Expansive prescribed fire research project brings Montana scientists together

BOZEMAN - Wildfire smoke has become a perennial concern for people in Montana and across the American West. As living with and managing smoke has evolved into a standard part of life no longer limited to the summer months, it made sense for scientists, engineers and community educators to tackle the problems posed by smoke and seek solutions to help Montanans and Montana communities.

So, when Montana State University professors Rob Walker and Joe Shaw conceived the idea for the SMART FIRES project in 2020, they immediately knew where to turn. Shaw's extensive experience in optics and photonics and Walker's statewide leadership on prior scientific initiatives would blend perfectly with fire research and community engagement being done by faculty at the University of Montana.

The project - short for Sensors, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Real-Time Fire Science - is now in its third year and includes over 120 faculty, graduate students and undergraduates from nine Montana institutions including MSU, UM, Dawson Community College, Flathead Valley Community College, Fort Peck Community College, Little Big Horn College, Montana Tech, MSU Billings and Salish Kootenai College. SMART FIRES is led by MSU's Walker, head of the Department Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Letters and Science, with Shaw and UM Professors Lu Hu and Libby Metcalf.

"SMART FIRES is driven by two mandates: building capacity and broadening participation," said Walker. "This project brings together some of the most accomplished scientists and engineers in the world with educators and community leaders to understand better how prescribed fire affects air quality and influences public sentiment. We are developing a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary network of Montana researchers, educators and partners to advance science and technology used to characterize prescribed fire dynamics and build wildfire-resilient communities and woodlands."

The project, supported by a $20 million grant through the National Science Foundation's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, began as an ambitious effort to bring together ethicists, computer scientists, optical and machine learning experts, smoke and fire scientists, educators, economists and more to take a comprehensive look at how fire and smoke affect communities. The project is paying major scientific dividends, said Shaw, which were highlighted when the full team came together at MSU for its annual meeting this fall.

"I love the fact that this project is bringing Montanans together," said MSU President Brock Tessman in remarks during the group's September meeting. "It is truly a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. I'm so happy to think about the impact that this research is going to have on the next generation of teachers, of scholars, of citizens across the state of Montana. It just could not be more relevant work."

The project is structured in four categories: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Fire and Smoke Science; Social Psychology, Economics and Ethics; and Smart Optical Sensors. Each thrust allows a team of experts to coalesce and overlap with the other focus areas, approaching fire and smoke research from countless angles.

Shaw leads the Smart Optical Sensors group, which leverages advanced optics tools and facilities at MSU to collect atmospheric data around the clock, creating a comprehensive database of air quality trends and using computer models to make predictions to better understand how fires both in and outside the state affect the atmosphere.

"Anybody who's spent more than two summers in Montana knows that we get a lot of smoke. And it's not all ours, right? That's the starting point," said Shaw, a professor in MSU's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Optical Technology Center. "What we really want to do here is go beyond that academic curiosity. What can we do to be helpful?"

The Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning group, led by MSU professor John Sheppard in the Gianforte School of Computing, dovetails with the Smart Optical Sensors work to layer risk assessment tools and smart models onto new data. From learning how fires spread and the composition of emitted smoke to quantifying how smoke travels, various facets of exploration are allowing the team to evaluate and improve constantly evolving machine learning tools.

They will work to better understand the key differences between wildfires and managed prescribed burns in terms of environmental impact with the aim of developing information that managers can use to better protect people, habitats and communities.

On-the-ground insights from those habitats come from the Fire and Smoke Science group, led by UM's Hu and Carl Seielstad. Scientists conduct, manage and observe prescribed burns at Lubrecht Experimental Forest near Missoula with a variety of tools, including a custom mobile sampling lab - known affectionately to the team as the "smoke van." The sampling lab measures smoke composition continuously and can do so immediately adjacent to an active fire. More importantly, it can measure changes in smoke throughout the night, when fires begin to smolder and imaging-based instruments are less effective.

With those findings, the Fire and Smoke Science team can feed real-time observations to both fellow researchers and professional fire managers to enhance their knowledge and inform their recommendations.

"We're a well-oiled machine in terms of making measurements in the field that are very, very difficult to make, and our capacity is unique in the United States," said Seielstad, who is associate dean of UM's W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation. "SMART FIRES is the biggest capacity building endeavor I think I have seen since I've been at the university."

While fire and smoke are deeply interesting to the project's scientists, they are also popular topics for the people of the West. For that reason, SMART FIRES' fourth focus is on the community.

A cross-institution team is surveying the social impact of wildfires and prescribed burns, gathering insight into how the public perceives fires and their management as well as exploring how to best communicate with people who may be impacted. Data, trends and modeling are complex, so the goal is to create user-friendly and accessible resources that provide reliable information to the people who need it most.

"People are looking for information. People are familiar with smoke, they're familiar with wildfire," said Katrina Mullan, a UM economics professor and part of the Social Psychology, Economics and Ethics group. "We're interested in what people are experiencing, how they're behaving and what kind of decisions they are making. What are the actions they take to protect themselves?"

Resources coming from the Social Psychology, Economics and Ethics group include interactive maps that allow users to see air quality trends specific to their community or county. As surveys and data collection continue, the hope is to identify which community groups are most at risk and develop specific programming to help them protect their health.

SMART FIRES is also teaching young people how to effectively engage with science and foster curiosity. Staff in MSU's Department of Education and UM's spectrUM Discovery Area, along with the dozens of undergraduate and graduate students participating in the project, are translating ongoing research to make it accessible and engaging for students of all ages. With added capacity and programming from MSU's Empower Program and UM's Indigenous Research and STEM Education program, the SMART FIRES team has built and fostered connections with all seven of Montana's tribal colleges.

Through outreach at libraries, museums and community events, along with professional development for Montana teachers, the latest in smoke and fire science is reaching all corners of the state. MSU education students can take science kits with them to student teaching experiences, and teachers can gain access to tools and equipment for their classrooms to conduct experiments in real time.

Bringing together such a diverse and comprehensive team allows for the science to meet community members right where they are, said Suzi Taylor, director of MSU's Science Math Resource Center and a leader of SMART FIRES' outreach and education efforts. Educators interested in learning about resources and curriculum made possible by the project can explore the Science Math Resource Center's website and sign up to be notified when new tools become available.

"We take a very broad view of people who are teachers to include not just those in schools, but also educators in informal environments. Teachers want to know what the researchers are doing," Taylor said. "It really is one of the best teams I've ever been on because education and outreach are baked into the fabric of the project. Bringing it all together is really cool."