News from the Oregon Hazards Lab

University of Oregon’s Oregon Hazard Lab remains a resource for firefighters when it comes to detecting fast-spreading fires in remote areas, offering dozens of cameras around the state to help officials monitor emergency situations. The lab originally started off as a seismic monitoring lab. Across the state they have seismic monitoring stations and then added wildfire detection cameras in 2018.

Spend a day at Huckleberry Mountain Lookout with the Oregon Hazards Lab! Follow along as our student field technicians upgrade the location’s seismic monitoring station. Each station collects real-time ground motion data for seismic hazards research and the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System.

The Bureau of Land Management has kept about 98% of fires under 10 acres so far this year. They credit quick response times, ample respources, and new technology, particularly Oregon Hazards Lab wildfire detection cameras. Positioned across Oregon, the cameras can detect new ignitions and alert authorities to fires in remote terrain, potentially catching blazes that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.

Oregon faces complex challenges, from the risk of a megathrust earthquake to the growing impact of wildfires. OHAZ is implementing transformative solutions to these problems, driven by scientific research, technological innovation, and community engagement. We are co-evolving alongside the University of Oregon through Oregon Rising, the university’s strategic plan for the next decade. Oregon Rising will help to accelerate the university’s impact on our students, our state, our nation, and the world.

The latest edition of the quarterly Oregon Hazards Lab newsletter has arrived! We share more information about several exciting new projects, including deploying new wildfire cameras at the wildland-urban interface in Southwest Oregon and expanding our suite of rapid-response camera kits. We also update you on our plans for the upcoming field season and licensed alert deliver partners for the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System.

For close to 150 years, the University of Oregon has powered American progress. Across Oregon, research strengthens the systems that keep communities safe and prepares us for natural disasters. Protecting education and investing in research is about protecting the future we all share. Today, that future is challenged due to recent and proposed cuts to federal research funding that could dramatically slow the pace of scientific progress.