STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The snowpack in the Big Wood River basin is just 80 percent with winter winding down. And parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico are in even worse shape.

Learn about the size and severity of wildfires, reduced water quality and the severe health impacts from wildfire smoke and summer heat that the West faces as we move into a warmer future Tuesday night.

Dr. Jen Pierce, associate professor in the Department of Geosciences at Boise State University, will talk about wildfires and local solutions at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 16. The talk will be livestreamed at https://livestream.com/comlib

Pierce is passionate about instituting climate science education in schools to prepare future generations to address these realities. She also studies soils and carbon storage.

The talk is the third in the Wood River Land Trust’s “Thinking Globally, Acting Locally Speaker Series.”

Following Pierce’s discussion, the Land Trust’s Restoration Specialist Ryan Santo will discuss the projects the WRLT is working on to increase the fishery resilience in the Wood River Valley. He and Pierce will leave time to take questions from the audience.