Ronald Wakimoto

Dr. Ronald H. Wakimoto is Professor of Forestry at The University of Montana, Missoula. He received his B.S. in Forestry and M.S. and Ph.D. in Wildland Resource Science from the University of California at Berkeley. He began his faculty career at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976 and has been at The University of Montana since 1982 teaching and conducting research in wildland fire management. He teaches academic courses in wildland fire management, fuel management and fire ecology. Dr. Wakimoto currently conducts research on the social acceptability of fuel management treatments, smoke quality and quantity from smoldering combustion, fire fighter safety, crown fire spread and the fire ecology of the Northern Mixed Prairie. In 1986 he served on a Committee of Scientists in a National Park Service review of the prescribed burning programs at Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park. In 1988 and 1989 Dr. Wakimoto was one of two academics to serve as technical advisors to the National Fire Policy Review Team following the Yellowstone events. In 1997 he gave testimony on Wildfire Policy to the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. In 2000 he gave testimony on the Montana fire-fuel situation to the U.S. House Natural Resources Sub-Committee on Forests and Forest Health. In 2001 he gave testimony to the same committee concerning the implementation of the National Fire Plan.

B.S. Forestry, Univ. of California, Berkeley 1970
M.S. Wildland Resource Sci., Univ. of California, Berkeley 1971
Ph.D. Wildland Resource Sci., Univ. of California, Berkeley 1978

Here is a list of recent research:

  
• Validation and Calibration of FARSITE Fire Area Simulator for Yellowstone National Park
  
• Temporal distribution of biomass burning in Central Africa
  
• Content analysis of wildland firefighter fatalities and entrapments
  
• Evaluation of fuel management treatments following the 1994 wildfire season on the Kootenai National Forest.
  
• Historic Fire Regimes and Change Since European Settlement on the Northern Mixed Prairie
  
• Social Acceptability of Fuel Management Treatments
  
• Smoke Production and Quality from Smoldering Combustion in Forest Fires
  
• Modeling the Initiation of Crown Fires

Agee, J.K., R.H. Wakimoto and H.H. Biswell. 1978. Fire and fuel dynamics of Sierra Nevada conifers. For. Ecol. Manage.1:255-265.

Radtke, K. W-H. and R.H. Wakimoto. 1981. The effects of southern California's fire climate on vegetation and people. IN: Proc. Ninth International Congress of Biometeorology, Sept. 23-Oct. 1 ,1981, Osnabrueck and Stuttgart-Honenheim, Germany.

Wakimoto, R.H. 1990. National Fire Management Policy. J. For. 88(10): 22-26.
Xanthopoulos, G. and R. H. Wakimoto. 1991. Development of a wildland crown fire initiation model. pp. 281- 290. IN: Proc. of the 11th Conf. of Fire and Forest Meteorology. April 16-19, 1991. Soc. of Am. Foresters, Bethesda, MD.

McAlpine, R.S. and R.H. Wakimoto. 1991. The acceleration of fire from point source to equilibrium spread. Forest Science 37(5):1314-1337.

Wakimoto, R.H. 1992. Fire at the wildland/urban interface: policy implications. IN: Symp. on Fire in Pacific Northwest Ecosystems: Exploring Emerging Issues. Jan. 21-23, 1992. Oregon State Univ., Corvalis, OR.

Xanthopoulos, G. and R.H. Wakimoto. 1993. A time to ignition-temperature-moisture relationship for branches of three western conifers. Can. J. For. Res. 23(2):253-258.

Brown, J.K. R.W. Mutch, C.W. Spoon and R.H. Wakimoto. Eds. 1995. Proc. Symp. On Fire in Wilderness and Park Management. USDA For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-GTR-320. 283pp.

Close, K.R. and R.H. Wakimoto. 1995. GIS and fire management planning on the urban/wildland interface. IN: Proc. Symp. Fire in Wilderness and Park Management. USDA For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-GTR-320.

Skinner, J. and R.H. Wakimoto. 1995. Using a geographical information system for presuppression planning of lightning-ignited wildland fires in Missoula, Co., Montana. IN: Proc. Symp. Fire in Wilderness and Park Management. USDA For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-GTR-320. p. 265.

Wakimoto, R.H. 1997. Testimony to the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. Congressional Record, July 15, 1997. The subject was Wildland Fire Policy.

Barrett, T.M., J.G. Jones and R.H. Wakimoto. 2000. Forest Service spatial information use of planning prescribed fires. Western J. of Applied Forestry. 15(4):1-8.

Cruz, M.G., R.H. Wakimoto, and M.E. Alexander. Modeling the initiation and spread of crown fires. IN: Proc. 2000 National Congress on Fire Ecology, Prevention and Management. Nov. 27-Dec. 2, 2000. San Diego, CA. (In Press)

Wakimoto, R.H. 2000. Testimony to U.S. House subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. Congressional Record, September 16, 2000. The subject was the causes of the Bitterroot Valley Fires of 2000.

Wakimoto, R.H. 2001. Testimony to U.S. House subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. Congressional Record, July 31, 2001. The subject was the implementation of the National Fire Plan.

Cruz, M.G., R.H. Wakimoto, and M.E. Alexander, Modeling the probability of crown fire initiation in coniferous stands. (In review)

Cruz, M.G., R.H. Wakimoto, and M.E. Alexander, Assessing canopy fuel stratum characteristics for some western U.S. crown fire prone fuel types.(In review)

Cruz, M.G., R.H. Wakimoto, and M.E. Alexander, Modeling crown fire spread rate in conifer stands.(In review)

Cruz, M.G., R.H. Wakimoto, and M.E. Alexander, Assessing the probability of crown fire initiation.(In review)