Jacob Job: bird recovery at Rocky Mountain National Park after wildfire
Free outdoor talk on bird recovery in RMSP after the East Troublesome Fire using bioacoustics, presented by Jacob Job at Kingery Nature Center. Jul 9, 6:30–8:30 PM MDT.
Why we picked this
Jacob Job's bioacoustics research tracks bird recovery after the 2020 East Troublesome Fire — one of the largest wildfires in Colorado history — using autonomous sound recorders deployed across the burn scar to monitor which species return and when.
Researcher Jacob Job presents findings from his bioacoustics monitoring work in Rocky Mountain National Park following the 2020 East Troublesome Fire, which burned more than 193,000 acres and reshaped habitat across a significant portion of the park’s western slope. The talk covers how bioacoustics — using autonomous audio recorders to capture bird vocalizations — has helped track which species have returned to burned areas and how recovery patterns vary by fire severity and elevation.
The East Troublesome Fire created a rare natural experiment in bird community dynamics. Some species that prefer open or early-successional habitat have moved in; others that depend on mature forest are still absent. Bioacoustics monitoring allows researchers to cover large areas systematically, something traditional point count surveys can’t achieve at the same scale.
The presentation takes place in the outdoor classroom at Kingery Nature Center in Littleton. The two-hour event is free to attend. This is a good opportunity for anyone interested in citizen science, wildlife monitoring methods, or the ecological aftermath of large wildfires.