Complexities in post-wildfire governance: Lessons from Colorado’s 2020 wildfires

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Our research found that persistent administrative and coordination challenges exist within and among federal agencies in the post-fire response and recovery space. Challenges included cross- jurisdictional coordination of key emergency response programs, program rules that affect post-fire project timing and effectiveness, the absence of a formal federal post-fire response strategy, and program funding issues. These factors revealed and exacerbated scale mismatches between existing agency capacities and the post-fire landscapes that result from unprecedentedly longer, larger, and more severe wildfires occurring in the western USA. Non-federal and nongovernmental organizations were instrumental in overcoming these challenges through coordinating response and recovery efforts across both federal and private lands. To improve the federal post-fire response capacity, study participants stressed the importance of broader cross-jurisdictional use of federal resources, longer timeframes for recovery activities, and reforming the federal funding process.