BOISE, Idaho, Sept. 29 -- Boise State University issued the following news release:
"I don't do fire."
That's Assistant Professor Anna Bergstrom describing her early career focus. Now she's leading a project funded by a National Science Foundation CAREER grant to study the impact of fire on streambeds in the Mountain West.
What led to the shift in research focus? A confluence of factors: expertise, community and need. As a watershed hydrologist and biogeochemist, Bergstrom is well-positioned to study the landscapes fire leaves behind. Her colleague Professor Jen Pierce introduced her to field sites studying post-fire debris flow. And as wildfire becomes more common in a warming West, land managers and the public need the insights Bergstr...