Human Dimensions of Fire
Access the videos ranging from about 1:30-10:00 in length.
Description: As COVID-19 cases and wildland fire activity increase across the country, wildland fire personnel are looking for ways to quickly identify cases and prevent the spread of the disease on the fireline. The Southwest Fire Consortium will be hosting a webinar sharing information about the current state of the science and lessons learned from the 2020 wildfire season.
Presenters: Kathleen Navarro and John Piacentino from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); Alex Viktora, from the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center will provide a summary of the lessons learned from the 2020 wildland fire season; Jayson Coil from Sedona Fire will provide a view from the field after multiple fire assignments in the Southwest.
Description: Learn about the science and data used to calculate and map wildfire risk nationwide in the new Wildfire Risk to Communities website. Hear from the project’s technical lead about the use of LF and other input datasets, the methods for modeling and mapping wildfire risk, and the data products available through the website. See a demonstration of the website and how to download geospatial and tabular data.
Presenters: Greg Dillon, Frank Fay, Jim Menakis, Kelly Pohl, Joe Scott
Description: See a demonstration of the new Wildfire Risk to Communities website, including use of the interactive maps, charts, and resources available for every community, county, and state in the U.S. Learn how the website and downloadable resources can help community leaders such as elected officials, community planners, and fire managers prioritize actions to mitigate risk. Wildfire Risk to Communities is a new easy-to-use website with interactive maps, charts, and resources to help communities understand, explore, and reduce wildfire risk. It was created by the USDA Forest Service under the direction of Congress. Wildfire Risk to Communities builds on nationwide LANDFIRE data to provide new information about wildfire risk to communities across the U.S.
Presenters: Greg Dillon, Frank Fay, Jim Menakis, Kelly Pohl, Joe Scott
Description: Forest planning and management efforts, including both forest plan revision and comprehensive river management planning, require extensive public engagement. Social science approaches that are practically applied by practitioners within the public engagement process are limited. Armatas and colleagues have developed a “social vulnerability” protocol focused on peoples’ human-nature relationships that can support both decision-making and public relations.
Presenter: Chris Armatas, RMRS research social scientist
Visit the workshop website for more information.
The 4th Annual National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop theme was: Hard truths, fantastic failures and magnificent successes of cross-boundary, landscape level and community-wide implementation and focused on the following themes:
- Significant wildland fire events that are changing the way future fires are addressed,
- “Fantastic Failures” where alignment of ideas and resources did not produce the desired outcomes,
- “Magnificent Successes” where collaborative, cross-boundary collaboration, prioritization and investments have led to better wildland fire and landscape scale outcomes.
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Wildfires are increasingly common in the United States, the result of climate change, altered wildfire regimes, and expanding residential development in close proximity to wildland vegetation. Both suppression expenditures and damages are increasing as a result. Accelerating wildfire losses have been observed in other countries as well: Australia, Canada, Chile, Greece, and Portugal have all experienced record destruction due to wildfires in the past decade. Reducing wildfire losses is a daunting goal requiring a multi-part strategy across all levels of government. In the U.S., federal fire policy seeks to: create resilient landscapes and vegetation; use effective and efficient suppression; and promote fire-adapted communities where human populations and infrastructure can withstand wildfire, reducing loss of life and property.
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We analyzed the relationship between predicted housing exposure to wildfire and local self-assessment of community competence to mitigate wildfire risks in 60 communities in the western US. Results generally demonstrate that (1) the number of sources of wildfire risk influences local housing exposure to wildfire, and (2) perceived community-competence is associated with predicted exposure to wildfire. We suggest that investments in ongoing updates to community risk planning and efforts to build multi-jurisdictional risk management networks may help to leverage existing capacity, especially in moderate capacity communities. The analysis improves the social-ecological understanding of wildfire risks and highlights potential causal linkages between community capacity and wildfire exposure.
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Drawing from literature on natural hazard vulnerability, disaster recovery, and wildfire ecology, this paper proposes a linked social-ecological model of community recovery and adaptation after disaster. The model contends that changes during post-wildfire recovery shape a community’s vulnerability to the next wildfire event. While other studies have highlighted linked social-ecological dynamics that influence pre-fire vulnerability, few studies have explored social-ecological feedbacks in post-fire recovery. This model contributes to interdisciplinary social science research on wildfires and to scholarship on community recovery by integrating hazard vulnerability reduction with recovery in a cyclical framework. Furthermore, it is adaptable to a variety of hazards beyond wildfire. The model provides a basis for future empirical work examining the nature and effectiveness of recovery efforts aimed at long-term vulnerability reduction.
The overall objective of this paper is to clarify areas of debate, clearly define and contrast disparate approaches, and synthesize findings that may help address vulnerability to wildfires and other natural hazards. While land managers and fire personnel might find it pertinent to approach biophysical and social issues separately, addressing both aspects of wildfire hazard can be productive for minimizing risk and empowering communities, neighborhoods, and households to prepare and recover from wildfire events. We aim to provide a practical grasp of social vulnerability research as it relates to wildfire hazards in order to advance its application by people involved in wildland fire management in their efforts to address the social diversity and complexity they face in their wildfire prevention, mitigation, and suppression activities.