Scott Abella (Life Sciences) and his collaborators at the University of California, Berkeley, received a $48,000 award (UNLV portion) from the congressionally authorized Joint Fire Science Program. This nationally competitive funding agency supports fire research in wildlands and the wildland-urban interface across the United States. The purpose of the grant is to develop a fire science research consortium for California fire-dependent ecosystems and extending to the Mojave Desert of Southern California and southwestern Nevada around Las Vegas.