Dave E. Calkin, PhD

Former Employee

Research Forester

Rocky Mountain Research Station

Publications & Products
Related
Education

Treesearch Publications

Dung Nguyen, Erin J. Belval, Yu Wei, Dave E. Calkin. 2026. A historical analysis of factors driving the daily prioritization of wildland fires in California
Alexander Arkowitz, Scott Ritter, Matthew P. Thompson, Jesse D. Young, Bradley Pietruszka, Dave E. Calkin. 2025. Quality assured spatial dataset of wildfire containment firelines and engagement outcomes 2017 to 2024
Dung Nguyen, Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Jesse D. Young, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christopher J. Dunn, Dave E. Calkin. 2025. Optimizing fuel break management for core habitat protection against wildfires in the northern Great Basin
Dung Nguyen, Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, Benjamin M. Gannon, Jesse D. Young, Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin. 2024. An optimization model to prioritize fuel treatments within a landscape fuel break network
Jesse D. Young, Erin J. Belval, Benjamin Gannon, Yu Wei, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christopher Dunn, Bradley Pietruszka, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2024. The cost of operational complexity: A causal assessment of pre-fire mitigation and wildfire suppression
Shayne Magstadt, Yu Wei, Bradley Pietruszka, Dave E. Calkin. 2024. A deep learning approach for predicting aerial suppressant drops in wildland firefighting using automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast data
Sara H. Brown, Dave E. Calkin, Nehalem C. Clark, Natalie A. Cooper, Greg Dillon, Mark A. Finney, Signe Leirfallom, Christopher D. O'Connor, Tonja Opperman. 2024. Wildfire risk 101
Kimiko Barrett, Dave E. Calkin, Jack D. Cohen, Mark A. Finney, Stephen Pyne, Stephen Quarles. 2024. Redefining the urban wildfire problem in the West
Bradley Pietruszka, Dave E. Calkin, Matt Thompson, Stephen Fillmore. 2024. Rethinking strategy in wildfire response
Dung Nguyen, Erin J. Belval, Yu Wei, Karen C. Short, Dave E. Calkin. 2024. Dataset of United States Incident Management Situation Reports from 2007 to 2021
Dave E. Calkin, Kimiko Barrett, Jack D. Cohen, Mark A. Finney, Stephen J. Pyne, Stephen L. Quarles. 2023. Wildland-urban fire disasters aren’t actually a wildfire problem
Bradley Pietruszka, Jesse D. Young, Karen C. Short, Lise A. St. Denis, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin. 2023. Consequential lightning‑caused wildfires and the “let burn” narrative
Benjamin Gannon, Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Jesse D. Young, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin, Christopher Dunn. 2023. A quantitative analysis of fuel break effectiveness drivers in Southern California National Forests
Yu Wei, Benjamin Gannon, Jesse D. Young, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin. 2023. Estimating WUI exposure probability to a nearby wildfire
Alexis Neukirch, Dave E. Calkin, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher Dunn, Michael Caggiano. 2023. Embracing PODs: Advancing wildfire response planning
Matthew P. Thompson, Erin J. Belval, Jude Bayham, Dave E. Calkin, Crystal S. Stonesifer, David Flores. 2023. Wildfire response: A system on the brink?
Erin J. Belval, Sarah McCaffrey, Trevor Finney, Dave E. Calkin, Shane Greer. 2023. The impact of COVID-19 prevention measures on interagency hotshot crews in 2020
Josh McDaniel, Dave E. Calkin, Justin S. Crotteau, Mark A. Finney, Sam Larkin, Michael Johnston, Serra J. Hoagland, Dylan Johnson, Sarah McCaffrey, John R. Squires, Shawn P. Urbanski. 2022. Getting more fire on the ground: Landscape-scale prescribed burning supported by science
Jude Bayham, Jonathan K. Yoder, Patricia A. Champ, Dave E. Calkin. 2022. The economics of wildfire in the United States
Nicholas McCarthy, Dave E. Calkin. 2022. Understanding limits: Wildland fire response and pandemic interactions in 2020
Matthew P. Thompson, Donald G. MacGregor, Dave E. Calkin, Joel O. Iverson. 2022. Wildfire, COVID-19, and enterprise risk management in the Forest Service
Erin J. Belval, Karen C. Short, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin. 2022. A historical perspective to inform strategic planning for 2020 end-of-year wildland fire response efforts
Dave E. Calkin, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew P. Thompson, Richard Stratton. 2021. Strategic wildfire response decision support and the risk management assistance program
Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson, Erin J. Belval. 2021. Is this flight necessary? The Aviation Use Summary (AUS): A framework for strategic, risk-informed aviation decision support
Sven Wunder, Dave E. Calkin, Val Charlton, Sarah Feder, Inazio Martínez de Arano, Peter Moore, Francisco Rodríguez Silva, Luca Tacconi, Cristina Vega-García. 2021. Resilient landscapes to prevent catastrophic forest fires: Socioeconomic insights towards a new paradigm
Yu Wei, Matthew P. Thompson, Erin J. Belval, Dave E. Calkin, Jude Bayham. 2020. Understand daily fire suppression resource ordering and assignment patterns by unsupervised learning
Adrian Cardil, Sergio de-Miguel, Carlos A. Silva, Peter B. Reich, Dave E. Calkin, Pedro H. S. Brancalion, Alexander C. Vibrans, Javier G. P. Gamarra, M. Zhou, Bryan C. Pijanowski, Cang Hui, Thomas W. Crowther, Bruno Herault, Daniel Piotto, Christian Salas-Eljatib, Eben North Broadbent, Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Nicolas Picard, Luiz E. O. C. Aragao, Jean-Francois Bastin, Devin Routh, Johan van den Hoogen, Pablo L. Peri, Jingjing Liang. 2020. Recent deforestation drove the spike in Amazonian forests
Jude Bayham, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher Dunn, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin. 2020. Weather, risk, and resource orders on large wildland fires in the western US
Erin J. Belval, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin. 2020. Fire suppression resource scarcity: Current metrics and future performance indicators
Yu Wei, Matthew P. Thompson, Erin J. Belval, Benjamin Gannon, Dave E. Calkin, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2020. Comparing contingency fire containment strategies using simulated random scenarios
Christopher J. Dunn, Christopher D. O'Connor, Jesse Abrams, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, James D. Johnston, Rick Stratton, Julie Gilbertson-Day. 2020. Wildfire risk science facilitates adaptation of fire-prone social-ecological systems to the new fire reality
Francisco Rodriguez y Silva, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew P. Thompson, Juan Ramon Molina Martinez, Dave E. Calkin. 2020. Modelling suppression difficulty: Current and future applications
Alex T. Masarie, Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, Iuliana Oprea, Maryam Tabatabaei, Dave E. Calkin. 2019. Valuating fire suppression risk data
Dave E. Calkin, Owen Price, Michele Salis. 2019. WUI risk assessment at the landscape level
Dave E. Calkin, Karen C. Short, Meg Traci. 2019. California wildfires [Chapter 7]
Matthew P. Thompson, Yu Wei, Dave E. Calkin, Christopher D. O'Connor, Christopher Dunn, Nathaniel Anderson, John S. Hogland. 2019. Risk management and analytics in wildfire response
Christopher J. Dunn, Christopher D. O'Connor, Matthew Reilly, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2019. Spatial and temporal assessment of responder exposure to snag hazards in post-fire environments
Karin Riley, A. Park Williams, Shawn P. Urbanski, Dave E. Calkin, Karen C. Short, Christopher D. O'Connor. 2019. Will landscape fire increase in the future? A systems approach to climate, fire, fuel, and human drivers
Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin. 2019. Engaging the fire before it starts: A case study from the 2017 Pinal Fire (Arizona)
Hari Katuwal, Michael Hand, Matthew P. Thompson, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin. 2018. Predict and attack (or don’t): An econometric approach to large wildfire early detection and suppression effectiveness
Erin J. Belval, Dave E. Calkin, Yu Wei, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Matthew P. Thompson, Alex Masarie. 2018. Examining dispatching practices for Interagency Hotshot Crews to reduce seasonal travel distance and manage fatigue
Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher J. Lauer, Dave E. Calkin, Jon Rieck, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Michael Hand. 2018. Wildfire response performance measurement: Current and future directions
Matthew P. Thompson, Donald G. MacGregor, Christopher J. Dunn, Dave E. Calkin, John Phipps. 2018. Rethinking the wildland fire management system
Christopher J. Dunn, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin. 2017. A framework for developing safe and effective large-fire response in a new fire management paradigm
Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher J. Dunn, Dave E. Calkin. 2017. Systems thinking and wildland fire management
Erin J. Belval, Yu Wei, Dave E. Calkin, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Matthew P. Thompson, John R. Tipton. 2017. Studying interregional wildland fire engine assignments for large fire suppression
Christopher J. Dunn, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2017. Towards enhanced risk management: Planning, decision making and monitoring of US wildfire response
Michael Hand, Hari Katuwal, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2017. The influence of incident management teams on the deployment of wildfire suppression resources
Hari Katuwal, Christopher J. Dunn, Dave E. Calkin. 2017. Characterising resource use and potential inefficiencies during large-fire suppression in the western US
Christopher D. O'Connor, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2017. An empirical machine learning method for predicting potential fire control locations for pre-fire planning and operational fire management
Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin, Michael Hand. 2017. Federal fire managers' perceptions of the importance, scarcity and substitutability of suppression resources
Matthew P. Thompson, Francisco Rodriguez y Silva, Dave E. Calkin, Michael Hand. 2017. A review of challenges to determining and demonstrating efficiency of large fire management
Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, Crystal S. Stonesifer. 2016. A simulation and optimisation procedure to model daily suppression resource transfers during a fire season in Colorado
Haiganoush K. Preisler, Karin Riley, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin, W. Matt Jolly. 2016. Near-term probabilistic forecast of significant wildfire events for the Western United States
Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Linda E. Kruger, Karen Abt, Michael Bowker, Consuelo Brandeis, Dave E. Calkin, Geoffrey Donovan, Charlotte Ham, Thomas P. Holmes, Jeffrey Kline, Travis Warziniack. 2016. Economics and societal considerations of drought
Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson, Keith D. Stockmann. 2016. Fighting fire in the heat of the day: An analysis of operational and environmental conditions of use for large airtankers in United States fire suppression
Matthew P. Thompson, Donald G. MacGregor, Dave E. Calkin. 2016. Risk management: Core principles and practices, and their relevance to wildland fire
Matthew P. Thompson, Patrick Freeborn, Jon Rieck, Dave E. Calkin, Julie Gilbertson-Day, Mark A. Cochrane, Michael Hand. 2016. Quantifying the influence of previously burned areas on suppression effectiveness and avoided exposure: A case study of the Las Conchas Fire
Michael Hand, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin. 2016. Examining heterogeneity and wildfire management expenditures using spatially and temporally descriptive data
Hari Katuwal, Dave E. Calkin, Michael Hand. 2016. Production and efficiency of large wildland fire suppression effort: A stochastic frontier analysis
Matthew P. Thompson, Jessica R. Haas, Mark A. Finney, Dave E. Calkin, Michael Hand, Mark J. Browne, Martin Halek, Karen C. Short, Isaac C. Grenfell. 2015. Development and application of a probabilistic method for wildfire suppression cost modeling
Matthew P. Thompson, Jessica R. Haas, Julie Gilbertson-Day, Joe H. Scott, Paul Langowski, Elise Bowne, Dave E. Calkin. 2015. Development and application of a geospatial wildfire exposure and risk calculation tool
Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher Dunn, Dave E. Calkin. 2015. Wildfires: Systemic changes required
Michael Hand, Matthew J. Wibbenmeyer, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2015. Risk preferences, probability weighting, and strategy tradeoffs in wildfire management
Crystal S. Stonesifer, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, Charles W. McHugh. 2015. Characterizing large airtanker use in United States fire management
Karin Riley, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin, Haiganoush K. Preisler. 2015. Assessing predictive services' 7-day fire potential outlook
Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson, Mark A. Finney. 2015. Negative consequences of positive feedbacks in US wildfire management
Dave E. Calkin, Mike Mentis. 2015. Opinion: The use of natural hazard modeling for decision making under uncertainty
Jessica R. Haas, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2014. Wildfire risk transmission in the Colorado Front Range, USA
Karin Riley, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Haiganoush K. Preisler, Dave E. Calkin. 2014. Predicting wildfire ignitions, escapes, and large fire activity using Predictive Service’s 7-Day Fire Potential Outlook in the western USA
Crystal S. Stonesifer, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson, Jeffrey D. Kaiden. 2014. Developing an aviation exposure index to inform risk-based fire management decisions
Derek T. O'Donnell, Tyron J. Venna, Dave E. Calkin. 2014. Are wildfire management resources in the United States efficiently allocated to protect resources at risk? A case study from Montana
Michael Hand, Krista M. Gebert, Jingjing Liang, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson, Mo Zhou. 2014. Economics of wildfire management: The development and application of suppression expenditure models
Alan Ager, Michelle A. Day, Charles W. McHugh, Karen C. Short, Julie Gilbertson-Day, Mark A. Finney, Dave E. Calkin. 2014. Wildfire exposure and fuel management on western US national forests
Dave E. Calkin, Crystal S. Stonesifer, Matthew P. Thompson, Charles W. McHugh. 2014. Large airtanker use and outcomes in suppressing wildland fires in the United States
Dave E. Calkin, Jack D. Cohen, Mark A. Finney, Matthew P. Thompson. 2014. How risk management can prevent future wildfire disasters in the wildland-urban interface
Jessica R. Haas, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson. 2013. A national approach for integrating wildfire simulation modeling into Wildland Urban Interface risk assessments within the United States
Joe H. Scott, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin. 2013. A wildfire risk assessment framework for land and resource management
Rachel M. Houtman, Claire A. Montgomery, Aaron R. Gagnon, Dave E. Calkin, Thomas G. Dietterich, Sean McGregor, Mark Crowley. 2013. Allowing a wildfire to burn: estimating the effect on future fire suppression costs
Tom Holmes, Dave E. Calkin. 2013. Econometric analysis of fire suppression production functions for large wildland fires
Matthew J. Wibbenmeyer, Michael Hand, Dave E. Calkin, Tyron J. Venn, Matthew P. Thompson. 2013. Risk preferences in strategic wildfire decision making: A choice experiment with U.S. wildfire managers
Matthew P. Thompson, Joe Scott, Don Helmbrecht, Dave E. Calkin. 2013. Integrated wildfire risk assessment: Framework development and application on the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, USA
Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, Mark A. Finney, Krista Gebert, Michael Hand. 2013. A risk-based approach to wildland fire budgetary planning
Kevin Hyde, Matthew B. Dickinson, Gil Bohrer, Dave E. Calkin, Louisa Evers, Julie Gilbertson-Day, Tessa Nicolet, Kevin C. Ryan, Christina Tague. 2013. Research and development supporting risk-based wildfire effects prediction for fuels and fire management: Status and needs
Karl Malcolm, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, Mark A. Finney, Alan Ager. 2012. Wildfire triage: Targeting mitigation based on social, economic, and ecological values
Dave E. Calkin, Tyron Venn, Matthew Wibbenmeyer, Matthew P. Thompson. 2012. Estimating US federal wildland fire managers' preferences toward competing strategic suppression objectives
Woodam Chung, Tyron J. Venn, Dan Loeffler, Greg G. Jones, Han-Sup Han, Dave E. Calkin. 2012. Assessing the potential for log sort yards to improve financial viability of forest restoration treatments
Michael Hand, Dave E. Calkin, Matthew Wibbenmeyer. 2012. Preliminary results from a survey of U.S. Forest Service wildfire managers' attitudes toward aviation personnel exposure and risk
Joe Scott, Don Helmbrecht, Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, Kate Marcille. 2012. Probabilistic assessment of wildfire hazard and municipal watershed exposure
Matthew P. Thompson, Alan Ager, Mark A. Finney, Dave E. Calkin, Nicole M. Vaillant. 2012. The science and opportunity of wildfire risk assessment (Chapter 6)
Russell T. Graham, Mark A. Finney, Chuck McHugh, Jack D. Cohen, Dave E. Calkin, Rick Stratton, Larry S. Bradshaw, Ned Nikolov. 2012. Fourmile Canyon Fire Findings
Dave E. Calkin, Mark A. Finney, Alan Ager, Matthew P. Thompson, Krista Gebert. 2011. Progress towards and barriers to implementation of a risk framework for US federal wildland fire policy and decision making
Tyron J. Venn, Dave E. Calkin. 2011. Accommodating non-market values in evaluation of wildfire management in the United States: Challenges and opportunities
Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson, Mark A. Finney, Kevin D. Hyde. 2011. A real-time risk assessment tool supporting wildland fire decisionmaking
Dave E. Calkin, John Phipps, Tom Holmes, Jon Rieck, Matthew P. Thompson. 2011. The Exposure Index: Developing firefighter safety performance measures
Han-Sup Han, Ted Bilek, John Dramm, Dan Loeffler, Dave E. Calkin. 2011. Financial feasibility of a log sort yard handling small-diameter logs: A preliminary study
Erin Noonan-Wright, Tonja S. Opperman, Mark A. Finney, Tom Zimmerman, Robert C. Seli, Lisa M. Elenz, Dave E. Calkin, John R. Fiedler. 2011. Developing the U.S. Wildland Fire Decision Support System
Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin. 2011. Uncertainty and risk in wildland fire management: A review
Katherine J. Lai, Carla P. Gomes, Michael K. Schwartz, Kevin S. McKelvey, Dave E. Calkin, Claire A. Montgomery. 2011. The Steiner Multigraph Problem: Wildlife corridor design for multiple species
Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, Julie Gilbertson-Day, Alan Ager. 2011. Advancing effects analysis for integrated, large-scale wildfire risk assessment
Matthew P. Thompson, Dave E. Calkin, Mark A. Finney, Alan Ager, Julie Gilbertson-Day. 2011. Integrated national-scale assessment of wildfire risk to human and ecological values
Dave E. Calkin, Jon Rieck, Kevin D. Hyde, Jeffrey D. Kaiden. 2011. Built structure identification in wildland fire decision support
Dave E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson, Alan Ager, Mark A. Finney. 2010. Barriers to implementation of risk management for federal wildland fire management agencies in the United States
Kyle M. Stetler, Tyron J. Venn, Dave E. Calkin. 2010. The effects of wildfire and environmental amenities on property values in northwest Montana, USA
Greg G. Jones, Dan Loeffler, Dave E. Calkin, Woodam Chung. 2010. Forest treatment residues for thermal energy compared with disposal by onsite burning: Emissions and energy return
Dave E. Calkin, Alan Ager, Julie Gilbertson-Day. 2010. Wildfire risk and hazard: procedures for the first approximation
Dave E. Calkin, Krista Gebert. 2009. Economics of wildland fire management
Robin Silverstein, Dan Loeffler, J. Greg Jones, Dave E. Calkin, Hans Zuuring, Martin Twer. 2009. Chip and truck: Comparing the cost of using trees to heat buildings
Tyron J. Venn, Dave E. Calkin. 2009. Challenges of socio-economically evaluating wildfire management on non-industrial private and public forestland in the western United States
Jingjing Liang, Dave E. Calkin, Krista Gebert, Tyron J. Venn, Robin P. Silverstein. 2008. Factors influencing large wildland fire suppression expenditures
Robin P. Silverstein, Dan Loeffler, J. Greg Jones, Dave E. Calkin, Hans R. Zuuring, Martin Twer. 2006. Biomass utilization modeling on the Bitterroot National Forest
Dave E. Calkin, Krista Gebert. 2006. Modeling fuel treatment costs on Forest Service Lands in the Western United States
Dan Loeffler, Dave E. Calkin, Robin P. Silverstein. 2006. Estimating volumes and costs of forest biomass in western Montana using forest inventory and geospatial data
Sharon Ritter, Janie Canton-Thompson, Greg G. Jones, Ward McCaughey, Dave E. Calkin, Mick Harrington, Peter Kolb, LaWen Hollingsworth, Joe Jensen, Katie Knotek, Brooke Thompson. 2005. Scale matters - some thoughts on landscape sustainability
Dave E. Calkin, Kevin Hyde. 2004. Break-even point: Suppression-cost analyses in Montana weigh resource values as determined by tax records and available GIS data

University of Virginia, B.S., Applied Mathematics, 1988
University of Montana, M.S., Natural Resource Conservation, 1994
Oregon State University, Ph.D., Economics, 2000

Last updated March 10, 2026

Dave E. Calkin, PhD

Treesearch Publications

Wildfire Risk Management Science Team

Creating linear fuel treatments that effectively protect communities and wildland firefighters on the Colorado Front Range

Development and delivery of tools to enhance integrated wildfire planning and response

Articles

Dataset of U.S. Incident Management Situation Reports from 2007 to 2021

Dr. Dave Calkin receives international award for Excellence in Wildland Fire Science