5009 Fairgrounds Road
Mariposa, CA 95338-9435
209-966-2417
aldeak@ucanr.edu
Also in:
Madera County
Fresno County
Biography
Alison recently joined University of California Cooperative Extension as a fire advisor for Mariposa, Madera, and Fresno counties. Alison is a graduate of the University of Oregon (UO) with a Masters of Science in geography and Masters of Nonprofit Management. Her research focused on modeling the effects of prescribed fire on carbon storage and wildfire severity and extent in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon and California. She also worked as a research assistant at UO's Ecosystem Workforce Program where she did natural resource-based social science research, including how organizations are working cross-boundary to mitigate wildfire risk, the impacts of wildfire smoke on communities, and socioeconomic monitoring of landscape restoration projects. Prior to graduate school, Alison worked as a wildland firefighter with the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
Alison is passionate about restoring fire-adapted ecosystems and helping people learn how to live with wildfire. She is focused on developing programming aimed at wildfire recovery on private lands, defensible space and home hardening, and expanding the use of prescribed fire.
Education
Bibliography
Peer Reviewed
- Deak, A.; Lucash, M.S., et al. (2024). Prescribed fire placement matters more than increasing frequency and extent in a simulated Pacific Northwest landscape. Ecosphere. 15:4, e4827. https://doi. org/10.1002/ecs2.4827
Deak, A.; Huber-Stearns, H., et al. (2023). Documenting Twenty Years of the Contracted Labor-Intensive Forestry Workforce on National Forest System Lands in the United States. Journal of Forestry. fvad026. https://doi.org/10.1093/jofore/fvad026
Huber-Stearns, H.; Davis, E. J.; Cheng, A. S.; Deak, A. (2022). Collective action for managing wildfire risk across boundaries in forest and range landscapes: Lessons from case studies in the western United States. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 31:10, 936-948. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF21168
Jacobson, M.; Smith, H.; Huber-Stearns, H. R.; Davis, E. J.; Cheng, A. S.; Deak, A. (2022). Comparing social constructions of wildfire risk across media, government, and participatory discourse in a Colorado fireshed. Journal of Risk Research, 25(6), 697-714. Journal of Risk Research. 25:6, 697-714.
Davis, E. J.; Huber-Stearns, H.; Caggiano, M.; McAvoy, D.; Cheng, A. S.; Deak, A.; Evans, A. (2022). Managed Wildfire: A Strategy Facilitated by Civil Society Partnerships and Interagency Cooperation. Society & Natural Resources. 35:8, 914-932.
Non-Peer Reviewed
- Deak, Alison (2024). Smoke Readiness: Preparing for Wildfire Smoke. UC ANR Fire Network Factsheet. https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/files/398939.pdf
- Deak, A. (2023). Post-fire erosion control: Mitigating hillslope erosion following a wildfire. Forest Factsheets. University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Forest Stewardship. 3.
Coughlan, Michael; Huber-Stearns, Heidi; Clark, Benjamin; Deak, Alison. (2023). Public Response to the 2020 Wildfire Smoke Event in Oregon. Sixth Oregon Climate Assessment. E. Fleishman. Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University. 112-122. https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/occri/oregon-climate-assessments
Coughlan, M. R.; Huber-Stearns, H.; Clark, B.; Deak, A. (2022). Oregon Wildfire Smoke Communications and Impacts: An Evaluation of the 2020 Wildfire Season. Working Paper 111. University of Oregon Ecosystem Workforce Program. 50 pp. https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/27179
Kaplowitz, G.; Deak, A., et al. (2022). Perceptions of Air Quality and Smoke in Oakridge, OR: Results from Pilot Interviews with Key Informants. Working Paper 112. University of Oregon Ecosystem Workforce Program. 14.
Deak, A; Coughlan, M.R. (2022). Social and economic monitoring for the Lakeview Stewardship CFLR Project, FY 2020-21: Addendum to the 2012-2019 ecological, social , and economic monitoring report. Working Paper 112. University of Oregon Ecosystem Workforce Program.