U.S. wildfire governance as social-ecological problem

Steelman, Toddi A.

doi:10.5751/es-08681-210403

Cited by 119 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Wildfire and the threat it poses to society represents an example of the complex, dynamic relationship between social and ecological systems (Fischer et al 2016, Steelman 2016). Understanding this relationship as an integrated social-ecological system (SES) highlights the ways in which the human and biophysical subsystems are engaged in ongoing interaction rather than as distinct systems that can be managed separately (Gallopin 1991).…”

Section: Wildfire As a Social-ecological Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of wildland fire, the sectors engaged to undertake public outreach and education/ incentive programs, land and resource management, and fire suppression operate largely at different social, spatial, and temporal scales. Spatial and temporal disconnects have been noted to rest within the very policies intended to attend to the current wildfire dilemmas (Steelman 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Where you stand depends on where you sit: qualitative inquiry into notions of fire adaptation

Brenkert–Smith¹,

Meldrum²,

Champ³

et al. 2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Wildfire and the threat it poses to society represents an example of the complex, dynamic relationship between social and ecological systems. Increasingly, wildfire adaptation is posited as a pathway to shift the approach to fire from a suppression paradigm that seeks to control fire to a paradigm that focuses on "living with" and "adapting to" wildfire. In this study, we seek insights into what it means to adapt to wildfire from a range of stakeholders whose efforts contribute to the management of wildfire. Study participants provided insights into the meaning, relevance, and use of the concept of fire adaptation as it relates to their wildfire-related activities. A key finding of this investigation suggests that social scale is of key importance in the conceptualization and understanding of adaptation for participating stakeholders. Indeed, where you stand in terms of understandings of fire adaptation depends in large part on where you sit.

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Section: Wildfire As a Social-ecological Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where you stand depends on where you sit: qualitative inquiry into notions of fire adaptation

Brenkert–Smith¹,

Meldrum²,

Champ³

et al. 2017

E&S

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“…In a broader context, the agent-based Envision policy modeling system can also be used to investigate many other social and biophysical aspects of wildfires, and contribute to disentangling the potential effects of climate, succession, and management on future fire regimes. Future research with the model can potentially provide insights into the temporal scale mismatches (Cumming et al 2006) between short-and long-term wildfire risk management that contribute to fragmented wildfire risk governance systems (Steelman 2016 No effect in canopy cover or layering. Increases surface fuels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2). The model and its application have been described in a number of papers (Guzy et al 2008, Hulse et al 2009, 2016) and we only briefly described them with an emphasis on the wildfire submodel. For additional details concerning the development and testing of the wildfire submodel see Ager et al (2017) and Ager, Barros, Day et al (unpublished manuscript).…”

Section: Envision Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of accelerated wildfire on future fire regimes and implications for the United States federal fire policy

Ager¹,

Barros²,

Preisler³

et al. 2017

E&S

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. 2017. Effects of accelerated wildfire on future fire regimes and implications for the United States federal fire policy. Ecology and Society 22 (4) ABSTRACT. Wildland fire suppression practices in the western United States are being widely scrutinized by policymakers and scientists as costs escalate and large fires increasingly affect social and ecological values. One potential solution is to change current fire suppression tactics to intentionally increase the area burned under conditions when risks are acceptable to managers and fires can be used to achieve long-term restoration goals in fire adapted forests. We conducted experiments with the Envision landscape model to simulate increased levels of wildfire over a 50-year period on a 1.2 million ha landscape in the eastern Cascades of Oregon, USA. We hypothesized that at some level of burned area fuels would limit the growth of new fires, and fire effects on the composition and structure of forests would eventually reduce future fire intensity and severity. We found that doubling current rates of wildfire resulted in detectable feedbacks in area burned and fire intensity. Area burned in a given simulation year was reduced about 18% per unit area burned in the prior five years averaged across all scenarios. The reduction in area burned was accompanied by substantially lower fire severity, and vegetation shifted to open forest and grass-shrub conditions at the expense of old growth habitat. Negative fire feedbacks were slightly moderated by longer-term positive feedbacks, in which the effect of prior area burned diminished during the simulation. We discuss trade-offs between managing fuels with wildfire versus prescribed fire and mechanical fuel treatments from a social and policy standpoint. The study provides a useful modeling framework to consider the potential value of fire feedbacks as part of overall land management strategies to build fire resilient landscapes and reduce wildfire risk to communities in the western U.S. The results are also relevant to prior climate-wildfire studies that did not consider fire feedbacks in projections of future wildfire activity.

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“…Numerous and well‐known drivers of wildfire losses to social and ecological values have been widely discussed, including increasing development pressure in wildlands (Radeloff et al., , Stewart, Radeloff, Hammer, & Hawbaker, ), climate anomalies (Jolly et al., ; Trigo et al., ), rural abandonment (Benayas, Martins, Nicolau, & Schulz, ; MacDonald et al., ), removal of fire from fire‐prone systems (Collins, Stephens, Moghaddas, & Battles, ; North, Collins, & Stephens, ), and poor community response to wildfire events (Calkin, Thompson, & Finney, ; Williams, ). Framing the problem in a broader socioecological systems framework is argued as a way to leverage risk governance to develop cohesive transboundary (i.e., “all lands”) wildland fire management strategies to address drivers that perpetuate wildfire problems (Fischer et al., ; Steelman, ; USDA Forest Service, ). Risk governance concepts (Renn, Klinke, & van Asselt, ; van Asselt & Renn, ) were originally stimulated by transboundary risk issues (Lidskog, Soneryd, & Uggla, , Lidskog, Uggla, & Soneryd, , USDA Forest Service, ), including floods (Van Eerd MC & Dieperink, ), pollution, other environmental hazards (Lidskog et al., ), and disease (van Zwanenberg & Millstone, ), but only recently have been discussed in the context of wildfires (UNECE/FAO, ; Zaimes et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Transboundary Wildfire Exposure in the Southwestern United States

et al. 2018

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We assessed transboundary wildfire exposure among federal, state, and private lands and 447 communities in the state of Arizona, southwestern United States. The study quantified the relative magnitude of transboundary (incoming, outgoing) versus nontransboundary (i.e., self-burning) wildfire exposure based on land tenure or community of the simulated ignition and the resulting fire perimeter. We developed and described several new metrics to quantify and map transboundary exposure. We found that incoming transboundary fire accounted for 37% of the total area burned on large parcels of federal and state lands, whereas 63% of the area burned was burned by ignitions within the parcel. However, substantial parcel to parcel variation was observed for all land tenures for all metrics. We found that incoming transboundary fire accounted for 66% of the total area burned within communities versus 34% of the area burned by self-burning ignitions. Of the total area burned within communities, private lands contributed the largest proportion (36.7%), followed by national forests (19.5%), and state lands (15.4%). On average seven land tenures contributed wildfire to individual communities. Annual wildfire exposure to structures was highest for wildfires ignited on state and national forest land, followed by tribal, private, and BLM. We mapped community firesheds, that is, the area where ignitions can spawn fires that can burn into communities, and estimated that they covered 7.7 million ha, or 26% of the state of Arizona. Our methods address gaps in existing wildfire risk assessments, and their implementation can help reduce fragmentation in governance systems and inefficiencies in risk planning.

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U.S. wildfire governance as social-ecological problem

Cited by 119 publications

References 41 publications

Where you stand depends on where you sit: qualitative inquiry into notions of fire adaptation

Where you stand depends on where you sit: qualitative inquiry into notions of fire adaptation

Effects of accelerated wildfire on future fire regimes and implications for the United States federal fire policy

Assessing Transboundary Wildfire Exposure in the Southwestern United States

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