Morse is a fifth-generation Californian. She was born in Pacifica, California, grew up in Carmichael, and Gold Run, and lives in Roseville.[1][2] She graduated from Principia College in 2004 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics. In 2010 she earned a master’s degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University, with a focus on nuclear non-proliferation and international security.[3][4]
Career
National security
Morse spent a decade working in national security for the US Defense Department, the US State Department, and the US Agency for International Development. Her assignments included time in India and Myanmar and a year and a half in Iraq at the height of the war.[5]
Natural resource management
Effects of California wildfires by year
Acres burned
Structures destroyed
Lives lost
After the Camp Fire in November 2018, Morse spent a month in Paradise, California as a volunteer, finding food, clothing, and shelter for people whose homes and belongings were destroyed in the fire.[5][6]
In 2019, Morse was appointed to the California Natural Resources Agency as Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildland Resilience.[7][8] David Ackerly of the UC Berkeley Rausser College of Natural Resouces described Morse as the architect of California's wildfire resilience strategy.[5] Morse helped secure $2.7 billion in state funding for wildfire resilience, spread over the years 2021 through 2023.[9][10] After California increased its wildfire resilience budget, damage to structures and loss of life were reduced. The number of acres burned also fell, but fluctuates considerably from year to year.[11]
Wildfire resilience requires a three-pronged strategy according to Morse: clearing defensible space around homes, creating strategic fuel breaks between wild areas and communities, and thinning forests, all of which help to protect communities from future wildfires although they do not prevent wildfires from igniting.[12][13][14] In March, 2023, in testimony on forest resilience before subcommittees of the California legislature, Morse stated that two fires in 2022 that were modeled to become megafires, the Electra Fire in Amador County and the Oak Fire in Placer County, were successfully contained because they each encountered strategic fuel breaks.[15][16]
In August 2022, Morse presented an updated forest management plan for the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, a 50,000-acre state-owned redwood forest in Mendocino County, where protests by environmentalists and tribal leaders had brought commercial logging to a halt. The updated plan features shared state and tribal forest management, an agreement to preserve larger trees from logging, and increased funding for forest restoration.[17][18][19]
In 2023, Morse was appointed to the U.S. Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, which advises federal agencies on how best to handle wildfires.[20][21][22]
Political campaigns
Morse grew up Republican, but became a Democrat in her 30s because she believes that Republicans engage in culture wars and fail to protect the environment.[23]
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