Michael Crimmins, co-sponsored by the University of Arizona Department of Geography and Regional Development

Academic scientists have the unique opportunity to participate in public science education through their research activities. Applied research projects have the ability to produce working relationships and lines of communication between public users and scientists that are often difficult to forge. These lines of communication allow for exchanges of knowledge between the public and the academic scientist. Public users of scientific research can communicate their needs for new research based products, while scientists can convey basic scientific principles that improve the literacy of user. A feedback of scientific communication can be initiated by academic scientists interested in reaching out to the public for which they are working. Greater scientific literacy will inevitably lead to a greater public hunger for academic research.

I have the opportunity to participate in science outreach and education through my research activities on the relationships between climate variability and wildfire risk. Recent research has proven that inter-annual climate variability modulates the fire regimes of many forest ecosystems in the desert southwest (Swetnam and Betancourt 1998). The subtleties of this wildfire-climate connection are not completely understood, for either forest or grassland ecosystems, and will be the subject of my doctoral research activities.

I believe that this research will have direct and immediate relevance to natural resource and rangeland managers. I have discussed this research topic with Kim McReynolds, University of Arizona Natural Resources Extension Agent, and she believes there is a need to communicate climate information to her constituents and to help educate them on the connections between climate variability and wildfire risk. Her efforts to conduct prescribed burning of grasslands are challenged by ranchers who need the grasslands for livestock forage. The prescribed burns are necessary for grassland health and integrity, but limit livestock grazing until the grasses return. Precipitation and temperature become the important factors governing the speed of the grassland recovery. Climate knowledge relative to fire regimes could help Kim and the ranchers she works with, develop mutually beneficial fire management strategies and mitigate destructive wildfires.

For this Space Grant Graduate Fellowship, I propose to work with extension agent, Kim McReynolds on developing outreach materials that communicate the connections between fire regimes and climate variability. These materials will include handouts and displays to be presented at the annual Extension 'Ag-Day' and several rangeland monitoring workshops. A 'Fire-Climate Outreach Project' presentation will be given at the Cooperative Extension Annual Conference and one of the Arizona Agriculture Extension Association meetings to highlight outreach project components and explore further outreach opportunities with other extension areas.

Outreach materials will include general information on known fire-climate relationships and current climate conditions as well as information on how to access and interpret web-based fire-climate geospatial tools. Excellent resources exist on the University of Arizona RangeView website (http://rangeview.arizona.edu) including current Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images derived from AVHRR remotely sensed data that convey information on the health of vegetation and wildfire fuel moisture conditions. NDVI time series data coupled with climate data can be used as an educational tool to show spatial and temporal relationships between surface vegetation and precipitation and how wildfire fuels are produced and conditioned.

The 'Wildfire Alternatives' (WALTER) project housed at the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona is focused on fire, climate, and society interactions. With the direction of Dr. Barbara Morehouse (project principal investigator), I plan on working as a project liaison between WALTER and extension agent, Ms. McReynolds communicating and interpreting relevant project information to her. I will solicit feedback from Ms. McReynolds and her constituents on how WALTER products can be improved and what products or research topics should be considered for development.

The WALTER website will be the focus for new outreach product dissemination. I intend to develop a fire-climate information clearinghouse page that can be presented at workshops as a tool for decision makers. The page will include Flash animations basic climatological and fire ecology concepts, up to date local climate information and satellite imagery for assessing fire risk, a message board that I will moderate for fire-climate related discussions, and a feedback form for questions. To communicate interested citizens without internet access, I propose to develop a climate bulletin that addresses fire-climate issues in Cochise County. The monthly bulletin will have up to date climate information as well as spatial interpretations of fire risk derived from NDVI and high-resolution precipitation and temperature mapping. The bulletin will be posted on the WALTER website as an Adobe Acrobat file that can be printed off, copied, and distributed by extension agents, like Ms. McReynolds.

My overall objective in developing these multiple outreach components is to establish a working relationship with the public users that may ultimately utilize the research I conduct for my dissertation. The ongoing insight and feedback that this relationship could provide me with would be invaluable as I develop specific research questions and conduct my research. The NASA Space Grant Fellowship is an excellent opportunity for me to establish a dissertation project that will be relevant to a social and environmental need as well as participating in the improvement of public scientific literacy.

Upon completion of my Ph.D. in Geography, I intend to seek employment in academia as a professor whose responsibilities include both teaching and research. I am dedicated to developing applied research projects that deliver specific products dictated by public need. I believe that theoretical research is very important, but feel that my particular strengths as a researcher are in developing applied projects with the assistance and feedback of the intended user. My experience in private sector consulting gave me an appreciation of developing and completing projects with the constant communication and input of clients. Witnessing the immediate utilization of your work, whether it be incorporation into public policy or just increasing awareness or understanding of a particular issue, is very satisfying and will always be an objective within my research projects.

An academic career will give me the opportunity to develop and conduct exciting research projects as well as participate in the education of students. In my graduate student career, I have had the opportunity to teach six semesters of introductory meteorology and physical geography laboratory sections. Through all of those semesters, I was always challenged by students from different backgrounds to deliver lectures that would at the same time be interesting as well as educational. This was and still is a rewarding pursuit for me. Pursuing an academic teaching career will ensure that I have the opportunity to continue teaching and interacting with students.

Working with graduate and undergraduate students in a university setting entails a unique responsibility to professors and instructors. It should be the mission of university educators to stress the importance of community service and the participation in solutions to societal and environmental problems. Developing curricula that include outreach and community service projects helps students appreciate the need for outreach and instructs them on how to structure and conduct such projects. I feel that teaching students with outreach projects will make them better and more active citizens. I intend to make outreach projects a critical component of the courses that I will teach as an academic.

Here is a link to a space grant outreach page I developed for my project:http://monsoon.geog.arizona.edu/~mcrimmins/seaz/index.htm