"Do You Hear What I Hear?" - A Sensory Portrait of Wildland Fire
PANEL DISCUSSION: Thursday, December 11, 2025 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM EST
People usually focus on the visual aspects of fire, and the smell of smoke, but we rarely appreciate how we use, or should use, our other senses to describe or even identify fire effects. Sound is a fundamental part of our experience when interacting with the world around us and is so fundamental that we often forget to question what it is we are really hearing. Our long relationship with all aspects of fire, including the sounds of fire, are deeply intuitive and yet also elusive. What is creating the crackling sound we hear when vegetation burns? What is that sound really telling us about the exchange between vegetation and fire? What sounds are involved that lead to a safe or unsettling feeling when around wildland fire? In this Panel we will take a dive into the acoustical dance between vegetation and fire, where is this sound really coming from and what is it really telling us, and what else is going on besides what we hear.
This panel discussion has been approved for 1.5 Category 1 CFE's by the Society of American Foresters.
Kara Yedinak (Moderator)
Dr. Kara Yedinak is a research scientist with the US Forest Service, Northern Research Station in conjunction with the USFS Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. She has been working in wildland fire science for 20 years, using a variety of interdisciplinary techniques to unravel fire behavior and embrace the complex characteristics inherent to natural systems. Kara began investigating the sounds from wildland fires over 10 years ago and now leads research teams on this topic across the country. Her passion for this scientific pursuit is deepened through listening to the stories that people share about their interactions with fire. Kara received a BS in Physics at Pacific University and a PhD in Engineering Science from Washington State University.
Bree Putman (Panelist)
Dr. Bree Putman is an Assistant Professor of Biology at California State University, Long Beach. She researches animal responses to rapid human-induced environmental change, including wildfires. She looks at why some animals are better at responding to changes compared to others and whether they adjust their traits (behavior, morphology, or physiology) to live in altered environments. She uses a variety of methods, including on-the-ground research, analyses of online publicly available datasets, and laboratory studies to achieve research goals.
Mate Szoke (Panelist)
Dr Máté (Matt) Szőke is a Senior Engineer at Blue Ridge Research and Consulting (BRRC), LLC. At BRRC, he is currently working on understanding noise of forest fires with the motivation of improving safety and enhancing efficiency of firefighting. Máté received his PhD in aerospace engineering from University of Bristol, (UK). Prior to joining BRRC, he worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Aerospace Engineering Department of Virginia Tech
Omar Marcillo (Panelist)
Omar Marcillo, Ph.D., is a scientist working for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Dr. Marcillo joined ORNL in 2020 after working for 7 years as a staff scientist in the Geophysics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His research focuses on understanding the generation and propagation of infrasound and the development of seismo-acoustic techniques and instrumentation to improve characterization of energetic sources.
Zachary Prusak (Panelist)
Zachary Prusak is a Wildland Fire Training Specialist with the Tall Timbers Research Station in Florida and serves on the board for the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils. Zach assesses the training needs of a wide variety of fire professionals including state, federal, local and private conservation groups and landowners, and then provides solutions, including improving training notification methods as well as constructing new hybrid fire course materials for both NWCG and non-Federal fire practitioners. Previously Zach served as the Florida Fire Manager for The Nature Conservancy, and he has close to 38 years of fire experience, is qualified as a Prescribed Fire Burn Boss Type 2 (RXB2) and is a State Certified Prescribed Burn Manager in Florida. He also provides Voice Over work for a variety of projects.
Our Panel
List of resources shared during the discussion:
Popping/cracking vegetation
Mid-frequency
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Mechanisms of combustion noise Coming soon (2026)
Infrasound