comment, but anyone with that kind of funding record doesn't get let go without doing something VERY, VERY BAD. *Note: I am not shocked at all
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
CAL FIRE @calfire.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Access damage info directly from the incident pages: #PalisadesFire details | www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/20... #EatonFire details | www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/20... We’re here to support you on the road to recovery. Stay safe and informed!
fire.ca.gov
Palisades Fire | CAL FIRE
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
In Sept 2020, in the wake of a record CA fire season, I wrote an opinion piece for @nature.com about the need to focus on the human metrics of fire, not the acres burned. The #LAFires underscore that our obsession with size fails to convey the scope of the impacts. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41....
nature.com
Wildfires: count lives and homes, not hectares burnt
Smarter ways to assess fires will bring better methods of preventing damage.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
An important facet of the fire building code discussion is that it only applies to areas that CALFIRE deems high fire hazard; it's not blanket. Many urban homes burned in recent years were't included. For seismic codes, every house in the state must comply no matter how far from a fault line.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
The @calfire.bsky.social DINS program is the best post-fire data collection program in the world. I wish every state would adopt this, we would learn so much more. Structure losses (so far) for #PalisadesFire: recovery.lacounty.gov/palisades-fi... For #EatonFire: recovery.lacounty.gov/eaton-fire/
recovery.lacounty.gov
Palisades Fire – LA County RecoversAccessibility ToolsIncrease TextDecrease TextGrayscaleHigh ContrastNegative ContrastLight BackgroundLinks UnderlineReadable FontReset
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
To journalists who contact me last week and I wasn't able to respond...my sincere apologies. I lost my voice the week of the worst wildfire disaster ever in LA (didn't have that on my 2025 bingo card!). Many thanks to those of you asking the questions that help us become more resilient.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Appreciate the opportunity to chat w/ @nytimes.com about how we can build smarter (and to code!!) after these wildfires. Suspending wildfire building codes only kicks the can down the road and invites another disaster. Hardened homes and defensible space for the win. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
How L.A.'s Housing Development Plays a Role in Wildfire Risk
Fierce winds and months of drought set the conditions for the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles, but the growth of housing in fire-prone areas also played a major role.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Appreciate @marketplace.org having me on to talk about how we can live with wildfires. www.marketplace.org/shows/make-m...
marketplace.org
How to live with wildfires - Marketplace
A former wildland firefighter explains why fires don't have to become disasters.
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
People die in car crashes. A lot of people. In 2022 in the US, about 46,000. But if we had not made the safety improvements in cars that we have over the past half century - and had the same death rate as a result, 153,000 people would have died.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
For the thousands of people asking "How do we fix this #wildfire problem?", @michaelwara.bsky.social wrote an excellent white paper 3 years ago that neatly lays out the basics of the multipronged approach. It still holds. @stanfordwoods.bsky.social hosted a discussion panel as well.
woodsinstitute.stanford.edu
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Globally, we published a summary paper in 2022 that looks at fire and climate change globally, led by Matt Jones at UEA. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Global and Regional Trends and Drivers of Fire Under Climate Change
The frequency and severity of fire weather has increased in recent decades and is projected to escalate with each added increment of warming Fire weather is one of the major controls on fire acti...
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
CIRES @cires.colorado.edu · 10/01/2025
After a wildfire is contained, smoke can linger in homes for months. Learn ways you can protect yourself after wildfires — from @cugeography.bsky.social's Colleen Reid ⬇️
buff.ly
Wildfire smoke inside homes can create health risks that linger for months − tips for cleaning and staying safe
The chemicals emitted when buildings and vehicles burn can find their way into nearby homes. Studies show the health risks can stick around.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Many questions about whether people can/should live in Malibu. For answers, look at Pepperdine Univ. They safely sheltered-in-place just last month (Franklin Fire) and in 2018 (Woolsey Fire) thanks to excellent planning and fuel management. A model for getting it right. la.curbed.com/2018/11/20/1...
la.curbed.com
Why Pepperdine stays put when wildfires rage
While the rest of Malibu evacuates, the college hunkers down.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
I often use Watch Duty as an example of truly needed tech solutions for wildfire. Drones and AI are never going to prevent wildfires or put them out. But communications before, during, and after fire is a massive gap that tech can absolutely help solve.
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Cannot stop thinking about how Octavia Butler wrote a book in 1993 about climate change. It opens with deadly fires in LA in 2025. In the story, a fascist President has just won office with the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." She was a modern day Nostradamus. If only we'd listened.
The cover of the book Parable of the Sower.
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 09/01/2025
Did a little story about the wildfires. gift link (I'm off today but it published today)
bloomberg.com
More People Are Living in the Riskiest Wildfire Zones
The Palisades and Eaton Fires in Los Angeles show the dangers of living in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Here's the reality about the #LAFires this week: this isn't the first time ANY of these places have burned. Not even close. In 2018, we mapped CA fire history to look at fire frequency across SoCal. Santa Monica Mtns area burns more than anywhere else -- up to once per decade in a given spot. 🧵
Map showing the number of times a location has burned in SoCal and which kind of fire it was: one burning under Santa Ana winds, or one that was a summer, fuel-driven fire without Santa Ana winds. Malibu area had burned at least 8 times from 1900-2017, and has burned twice now since. Image from Kolden and Abatzoglou (2018): https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/1/2/19
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Lizz Porter @lizzporter.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
SoCal friends, I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this. A few things I wish I’d known as we evacuated ahead of a wildfire (that took our home in 2021) 🧵
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Marty Walters @martywalters.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
It's so hard to know where to start when you've lost your home in a wildfire. If I had to pick the #1 thing I would advise you go secure a rental unit right this very moment. Get online and get applications submitted to property managers tonight. The housing shortage will be madness. #CAfire
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
More advice from those who have survived recent CA wildfires and what they learned. Please share with those who need it. #LAFires
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
We've been studying wildfire recovery for the last 4 years. It's a horrible mess. Many survivors think the worst is over when the fire ends, but then comes paperwork, weird federal rules, scams, etc. Some never rebuild or lose everything. Follow guidance from those who have been there, done that.
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Dr. Crystal A. Kolden @pyrogeog.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
I've seen a few posts asking what those who have lost everything in #LAFires can do now. Strongly recommend looking at resources from @afterthefireusa.bsky.social on their website. Started by Tubbs Fire survivors. They've been through it, follow their advice. afterthefireusa.org
afterthefireusa.org
Home
We Help Communities Navigate Megafires 2024 SUMMIT The 2024 Wildfire Leadership Summit recordings are now live! Stay tuned for 2025 Summit information. We support communities as they RECOVER from wild...
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Reposted by Dr. Crystal A. Kolden
Faith Kearns, Ph.D. @fkearns.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Just a reminder that I put together a wildfire expert starter pack (with heavy California representation). Happy to also connect journalists and others with folks specializing in specific topics.
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