Karen Kopper

Karen Kopper has been Fire Ecologist for the North Pacific/Columbia Basin National Parks based out of North Cascades NPS Complex for over two decades.  As a fire ecologist, she manages the fire effects monitoring program, conducts fire ecology research, contributes to fire management planning documents, and leads the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) projects for wildfires, including the Sourdough fire. In 2022 she completed her doctorate at the University of Washington on fire regimes in National Parks of the Pacific Northwest, with chapters on fire history, fuel mapping, and management strategies for climate change.  She recently transitioned to the Northeast Regional Fire Ecologist position where she will continue to connect fire management to science in this challenging era of climate change.