Staff

Business and Ecology Consulting's wildfire programs are led by Dr. Anne Fege. She is a leader and strategic planner who brings people together to work on common goals, a program manager who sets and meets expectations, and an educator who encourages people to value learning.  Fege’s thirty-year career in natural resources encompass land management, biodiversity and habitat conservation, recreation and urban interface issues, wildland fire preparedness and recovery, water resources and conservation, community involvement, financial and personnel accountability, and environmental education.  She holds appointments as Botany Research Associate at the San Diego Natural History Museum, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biology at San Diego State University.  Fege is widely known as a co-founder of the San Diego Partners for Biodiversity and San Diego Fire Recovery Network; co-curator of the recent Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE exhibition at the San Diego Natural History Museum; and Forest Supervisor of the Cleveland National Forest (460,000 acres in Orange, Riverside and San Diego Counties) from 1991 to 2004.

Business and Ecology Consulting staff include:

• Dan Eliseuson, Fire Information Specialist
• Sally Gault-Miller, Education Specialist

Instructors for the “Living with Wildfire” course have also included:

• Cliff Hunter, Fire Marshal, Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District
• Dave Bacon, Retired Fire Management Officer and Owner, Firewise2000, Inc.
• George Lucia, Fire Chief, Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Department
• Kay Stewart, Landscape Architect 
• Mike Scott, Urban Forester, Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District
• Richard Halsey, California Chaparral Institute
• Terre Lien, Development Services, City of San Diego

Cooperators and local experts for the “Living with Wildfire” program include:

KAY STEWART, M.A., Owner, Kay Stewart Landscape Architect
Katherine “Kay” Stewart received a BA and MA in biology, and held positions between 1969 and 1983 at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, California State Parks, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the US Forest Service. After earning a second Bachelor's of Landscape Architecture in 1984, Stewart worked for David Reed, Landscape Architect on residential, institutional, and commercial projects. She was registered as Landscape Architect  #2967 in California in 1989 and opened her own practice. Stewart has planned landscapes for 300 clients to date, serving homeowners and small natural preserve landholders. Her expertise includes practices to promote water conservation and fire-risk reduction in the landscape.

DAVE BACON, Owner, FIREWISE 2000, Inc.
FIREWISE2000, Inc. creates proactive fire safe and wildland fire resistant protection plans for single family dwellings, residential communities and subdivisions, industrial and commercial properties, new construction and retro-fits that meet or exceed all local, county, and state ordinances.  Utilizing decades of experience in the field as firefighting professionals and BEHAVE Plus analysts, the firm has developed a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach that creates fire safe communities while protecting the natural environment.  FIREWISE 2000, Inc. employs recognized experts in fire prevention planning and the development of detailed risk assessments of potential fire hazards for residential and commercial properties.

JAMES ABSHER, Ph.D., US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station (cooperator)
Jim Absher is a Research Social Scientist for the US Forest Service who works out of the Pacific Southwest Research Station’s Riverside Fire Laboratory in Riverside, CA.  For over thirty years he has conducted a broad range of social science studies related to natural resource management issues, and has been involved with wildland fire studies for over seven years.  His focus in this area is primarily on homeowners’ defensible space behaviors and the policies and programs that enable loss mitigation and preparedness at the individual and community level.  Absher has authored or co-authored more than thirty journal articles, book chapters, technical reports and conference presentations on the human dimensions of wildland fire.