Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark will tell the story of Washington’s 2015 record-breaking wildfire season, describing the environmental, social and economic impact on our state. As our climate changes, how can we best prevent a trend of million-acre wildfire seasons? Are our communities, forests and grasslands ready and resilient enough for what may be coming?
Office of the Provost Invited Address
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Reception at 1:30 p.m., Lecture at 2:00 p.m.
CUB Junior Ballroom 210*
Washington’s Brutal Wildfires:
A Call to Action
Dr. Peter Goldmark
Commissioner of Public Lands
Washington State Department of Natural Resources
*This invited address will also be broadcast via AMS (videoconference) for remote participants. Questions: Please contact Kristina Peterson-Wilson (kpeterson2@wsu.edu or 509-335-8915).
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Brief Biography
Peter Goldmark is the 13th Commissioner of Public Lands since statehood in 1889, and the fifth Commissioner to manage the Department of Natural Resources, an agency which assumed its current form in 1957. He was elected by the people of Washington in 2008 and began his first four-year term in January 2009. In November 2012, voters reelected him to serve a second four-year term as Commissioner of Public Lands.
A scientist by training and a Washington native, Goldmark was raised on his family’s ranch in the Okanogan Highlands. After receiving his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971, he traveled to Harvard University for a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology. In 1972 he returned to Washington to raise his family, run his own business and make a life as a rancher.
