Ernesto Alvarado is a research associate professor of wildland fire sciences in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. He’s an expert on fire ecology and management, and can provide insight on the role climate change plays in wildfires and what we should do to better manage forests.

Alvarado’s research focuses on forests in Alaska and the western and southeast United States, in addition to his international work in Brazil, Mexico and Bolivia. 

Topics of study include fire behavior, biomass assessment, combustion modeling, fire ecology, fire management, prescribed fire, fires and climate change, landscape ecology, smoke emissions, and the impacts of smoke on public health.

He’s also looked into traditional fire use and forest management by indigenous communities. 

At the University of Washington, Alvarado teaches courses on wildland fire management, fire ecology, and the role of culture and place in natural resource stewardship in the Yakama Nation. He also leads graduate seminars on forest dynamics and disturbances and traditional ecological knowledge and fire use. 

Alvarado is also a member of the Fire and Environmental Research Applications Research Team of the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory in Seattle.

Expertise: Forest fire ecology, wildfires, fire management, prescribed fire, smoke emissions, climate change, forestry

Location: Seattle, Wash.

Email: alvarado@uw.edu 

Phone: 206-616-6920

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