FERM would like to welcome our new Interim Department Head Dr. Claire Montgomery. We are pleased that she has agreed to lead our department for the next two years. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics with fields in resource economics and econometrics at University of Washington. Her research program includes: economics of forest land management for traditional wood products, biomass for energy, and biodiversity; economics of wildland fire; and econometric modeling of housing markets. Her current research is in development of decision support tools for fire management planning on a forest landscape and for prioritizing the placement of large-scale forest fire fuel treatment across the landscape to benefit rural communities.