Accelerating Collaborative Forest Management with Vibrant Planet
Accelerating Collaborative Forest Management with Vibrant Planet
New My Climate Journey Startup Series Episode
Today's guest is Allison Wolff, Founder and CEO at Vibrant Planet.
This year, wildfires have raged across the Western US, the Mediterranean, Australia, and parts of Canada. While many worry that the intensity and frequency of these blazes will only get worse, Vibrant Planet is on a mission to create a cloud-based planning and monitoring tool for agile, adaptive land management at scale. The company harnesses data-driven science and cloud-based technology to help community stakeholders create resiliency plans for forests that take multiple factors into account. Their goal is to help planners and policy makers save lives, avoid trillions of dollars in infrastructure loss, and restore the ability of natural systems to store carbon, deliver clean water, and support biodiversity, local economies, and recreational habits.
We have a great discussion about the state of forests across the globe, why wildfire severity is increasing, the roadblocks that have slowed progress on forest management, and the role that software and technology can play in unlocking collaboration. If you're curious about wildfires and their relationship to climate change, both in terms of how climate change is resulting in increased wildfire severity and how increased wildfire activity is creating feedback loops that reinforce global warming, you'll appreciate this conversation. And lastly, even in the face of some pretty dire numbers, we appreciate Allison’s optimism about what our forests could look like in the coming centuries, given proper care and maintenance today.
Enjoy the show!
In today’s episode, we cover:
The state of forests in the US and across the globe
Why wildfires are increasing
Intersection between land management and climate change
How some forests need fires to regenerate themselves
Effective forest management by Indigenous Peoples
What we can learn from tribes
How state and federal governments are approaching the issue
Roadblocks that have slowed progress on forest management
Allison's background in tech and transition to climate
Role of software and tech in unlocking collaboration
Stakeholders involved in planning projects
Carbon methodology for fire adapted forests