After the Wildfires: Mitigating Climate Change and Adapting to the New Normal

Jim Fox, Director of UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center, and Josh Kelly, Public Lands Field Biologist at MountainTrue, will discuss how climate change is impacting Western North Carolina at the Climate Collider on Monday, December 19 at 4 p.m..

In the wake of a historic wildfire season that has burned more than 150,000 acres throughout the Southeast, forced residents from their homes and cost the lives of 14 people in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the two speakers will address how climate change is affecting our region as well as strategies for mitigation and better management of our forests to reduce the threat of wildfires to human development. After their presentations, speakers will take questions from the crowd.

What: After the Wildfires: Mitigating Climate Change and Adapting to the New Normal
Who: Jim Fox, Director of UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center, and Josh Kelly, Public Lands Field Biologist at MountainTrue.
Where: Collider 1 Haywood St., Suite 401 (4th Floor Wells Fargo Building) Asheville, NC
When: Monday, December 19 at 4 p.m. to 6 p.m..
RSVP TO ATTEND: http://action.mountaintrue.org/page/s/after-the-fires

About Jim Fox
James (Jim) Fox is the Director for UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC). In that position, he serves as the team leader and principal investigator for several major collaborations, including the USDA Forest Service’s Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC), NOAA’s Climate Program Office and National Centers for Environmental Information, the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies, and state, county, municipal, and regional governments in the southeastern United States. NEMAC uses visualizations, geographic information systems (GIS), web tools, and decision support tools to address key societal resilience issues that include climate change adaptation, forest health, flood mitigation, water resources, and future land use planning.

About Josh Kelly
Josh Kelly is MountainTrue’s Public Lands Field Biologist. He leads the organization’s work on the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest Management Plan Revision, monitors logging and development issues on public land, and provides site-specific, scientific information to promote ecological restoration and better management practices. Prior to joining MountainTrue, Josh worked for the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, where he focused on identifying remnant old-growth forests on public land, and at WildLaw, where he worked to promote ecological restoration as the new paradigm of National Forest management. Josh has helped the Forest Service conduct rare plant surveys, save hemlocks from hemlock woolly adelgid, and design restoration projects, including the Grandfather Restoration Project.