The After the Fire USA Wildfire Leadership Summit
September 20-22, 2022 in Sonoma, CA
KEYNOTE: “California’s Approach to Wildfire Resilience”
SPEAKER: Jessica Morse, Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildland Resilience, California Natural Resources Agency
https://resources.ca.gov
Jessica Morse, the Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildland Resilience at the California Natural Resources Agency delivers a keynote speech on how to understand the complex situation of wildfire preparation, response, and resilience in the entire state of California. For over 40 million people in the state wildfire is a major concern, especially over the last 5 years.
She speaks about the legacy of fire suppression, over population, health of forests, and climate change stressors that are impacting this state specifically. California is making concerted efforts to address this issue – how to stop a compounding cycle of problems – first by reducing our risk, and suppression/response costs to wildfire and then to improve resilience to make sure that in the future, wildfire is a more manageable situation.
California is addressing this problem through policy efforts, on the ground treatment, and overall improved financing into the sector. Protecting watersheds, and forest clearing are making a difference in the remote areas while home hardening is helping communities be more resilient in the event a fire is in a city or town. Find out more about the CA Natural Resources Agency work at https://resources.ca.gov/.
Selected Biography:
About Jessica Morse, Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildland Resilience
Jessica Morse joined the California Natural Resources Agency in April 2019. As the Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildland Resilience, she is working to increase the pace and scale of science-based forest management to restore healthy forests, improve watershed health, protect California’s unique ecosystems and make Californians wildfire resilient. Before joining Governor Newsom’s administration, Morse spent nearly ten years in National Security working for the Defense Department, State Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Her assignments included a year and a half in Iraq and tours in India, Myanmar, and US Pacific Command. In 2018, Morse ran for U.S. Congress in California’s 4th Congressional District in the Sierra Nevada region. Morse is a fifth generation Northern Californian. She and her family still own and manage their original homestead forestland in the Sierra foothills. An avid backpacker, she has hiked over 500 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. Jessica holds a Masters of Public Affairs from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts in economics
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