Many hands make light work: The Oregon Postfire Research and Monitoring Collaborative

The interagency Oregon Postfire Research and Monitoring Collaborative met in person in Corvallis, Oregon, on April 30, 2026, for a joint meeting of the collaborative’s science and leadership teams.

Cross boundary collaboration is crucial to natural resources management and science, particularly for complex, regionwide issues like wildfire. Addressing wildfire and its effects across Pacific Northwest landscapes requires cooperation, co-ownership, and co-investment in solutions across landownerships. None of that is possible without partnerships like the interagency Oregon Postfire Research and Monitoring Collaborative, initially formed after the 2020 Labor Day Fires and still going strong.

The 60-plus invitees represented more than 20 organizations from the public and private sectors. The U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station co-led the event planning team with the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Pacific Coastal Science Branch.

Participants shared new science and observations related to wildfire itself, forests, smoke and air quality, water quality, wildlife and aquatic ecosystems, and geomorphic hazards such as postfire erosion and debris flows. Collaborative members also shared recent products and resources on postfire research and monitoring. The Oregon Department of Forestry presented a review of the 2025–2026 winter conditions and a look ahead to the 2026 fire season. Participants were also able to tour a mobile laboratory equipped with instruments used by the EPA and partners to assess smoke conditions and other wildfire-related aspects of air quality.

Scientists Jana Compton from the EPA and Ben Leshchinsky from Oregon State University both emphasized that “many hands make light work” when discussing what it will take to address still unknown aspects of fire effects on water quality and postfire geomorphology (including erosion and debris flows).

Kyle Abraham, Forest Practices and Monitoring Deputy Chief in the Forest Resources Division at the Oregon Department of Forestry, highlighted the collaborative’s efforts that cross many fields of science and benefit the state: “As we look forward to continuing Oregon’s great history, particularly in forestry, of providing clean air and water, this meeting showed the efforts underway by so many already—for smoke and air quality, for water and aquatic ecosystems, for postfire geomorphic hazards, and for the cumulative effects that shape resilient landscapes and communities.”

Photo Credit

Courtesy photo by Joan Hurley, Environmental Protection Agency.

Members of the science and leadership teams for the interagency Oregon Postfire Research and Monitoring Collaborative at a 2026 meeting in Corvallis, Oregon. 

Planning a science-to-practice event

The collaborative is planning an interactive science-to-practice event in 2027 to advance science and knowledge for application in postfire land and resource management. This aligns with its increased focus on approaches for science outreach, communication, and user engagement.

The April meeting launched preliminary planning discussions for the 2027 event. Common themes emerged from that discussion: a desire for two-way conversations and interactions between scientists and managers, intentionally having broad representation and engagement across sectors, and emphasizing a collaborative process in planning and implementing the 2027 event just as much as the event content itself.

Collaborative members feel that this approach will make it more likely that knowledge and perspectives are exchanged successfully, benefiting both scientists and managers. Managers are more likely to have information they need for monitoring landscape change after wildfire, delivered in ways so that they can actually use that information, and scientists are more likely to get feedback on the utility of their science so they can keep innovating and improving their research.

About the collaborative

The interagency Oregon Postfire Research and Monitoring Collaborative brings people together from across the state to connect, share perspectives and knowledge about wildfire-affected landscapes, and better understand how they can optimally work together towards Oregon-relevant results throughout the fire cycle.

The interagency group of partners formed in response to the September 2020 Labor Day fires that burned 1.2 million acres in Oregon. Through the collaborative, staff from federal, state, tribal, and local governments, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector have worked in partnership to facilitate shared stewardship of wildfire-affected landscapes through expanded connections, shared learning and knowledge, and increased awareness of postfire research and monitoring information and tools. With the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station co-convenes this group of Oregon-focused partners from both the public and private sectors.

Connection is key to the collaborative’s success and a major reason why multiyear members keep returning and new members join. Not only does the collaborative connect people with postfire research and monitoring information, but the group also connects people with people across Oregon. The collaborative’s network of researchers, applied and operational scientists, managers of postfire landscapes, and science outreach and engagement specialists lean on each other’s expertise and bring experience and perspectives from across the state.

“The collaborative makes it easier to know who to call when you have a question. You can pick up the phone and just ask because you’ve most likely already met the person,” explains Alan Thornhill, Director of the Pacific Coastal Science Laboratory of the EPA.