Dr. Paul Hessburg

It is with regret that San Joaquin Valley Town Hall is postponing our final two lectures: Dr. Paul Hessberg, “How Do You Want Your Smoke” and Jane Pauley, “Sunday Morning on Wednesday.”

The San Joaquin Valley Town Hall Board has no choice but to postpone these lecture due to CDC instructions and the City of Fresno closing the Convention Center and Saroyan Theatre due to the COVID-19 virus. The closure will take effect immediately and continue through April 16, 2020.

The health and welfare of our audience is our primary concern, and the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus has made this decision imperative. We will be rescheduling both lecture once it is safe to do so. Your existing Dr. Paul Hessberg and Jane Pauley lecture tickets will be honored on the rescheduled dates.

Thank you for your understanding,

San Joaquin Valley Town Hall Board of Directors

Paul Hessburg, Ph.D is a research ecologist who has been studying historical and modern era forests for more than 30 years.  His work documents large changes in forest conditions and how these changes, along with climate change, have set the stage for large and severe wildfires.  Local wildfires that ravaged his favorite forests in 2014 and 2015 served as the impetus for Dr. Hessburg to make his findings more accessible to the public.   Dr. Hessburg contends that “the current megafire issue is a social problem with an ecological explanation. To tackle it, we need to understand how we got here, what’s at stake, and what each of us can do.”   His work with the Forest Service at the Pacific Northwest Research Station earned him the Forest Service’s Distinguished Scientist Award in 2017. Dr. Hessburg is also an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle.