Wildland Fire and Fuels Specialist, Spatial Informatics Group

Taro is a Wildfire Behavior Analyst and Advisor contributing to the Wildfire Forecasting Team. He is passionate about science-based, progressive fuel treatments and the management of natural lightning ignitions. Taro surveyed timber for a forestry consulting firm in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon before changing his focus to wildland fire. He has worked in fire management for Yosemite National Park, the Bureau of Land Management, Bishop Field Office, and Inyo National Forest. He is a fire behavior analyst on an interagency incident management team and maintains qualifications including type 3 incident commander and operations section chief, type 1 burn boss, strategic operational planner, division supervisor, firing boss, field observer, and advanced tree faller and climber. Taro holds a bachelor’s in Natural Resources and Forestry from UC Berkeley.