This strategic plan is a technical discussion of the implementation and development of models and data systems used to manage the air quality impacts of wildland and prescribed fires. Strategies and priorities in the plan were generated by the Express Team (chartered by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group) and a diverse group of 86 subject matter experts who attended a national planning workshop.Air pollution from fires used to manage ecosystems is an issue in many parts of the country. Land managers are rapidly expanding the use of fire for managing ecosystems, while air resource managers are accelerating efforts to reduce the impacts of fires on air quality. This plan provides a conceptual design as a first step toward balancing these goals, identifies information needs to support management and policy development, and identifies strategies for developing and implementing models and data systems. The conceptual design was based around a three-dimensional array of air resource components and fire management components at various project scales. This array was reduced to nine program elements, each with a description of their scope, current situation, desired state, and strategies to reach that state.The Express Team recommends nine summary strategies as a synthesis of internal discussions, review comments, and proceedings of the national workshop. The strategies recommended relate to:• Fuel and fire characterization• Emission modeling systems• Transport, dispersion, and secondary pollutant formation• Air quality impact assessment• Emissions tradeoffs and determination of natural visibility• Impact and risk assessment of emissions from fires• Monitoring guidelines and protocols• National fire and air quality information database• Public information and protection Keywords: Fire, air, wildland fire, fire effects, fire management, fire modeling, air quality, air pollution, air resource management, data systems. SummaryThis strategic plan is a technical discussion intended to foster efficient development and implementation of models and data systems used to manage the air quality impacts of wildland and prescribed fires. The Express Team that developed this was sanctioned by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) Fire Use Working Team. Strategies and priorities recommended in the plan were generated by the Express Team and a diverse group of 86 experts who attended a national planning workshop sponsored by NWCG agencies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in November 1997.Fire has become an increasingly integral part of ecosystem management, but air pollutants emitted from those fires are an issue in many parts of the country. Policy development is underway to guide the expected increase and continuation in the use of prescribed fire and to improve air quality with respect to fine particulates, visibility, ozone, and regional haze. This plan provides the conceptual design and strategic direction as a first step in meeting the growing need for information to manage emissions from fire.Managing...

An assessment of existing and potential impacts to vegetation, aquatics, and visibility within the Columbia River basin due to air pollution was conducted as part of the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project. This assessment examined the current situation and potential trends due to pollutants such as ammonium, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, particulates, carbon, and ozone. Ecosystems and resources at risk are identified, including certain forests, lichens, cryptogamic crusts, highelevation lakes and streams, arid lands, and class I areas. Current monitoring data are summarized and air pollution sources identified. The assessment also includes a summary of data gaps and suggestions for future research and monitoring related to air pollution and its effects on resources in the interior Columbia River basin.

One of the most important questions facing resource management is how to regulate industries exploiting natural resources. Currently there is an effort in the Maine lobster industry to get lower trap limits, which provides an opportunity to get detailed information on the political factors influencing legislation in an important and highly successful industry. In many industries, including the Maine lobster industry, many laws come in the aftermath of conflict between industry factions seeking laws to get distributional benefits. In the Maine lobster industry, the politics of getting lower trap limits are byzantine. Two factions have different models of the fishery, leading them to advocate different policies. The positions of people in each faction are very complicated. Those favoring a lower trap limit assume the industry is highly inefficient and that a lower trap limit would result in better catches per trap haul, lower costs of operations and higher profits. Some of those opposing a trap limit assume fishing more traps will lower profits; others assume it will raise profits. Those opposing lower trap limits offer five different sets of reasons for their viewpoint. To date, efforts to impose a lower trap limit have been blocked, but a number of factors could change the strength of the factions and tip the balance. In this industry, resource management policy is being made in an atmosphere in which different industry groups are pulling in different directions for complex sets of reasons.

In this article, we explore the social, cultural, and political factors promoting and impeding development of offshore wind power in Maine, using the perspective of rational choice theory. Offshore floating wind platforms involve a new technology still in the experimental stage. Developing offshore wind power will require having very large scale organizations to build and finance wind farms capable of generating and transmitting electricity at competitive rates. But many obstacles can impede developing offshore wind power, including technical and financial problems and the level of support from the public and politicians. Our survey of the attitudes of three subgroups of Maine coastal people revealed substantial differences of opinion. Those in favor want to curb greenhouse gases and reduce dependence on foreign oil. Others are opposed because they fear negative effects (e.g., aesthetics; noise; reduced fishing area; mortality of animals, birds, or fish). From the perspective of rational choice theory, offshore wind power poses a collective action dilemma. Despite the need to develop renewable energy sources in a world facing climate change and shortages of cheap energy, development of offshore wind power in Maine will not succeed unless this dilemma is overcome. This does not appear likely to happen in the foreseeable future.

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