Ecosystems
Could Fire Beat Water? – Pullman Campus
Water suppresses fire, but fire may also suppress clean drinking water. Worsening wildfires could contaminate water with burnt materials, soil, and nutrients. This is especially
Jacob Bernal
Washington State University
Graduate Research Assistant
expertise:
state: ID
city: Boise
languages: English
race + ethnicity: Mexican American, Mexican, or Chicana/o/x, Latina/e/o/x or Hispanic (e.g., Latin American, Central American, South American)
Jacob studies wildfire impacts on surface water quality in the Pacific Northwest. Ask him about the Columbia River Basin, specifically about improving surface/groundwater quality with best agricultural practices, water consumption in the urban-rural nexus, removing hydro-electric dams for salmon recovery, compounding and cascading hazards from industry and climate change, and institutional flexibility for managing water security.
Previously, Jacob worked with Idaho Conservation League, Western Resource Advocates, Environmental Innovation Policy Center (EPIC), and Snake River Waterkeeper on the expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure, Indigenous water policy-making, fragmentation and equity issues within water utilities, and monitoring the health of streams and fisheries for CWA enforcement respectively.