2026 CESU Online Seminar Series

The Rocky Mountain CESU welcomes the Colorado Plateau and Desert Southwest CESUs to the 2026 CESU Online Seminar Series. Each of our CESUs has selected a project and researcher to underscore the diverse range of good science that is accomplished through our networks, and the impact is has on management decisions.

CESU 2026 Spring Webinar – Lidar-Derived Fuels Monitoring
Dr. Temuulen (Teki) Sankey
Wednesday, March 25, 2pm MST (4pm EST)

Fuel monitoring data are essential to evaluate wildfire risk, plan management activities, and evaluate fuel treatment effects. Terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) is a field-based 3D scanning technology with great potential to reduce labor-intensive field measurements and provide new depths of vegetation structure data. To facilitate the integration of terrestrial lidar into fuel monitoring programs, we developed a model and workflow that produces canopy fuel, surface fuel and terrain metrics commonly used in fire behavior and fire risk modeling.

We estimated canopy and surface fuel metrics from terrestrial lidar using a semi-empirical model incorporating physically-based modeling of leaf area density and occlusion and a non-destructive model calibration process. We compared lidar-derived fuel estimates with conventional fuel estimates across diverse conditions in semi-arid shrubland, woodland, and forest in Arizona. We also compared estimates using single- and multiple-scan modes. In single-scan mode, our lidar-derived fuel estimates were significantly related to conventional estimates of total canopy fuel load, maximum canopy bulk density, downed surface fuel load, and standing surface fuel load. Our methods provide opportunities to increase the scalability of fuel monitoring to better understand wildfire risk and treatment effectiveness.

REGISTER for Temuulen Sankey Webinar

Still Time:

March 12 at 2 PM MST: Visitor Use on Public Lands: Social Science Insights for Managing Increased Demand for Recreation in the American West, Hayley Johnson, University of Montana (Rocky Mountains CESU) REGISTER for Hayley Johnson Webinar

Coming up:

April 23 at 2 PM MST: Linking Diet, Migration, and Pd Invasion Risk: A Decade of Long-Nosed Bat Research in the Desert Southwest, Mallory L. Davies, University of Arizona School of Natural Resources & the Environment (Desert Southwest CESU) REGISTER for Mallory Davies Webinar.