Webinar
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This webinar was recorded on January 10, 2018 and featured Rachel Reimer, Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada.
This project utilized a feminist appreciative approach to Action Research to facilitate a conversation about gender and leadership within the British Columbia Wildfire Service (BCWS). The research question was, “How might understanding gender and leadership support excellence in the BCWS?” This study found that amongst diverse perspectives on gender and leadership, ultimately gender discrimination is occurring within wildland fire culture in the BCWS. Participants suggested action steps based on supporting organizational and leadership learning through non-judgemental, safe spaces for dialogue. This provided an opportunity for the BCWS to transform the challenges associated with gender discrimination in the wildland fire profession through organizational learning.
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In the United States, multi-jurisdictional fire suppression demand is met by a national-scale pool of suppression resources that come from a variety of jurisdictions and provide a wide range of skills, experience, and associated mobility limitations and logistical needs. We designed and implemented an online survey of U.S. Forest Service employees who hold direct or indirect responsibility for ordering suppression resources; our main research objective was to identify the field’s perceptions of resource importance, scarcity, and substitutability. Importantly, we asked questions to help distinguish between resources that are high value, scarce, and without substitutes versus ones that are low value, readily available, and highly substitutable. We hypothesized that resource ordering patterns change with elevated resource scarcity and that, because of this, true resource demand and frequent resource associations and substitutions are not reflected in dispatch summary reports. In this webinar, we will present an overview of our survey results, including future research and analysis plans. Additionally, we will relate the discussion back to firefighter risk, exposure, and risk transfer themes.
Crystal Stonesifer, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Human Dimensions, presents.
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Join Climate Science for a discussion on how climatic changes can influence wildland fire activity across the globe and how these critical fire weather variables have changed over the last 40 years.
These changes in key weather variables have combined to both lengthen the fire season and increase the fire weather severity within the fire season. With more area burned each year, the Forest Service is exploring innovate ways to finance conservation and restoration work. The Blue Forest Conservation’s Forest Resilience Bond invests in restoration projects that protect forest health, mitigating both wildfire and drought risk. Contracting with both public and private beneficiaries to monetize the multifaceted benefits of forest restoration, the Forest Resilience Bond creates value for a diverse set of stakeholders (including the US Forest Service, water and electric utilities, private water-dependent companies, state governments, and insurance companies).
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In this webinar, Frank Lake, Research Ecologist with the Pacific Southwest Research Station will present findings from workshops held in 2012 and 2014 to investigate how traditional and western knowledge can be used to enhance wildland fire and fuels management and research. The workshops engaged tribal members, managers, and researchers to identify challenges and formulate solutions regarding cross-jurisdictional work, fuel reduction strategies, and wildland fire management and research involving lands important to tribes. A key conclusion from the workshops is that successful management of wildland fire and fuels requires collaborative partnerships that share traditional and western fire knowledge through culturally sensitive consultation, coordination, and communication for building trust. Dr. Lake will present a framework for developing these partnerships based on workshop discussions.
Bruce Roundy, Brigham Young University, discusses indicators of resilience and resistance of sagebrush steppe communities associated with soil temperature and water availability as learned from SageSTEP.
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While the number of acres burned annually by uncharacteristic wildfire continues to grow, it is becoming exceedingly important for agencies to identify opportunities to use wildfire to meet multiple land management and resource objectives. When conditions allow for unplanned ignitions to be managed for one or more of these objectives, it may be appropriate to use wildfire during the peak of the traditional fire season. Management response to wildland fire on federal lands is based on objectives established in the applicable Land/Resource Management Plan and/or Fire Management Plan. Objectives are affected by changes in fuels, weather, topography; varying social understanding and tolerance; and involvement of other governmental jurisdictions having different missions and objectives. Coordination with resource specialists and development of mutually agreed to objectives is fundamental to being successful in achieving land and resource objectives with wildfire. This webinar discusses recommendations for implementing this process using case studies incorporating Mexican spotted owl management objectives into wildfire management and post-fire monitoring. Presented by Shaula Hedwall, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Wesley Hall, Coconino National Forest.
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Local plans, such as the comprehensive plan, economic development plan, and transportation plan, establish policies that are intended to guide a community’s day-to-day land use decisions and capital facilities expenditures. These policies have a major impact on whether people and property are exposed to natural hazards as well as the extent to which they are vulnerable to injury and damage. Therefore, it is imperative that these policies are based on best available hazard data, including the nature of local hazards, the vulnerability of people and property, and the potential destruction that can be caused by these hazards. This hazard data is the foundation on which natural hazard mitigation plans are developed.
Join the FEMA Region 10 Mitigation Planning Team and guest speakers as they look at opportunities for integration, review examples, and identify resources to integrate plans into local plans.
This webinar describes a project that uses management-related variation in grazing by both feral horses and livestock as well as five years of field work to assess how both greater sage-grouse and the habitats on which they depend might be influenced by grazing.
The research team includes James S. Sedinger, Tessa L. Behnke, Levi Jaster and Phillip A. Street from the University of Nevada Reno.
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This Joint Fire Science Program project used a case-study approach to examine what influenced smoke perceptions and to experiment with possible communication strategies. Key findings regarding smoke perceptions include the influence of the source of fire smoke, the perceived trade-offs of risk vs. benefits from smoke, and how respondents view smoke and fuel reduction activities. Observations on communication strategies and suggestions for future interactions with both the public and within agencies will also be discussed.
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Greater sage-grouse have declined since the mid-1960s, and grazing is the most extensive land use within sage-grouse habitat. The webinar presents progress on a 10-year project designed to document the effects of cattle grazing on: 1) demographic traits of greater sage-grouse; 2) sage-grouse habitat characteristics, 3) insect abundance (important prey for sage-grouse chicks), and 4) abundance of all other bird species. The research team is working at five study sites in Idaho where they randomly assign BLM pastures to one of four grazing treatments that include spring-only grazing, spring and fall grazing, and no grazing. The research team includes Courtney Conway (Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit), Karen Launchbaugh (University of Idaho), David Musil (Idaho Department of Fish and Game), Andrew Meyers (University of Idaho), Paul Makela (Bureau of Land Management), and Shane Roberts (Idaho Department of Fish and Game).