In this study, the authors investigate a timely and important topic: forest fires. More specifically, they use a wildfire simulator to test how ladder fuels effect the burn area of a forest fire. Ladder fuels are fuels that cause a forest fire to rise up from the forest floor to the canopy, which may affect the overall spread. They simulated fire spread with different levels of ladder fuel treatment and found that the spread of a burn area would indeed decrease with increased ladder fuel treatment. These findings have important implications for forest and forest fire management.

This study collected samples from water bodies near hog farms and an aquatic environment not near a hog farm. It was hypothesized that water bodies near the hog farms would have lower water quality with higher turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH than the water body not in proximity to a hog farm because of water contamination with hog waste. Results showed that the turbidity was 4–6 times higher, TDS was 1.5–2 times higher, and pH was 3 units higher in the 2 experimental locations compared to the control location. This study and its findings are important for understanding the impact of hog farming on the proximal water bodies.