Van Kane

  • Associate Research Professor
    • 206-543-1464
  • Visit Van's website

    • Van R. Kane

    • Associate Research Professor

    Research areas

    Ecosystem science; forest structure

    B.A., General Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University
    Ph.D., Ecosystem Analysis, University of Washington

    In Dr. Kane’s Forest Resilience Laboratory, we are forest and fire landscape ecologists who make extensive use of high-fidelity remote sensing data, especially airborne lidar, to enable analyses ranging in scale from stands to landscapes.

    Forests across the world are under stress from climate change, legacies of management, and fire.  Our work studies the causes and effects of these forces on forest resilience, and we work with forest managers to apply our findings to improve forest resilience.

    Our studies have included the effects of fire and drought, habitat, biomass, forest assessments, and restoration planning to improve forest resilience.

    Autumn 2026: Van R. Kane is not currently accepting graduate students for the 2026-27 school year. 

     

    Current sponsored projects

    • Southern Sierra All Lands Restoration and Recovery Program

    • Carbon Monitoring System: Continuing Prototype Development

    • Fuel & Fire Decisions

    • Lidar data used to support forest management by federal, state, and local agencies in California

    • Northeast Washington Vision 2020 vegetation monitoring and implementation

    • Using advanced remote sensing to estimating woody shrub biomass: a pilot study in the Susitna-Copper inventory unit of interior Alaska

    • Evaluation of digital aerial photogrammetry data to characterize forest conditions

    • King County, WA Forest Stewardship Partnership

    • Determining forest resilience to drought-induced mortality with effects on carbon storage

    • Improving Forest Management and Conservation with Airborne LiDAR Data Across Western Oregon

    • Integrating satellite data, bioregional-scale monitoring, and artificial intelligence to enhance biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience

    • Improving predictions of fire impacts after mega drought: Lessons for carbon storage, defending the WUI, and improving resilience and recovery following the 2020 Creek Fire

    Selected publications

    LeFevre, M.E., Churchill, D.J., Larson, A.J., Jeronimo, S.M.A., Bass, J., Franklin, J.F., Kane, V.R. 2020. Evaluating restoration treatment effectiveness through a comparison of residual composition, structure, and spatial pattern with historical reference sites. Forest Science.

    Povak, N.A., Kane, V.R., Collins, B.M., Lydersen, J.M. and Kane, J.T., 2020. Multi-scaled drivers of severity patterns vary across land ownerships for the 2013 Rim Fire, California. Landscape Ecology, 35(2), pp.293-318.

    Jeronimo, S.M.A., Lutz, J.A., Kane, V.R., Larson, A.J., Franklin, J.F. 2020. Modeling tree death in a landscape context: Structural drivers of immediate and delayed fire mortality. Landscape Ecol (2020).

    Kane, V.R., Bartl-Geller B.N., Kane, J.T., Jeronimo, S.M.A, North, M.P., Collins, B., Lydersen, J., L.M. Moskal. 2019. First-entry fires can create forest tree clump and opening patterns characteristic of historic resilient forests.  Forest Ecology and Management. 454:117659.

    Jeronimo, S.M.A., Kane, V.R., Churchill, D.J., Lutz, J.A., North, M.P., Franklin, J.F. 2109. Forest structure and pattern vary by climate and landform across active-fire landscapes in the montane Sierra Nevada. Forest Ecology and Management. 437:70-86.

    North, M., Kane, J., Kane, V., Asner, G, Berigan, V., Churchill, D., Conway, S., Gutierrez, R., Jeronimo, S., Keane, J., Koltunov, A., Mark, T., Moskal, M., Munton, T., Peery, Z., Rameriz, C., Sollmann, R., White, A., Whitmore, S. 2017. Cover of tall trees best predicts California spotted owl habitat.  Forest Ecology and Management.  405: 166-178.

    Kane, V.R., Cansler, C.A., Povak, N.A., Kane, J.T., McGaughey, R.J., Lutz, J.A., Churchill, D.J., North, M.P. 2015b.  Mixed severity fire effects within the Rim fire: Relative importance of local climate, fire weather, topography, and forest structure. Forest Ecology and Management. 358, 62–79.

    Kane, V.R., North, M.P., Lutz, J.A., Churchill, D.J., Roberts, S.L., Smith, D.F., McGaughey, R.J., Kane, J.T., Brooks, M.L., 2014. Assessing fire effects on forest spatial structure using a fusion of Landsat and airborne LiDAR data in Yosemite National Park. Remote Sensing of Environment. 151, 89–101.

    Kane, V.R., Lutz, J.A., Roberts, S.L., Smith, D.F., McGaughey, R.J., Povak, N.A., Brooks, M.L., 2013. Landscape-scale effects of fire severity on mixed-conifer and red fir forest structure in Yosemite National Park. Forest Ecology and Management. 287, 17–31.

    Kane, V.R., Gersonde, R.F., Lutz, J.A., McGaughey, R.J., Bakker, J.D., Franklin, J.F. 2011. Patch dynamics and the development of structural and spatial heterogeneity in Pacific Northwest forests. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 41, 2276-2291.

    Kane, V.R., Bakker, J.D., McGaughey, R.J., Lutz, J.A., Gersonde, R.F., Franklin, J.F., 2010. Comparisons between field- and LiDAR-based measures of stand structural complexity. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 40, 761–773.