February 2025
Lab members met with members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute to demonstrate prescribed fire use in forests. What a great time! So many good questions!
February 2025
Lab members (Hudson Defee and Mo McGrath) instructed members of the Forest Fire Management course about proper use of drip torches!
January 2025
Labs members (Josue Chevez-Sahona, Tamara Milton, Dr. Alexander, and Kathleen Gabler) attended a workshop on research ethics. Lots of good stuff to learn and remember!
January 2025
Dr. Alexander was interviewed by USA Today about the California wildfires and prescribed fire is an important tool for reducing fuels.
January 2025
Dr. Alexander was featured in Auburn’s Expert Answers about the California wildfires and what Alabamians can do to prevent wildfires and restore natural fire to Alabama’s many fire-dependent ecosystems using prescribed fire.
January 2025
Dr. Alexander and Dr. Jeff Cannon were featured on Fire Ecology Chats to discuss findings from Luiza Lazzaro’s research. Check it out!
November 2024
Congratulations to Basanta Shrestha for successfully defending his MS thesis research! Basanta gave a very nice public presentation! Best of luck, Basanta!
November 2024
Congratulations to Collin Anderson, former MS student with Dr. Matt Weand at Kennesaw State University and former Forest and Fire Ecology lab member, for publishing his MS thesis in Forest Ecology and Management! Way to go, Collin! Download
October 2024
Last week, members of the Auburn Forest and Fire
Ecology lab attended and presented research at the International Oak Symposium in Knoxville, TN.
Dr. Alexander delivered a plenary presentation and
hosted an organized panel on fire in oak ecosystems.
Arthur Lamounier Moura (PhD student), Tamara Milton (Post-Doctoral Researcher), Basanta Shrestha
(MS student), and Kathleen Gabler (PhD student)
delivered oral presentations on their work, and Josue
Chevez-Sahona (MS student) presented a poster of his research.
Kathleen Gabler was one of three students awarded the Best Oral Presentation Award!
September 2024
MS Student Josue Chevez-Sahona gave a guest talk entitled: “From the
country in the middle of the world to the America’s Amazon: The journey
of an environmentalist through forest, fire and science”at the The Wildlife
Society at Auburn University. What a great group! Thanks Josue!
September 2024
Lab members (Dr. Alexander and Dr. Tamara Milton) visited the Jones
Center at Ichauway in southwest Georgia to meet with collaborators
Dr. Jeff Cannon and Dr. Nicole Zampieri. Thanks for hosting us!
August 2024
Several lab members attended
the 10th Zamoranos in the USA
conference. Dr. Alexander
presented about the role of
Zamoranos in our lab group.
Josue Chevez-Sahona presented
a poster on his research on
carbon storage within restored
open ecosystems.
August 2024
Lab members (Basanta Shrestha, Monika Rawat, Dr. Alexander, Tamara
Milton, Arthur Moura Lamounier) attended and presented research at
the Ecological Society of America conference in Long Beach, CA. Everyone
did a great job!
July 2024
One of Luiza’s chapters from her MS research was just published in
Fire Ecology! Way to go Luiza!
June 2024
Several from our lab attended the North American Forest Ecology Workshop
in Asheville, NC. Arthur, Kathleen, and Tamara gave excellent presentations!
June 2024
During our Tennessee trip, we visited with our collaborator, Dr. Dwayne
Estes, from the Southeastern Grasslands Institute and our funders from the
TN Department of Environment and Conservation. What a treat to have
everyone on site for our initial sampling!
June 2024
Much of the lab went to Tennessee to sample carbon pools in ecosystems
across an open to closed-canopy gradient! It was quite the trip, but I’m so
proud of everyone for their team spirit and hardwork!
June 2024
Our paper on cone and fruit flammability just came out in Fire Ecology!
Woohoo!
May 2024
Dr. Alexander, Tamara, Monika, and Josue traveled to Sumter Farm
in the Blackbelt Prairie Ecoregion of western Alabama. What an incredible
piece of property! Thanks to Mitchell and Hazel Bell for hosting us, and
thanks especially to Mitchell for showing us around. We were awestruck!
Everyone talks about what oak and pine stands could look like if we
never excluded fire from them, and this is exactly what we saw here!
80+ years of continual annual burning creates high biodiversity,
a bilayer structure, and beautiful woodland and savanna stands.
So very cool!
May 2024
The lab conducted a field and lab training day to begin the summer field
season! We are so excited to welcome everyone to the team!
May 2024
Really cool video produced by the CFWE of Josue describing why he
chose Auburn and the Forest and Fire Ecology lab for his MS degree!
May 2024
We traveled to Spirit Hill Farm near Holly Springs, MS to collect forest floor
samples and to deconstruct a long-term project. This is one of our favorite
field sites thanks to the
incredible hospitality of the owner, Ms. Sheryl Bowen.
May 2024
Congratulations to Eric Bridges for successfully defending his
PhD Dissertation!
Eric gave a great public talk! We’re so proud of you
and all your awesome research
on urban forested natural areas!
May 2024
Congratulations to Kathleen Gabler!
Her proposal to the Joint Fire Science Program
Graduate Research Innovation
program entitled “What the duff? An examination of
long-unburned montane longleaf pine duff layers
and their impacts on fire behavior and mortality”
was selected for funding!
April 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Alexander for being awarded the CFWE
Outstanding Graduate Student Mentorship award!
April 2024
Lab members traveled to Tennessee to scout potential field
sites as part of our new collaboration with Dr. Dwayne Estes at the
Southeast Grasslands Institute and a newly-funded grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to
assess the potential of restored prairies, savannas, and
woodlands to store carbon. We are very excited about this new
research!
December 2023
The lab’s research on carbon, fire, and wind disturbances
was the focus of a recent
article in Southern Science.
October 2023
Dr. Alexander was awarded the Dwain G. Luce Endowed Professorship in Forestry.
The lab attended a reception to celebrate this honor.
September 2023
Dr. Alexander and PhD student, Kathleen Gabler, attended the 2023 Provost Women’s
Lunch along with CFWE faculty Dr. Kelsey McCune and Dr. Sole Peresin.
August 2023
Members of the lab attended the 2023 ESA Annual Meeting in Portland, OR!
July 2023
Congratulations to Arthur Lamounier Moura for being awarded the ESA
student section Trailblazing Graduate Research Award for 2023! This is an
incredible recognition of all of Arthur’s incredible work!
July 2023
Congratulations to Arthur Lamounier Moura on his first author publication
in Fire resulting from his MS thesis work in Brazil! Nice job!
July 2023
We have a new paper out in Ecosphere on the relationship between larch forest
stand structure and cone production and the influence of “safe sites”
on larch seedling establishment.
July 2023
Congratulations Katelyn on a successful MS thesis defense! We’re so proud of your amazing work! Yay!
July 2023
Congratulations Rachel on successfully passing your MS thesis defense! We’re super proud of you and all your hard work!
July 2023
Congratulations Emily for a successful MS thesis defense! Great job! We’re very proud of you!
July 2023
Way to go, Eric! Great job on your MS defense! Super proud of you and all your hard work!
July 2023
Luiza Lazarro successfully defended her MS thesis research! Congratulations Luiza! She’s off to a PhD at Penn State. We’ll miss you but know you’ll do a great job!
June 2023
Congratulations to Steven Cabrera, recent MS graduate, on his newly
published paper from one of his thesis chapters in Forest Ecology and
Management.
Way to go, Steven!
May 2023
Members of the Forest and Fire Ecology lab (left to right: Hang Li, Dr. Alexander, Arthur Moura, Luiza Lazzaro, Tamara Milton) attended the 7th Fire in Eastern Oak Forests meeting in Tyler, TX. This was a wonderful conference, and we learned so many cool things about post-oak savanna restoration!
April 2023
Dr. Alexander was awarded the Harold E. Christen Award for Service to Teaching at last night’s College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment Awards Celebration and Reception!
April 2023
Caleb Goldsmith’s (former MS student) research on Japanese stiltgrass impacts on hardwood seedlings was just published in Forest Ecology and Management!
March 2023
Congratulations to Eric Brubaker for receiving the best poster award for the College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment at the Auburn University Student Research Symposium. Way to go Eric!
March 2023
Rachel, Luiza, Basanta, and Katelyn presented their research findings at the Biennial Southern Silviculture Research Conference in Nacogdoches, TX this week! Great job!
March 2023
Arthur’s plots at the Jones Center at Ichauway were burned last week. We were fortunate to obtain drone data for the burns! Thanks Daryn!
March 2023
Congratulations Arthur and Eric!! Both were awarded Graduate Student Awards from the CFWE. Eric received the James Floyd Goggans Endowed Fellowship in Forest Biology, and Arthur received the James Henderson Dukes Memorial Fellowship in Forestry !
February 2023
MS Student, Eric Brubaker, successfully burned his plots investigating the effects of increased Chinese tallow of fire behavoir and tallow seed viability. Thanks to Hudson, Michael, and Ryan for their help.
February 2023
The Wind Creek Learn to Burn Event was an excellent way for several lab members to hone their prescribed fire skills! Looking forward to more burns in the near future.
January 2023
Members of the Forest and Fire Ecology Lab and Soil Chemistry Lab traveled to Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Center, AL and Perdido-Rainwater Preserve, FL to collect soil samples for developing equations relating soil organic layer depth to bulk density and carbon content.
January 2023
Members of the Forest and Fire Ecology Lab traveled to Spirit Hill Farm, MS to collect leaf litter fuels, decomposition bags, and soil samples. We had a great time and really enjoyed visiting with Sheryl Bowen and her grandson Adam. Thanks so much for your awesome hospitality and for making your property available for our research!
January 2023
Congratulations to Steven Cabrera, recently graduated MS Student, for his new job as the Stewardship Program Coordinator with The Nature Conservancy in the Altamaha region in Georgia. We’re so excited for you!
January 2023
Congratulations to MS Student, Luiza Lazzaro, for receiving the Alabama Wildlife Society Research Scholarship!
December 2022
Congratulations to Patrick McMahon on his new job at Cawaco RC&D Council! We’re so happy for you but very sad to see you leave the lab.
December 2022
The Forest and Fire Ecology Lab celebrates at the annual holiday lab party!
December 2022
Payton Brewer, Undergraduate Research Fellow, discusses her experimental design with Dr. John Willis of the USFS.
December 2022
We would like to congratulate Steven Cabrera on finishing his Master’s and graduating this fall! We have greatly appreciated his hard work and positive attitude and wish him the best in his future endeavors!
December 2022
Congratulations to Arthur Lamounier Moura for successfully passing his qualifying exams!
September 2022
Members of the lab traveled to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in deep south Texas to take final measurements on a long-term study and to assess nurse tree effects in this semi-arid region. Dr. Jennie DeMarco from Southwestern University joined us for our trip!
July 2022
Eric Brubaker and Arthur Lamounier Moura were awarded Graduate Research Innovation Grants from the Joint Science Fire Program. Congrats!
July 2022
Lab members traveled to Spirit Hill Farm near Holly Springs, MS to resample seedlings as part of a long-term project evaluating tree regeneration response to varying fuel types.
April 2022
Arthur Lamounier Moura’s poster won first place in the Auburn Research Student Symposium and was featured in the Student Research Spotlight
