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Emily Fairfax

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Scientist

Emily Fairfax
EducationCarleton College (B.A.), University of Colorado Boulder (Ph.D.)
Occupation(s)Professor, ecohydrologist, beaver scientist, science communicator
EmployerUniversity of Minnesota
Known forResearch on beavers and wildfire, "Smokey the Beaver"
Websitehttps://www.emilyfairfaxscience.com

Emily Fairfax is an ecohydrologist, beaver researcher, and assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota. She is best known for her research describing how beavers create drought and wildfire resistant patches in the landscape. Fairfax and her research have been featured internationally in numerous written, radio, and television media programs about beavers.

Early life and education

Fairfax double-majored in Chemistry and Physics as an undergraduate at Carleton College, then went on to earn her Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Colorado Boulder. She was awarded a DoD NDSEG Fellowship for her doctoral studies, and completed graduate certificates in Hydrologic Sciences and in College Teaching while at the University of Colorado Boulder. Fairfax says that her interest in science developed at an early age—as a young child she told her that mother that wanted to walk on the rings of Saturn, but to not worry because she'd bring her car seat to be safe. She was a Girl Scout growing up and spent significant time camping outdoors and leading canoe trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which she says kindled her interest in environmental science and wetlands in particular. She began to seriously think about beavers and their relationship to climate change when she watched the PBS documentary "Leave it to Beavers".

Career

Fairfax is an ecohydrologist, beaver expert, and science communicator. She was an assistant professor of Environmental Science and Resource Management at California State University Channel Islands from 2019 to 2023. In 2023, she started a new position as an assistant professor of Physical Geography at the University of Minnesota and is affiliated with the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory. She was selected as an Environment Fellow by the Walton Family Foundation in 2024. Fairfax received the G.K. Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphological Research from the American Association of Geographers - Geomorphology Specialty Group in 2024.

Research

See also: Environmental impacts of beavers

Fairfax studies how ecosystem engineering by beavers increases the drought and fire resistance of wetland and riparian ecosystems in North America. She primarily uses remote sensing, modeling, and field work to quantify changes in ecosystem health before, during, and after disturbances in areas with and without beaver activity. Her study titled "Smokey the Beaver: beaver-dammed riparian corridors stay green during wildfire throughout the western United States" was the first scientific study to document beaver-created fire refugia and has garnered significant attention worldwide. Fairfax and this research have been featured in National Geographic, BBC, NPR, PBS, CBS News, ABC News, CBC News, AP News, Scientific American, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times, amongst others.

Fairfax argues in her research that riverscape restoration and beaver conservation are necessary components of building landscape-scale climate resilience. She has testified before the Oregon State Legislature on the science of beaver-driven climate resilience and her studies are referenced in global, regional, and state-level land management planning documents. Fairfax worked with a team of engineers from Google to build a machine-learning image recognition model called EEAGER (Earth Engine Automated Geospatial Element(s) Recognition) that can identify beaver dams in satellite and aerial imagery, in hopes of expediting the field of beaver research and the implementation of beaver-based restoration projects.

Notable publications

References

  1. "Emily Fairfax". Natural Areas Association. NAA. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  2. "Beaver dams and wildfire, a stop-motion demonstration". The Kids Should See This. February 18, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  3. Kearns, Faith. "From being an engineer to researching nature's engineers". UC ANR Forest and Research Outreach. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  4. Fairfax, Emily (March 7, 2019). "How a Beaver Became a Twitter Star". Edge Effects. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  5. Kearns, Faith. "From being an engineer to researching nature's engineers". UC ANR Forest and Research Outreach. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  6. "New faculty joining GES". UMN GES News. April 7, 2023. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  7. "SAFL Affiliated Faculty". SAFL. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  8. Foundation, Walton Family. "Ahead of Earth Day, Walton Family Foundation Announces Emily Fairfax and Meaghan Parker as New Environment Fellows". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  9. Fairfax, Emily; Whittle, Andrew (September 2, 2020). "Smokey the Beaver: beaver-dammed riparian corridors stay green during wildfire throughout the western United States". Ecological Applications. 30 (8): e02225. Bibcode:2020EcoAp..30E2225F. doi:10.1002/eap.2225. PMID 32881199. S2CID 221475263.
  10. Goldfarb, Ben. "How beavers became North America's best firefighter". National Geographic. Archived from the original on February 22, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  11. "Our Changing Planet". BBC. April 12, 2023. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  12. Blackman, Stuart. "Beavers' activities can create oases and limit spread of US wildfires". BBC Discover Wildlife. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  13. "Beavers can teach researchers a thing or two about improving wildfire resistance". NPR Morning Edition. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  14. "Beavers Build Ecosystems of Resilience". NPR Science Friday. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  15. "How beavers are helping restore wetlands and create buffers against wildfires". NPR Morning Edition. July 31, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  16. "Changing Planet: Beavers Help to Control California's Forest Fires". PBS. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  17. "Want to Solve Wildfires and Drought? Leave it to BEAVERS!". PBS Terra. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  18. Powell, Tori (August 31, 2022). "From pest to protector: How beavers are helping fight climate change". CBS Mornings. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  19. "How beaver dams can help fight wildfires". ABC News. April 6, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  20. "An unlikely ally in the face of wildfires and droughts: the humble beaver". CBC News: The Current. September 14, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  21. Taxin, Amy (July 24, 2023). "California aims to tap beavers, once viewed as a nuisance, to help with water issues and wildfires". AP News. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  22. Cusick, Daniel (July 11, 2022). "The Beaver Emerges as a 'Climate-Solving Hero'". Scientific American. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  23. Whitcomb, Isobel (February 7, 2022). "Beaver Dams Help Wildfire-Ravaged Ecosystems Recover Long after Flames Subside". Scientific American. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  24. Solis, Nathan (September 7, 2022). "California says the beaver can be superhero in fighting climate change". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  25. Einhorn, Catrin (September 6, 2022). "It Was War. Then, a Rancher's Truce With Some Pesky Beavers Paid Off". New York Times. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  26. Jordan, Chris; Fairfax, Emily (April 2022). "Beaver: The North American freshwater climate action plan". WIREs Water. 9 (4). Bibcode:2022WIRWa...9E1592J. doi:10.1002/wat2.1592. S2CID 250316459.
  27. "HB 3464 Testimony List". Oregon State Legislature. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  28. Millman, Katherine. "Beaver Management Along Roads and Within the Rightof-Way: Report and Recommendations for the Colorado Department of Transportation" (PDF). Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  29. "Spreading Like Wildfire: the Rise of Extraordinary Landscape Fires". United Nations Environment Programme. February 22, 2022.
  30. Fairfax, Emily; Zhu, Eric; Clinton, Nicholas; Maiman, Stafania; Shaikh, Aman; Macfarlane, William; Wheaton, Joseph; Ackerstein, Dan; Corwin, Eddie (May 27, 2023). "EEAGER: A Neural Network Model for Finding Beaver Complexes in Satellite and Aerial Imagery". Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 128 (6). Bibcode:2023JGRG..12807196F. doi:10.1029/2022JG007196. S2CID 258952955.
  31. Derouin, Sarah (June 16, 2023). "Mapping beaver dams with machine learning". Eos. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  32. "EEAGER: A neural network model for finding beaver complexes in satellite and aerial imagery". Publications. Google Research. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
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