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Project ID: 17-1-06-6
Year: 2017
Date Started: 10/01/2017
Ending Date: 09/30/2020
Title: Co-managing risk or parallel play? examining connectivity across wildfire risk mitigation and fire response in the Intermountain West
Project Proposal Abstract: The governance of wildfire risk management in the United States is organizationally complex. Landscapes with similar wildfire threats (firesheds) contain multiple entities undertaking a variety of pre-wildfire mitigation and fire response actions across scales from neighborhoods to watersheds. Despite laws, policies, and agreements calling for cohesive strategies, these entities often do not work closely for efficient and effective risk management. They face inconsistent: policies and budgets, organizational structures and processes, and conceptions of values at risk. Collectively, these challenges discourage joint accountability and action, and contribute to rising fire suppression costs. Our research question is: What factors can overcome organizational disconnects to foster co-management of firesheds? We hypothesize that well-recognized interactional factors (i.e. trust or learning) alone are insufficient. Research on inter-organizational collaboration indicates that boundary spanning work is also needed to bridge different risk paradigms, defined as the organizational structures and processes that shape risk management. We will use comparative case studies of six firesheds in varied socio-ecological settings to analyze how boundary spanning attributes enable co-management between spatial scales and between mitigation and fire response. Our objectives are to: 1) Characterize wildfire risk management at the fireshed scale, 2) Develop new knowledge of relationships between organizational structures/processes and values at risk, 3) Identify boundary spanning organizational attributes and causal factors; and 4) Inform more effective co-management with validated theories and actionable recommendations. Based on our previous experience and targeted outreach with experts in mitigation and fire response, we developed a study design with multiple structured methods to triangulate and leverage diverse data sources, and analyses that allowed more focused examination than solely exploratory and inductive approaches. Data collection will occur through content analysis, human ecology mapping, structured and semistructured interviews, and a Delphi survey process. Our analysis processes will allow for grounded but structured theory building and hypothesis evaluation. Our total deliverables will be two practitioner-oriented briefing papers, a project website, two story maps, two Extension news stories, four peer-reviewed journal articles, three conference presentations (ISSRM, Restoring the West, and International Association of Wildland Fire), one video short, four interactive webinars (with Joint Fire Science Knowledge Exchanges), and two briefings (jointly to National Interagency Fire Center/National Wildfire Coordinating Group, and one to Western Regional Strategy Committee leadership). This project addresses Research Needs 1,2, and 4 in Task Statement 6. It will produce actionable recommendations to improve communication about respective responsibilities for wildland fire risks and outcomes in a fireshed, align management objectives, and coordinate actions before, during, and after fires. Results will directly inform implementation of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Strategy, design of mitigation activities to better include safe and feasible fire response options, and specific mechanisms for joint accountability among wildfire risk management entities.
Principal Investigator: Emily Jane Davis
Agency/Organization: Oregon State University
Branch or Dept: Department of Forest Ecosystems & Society
Other Project Collaborators
Type |
Name |
Agency/Organization |
Branch or Dept |
Agreements Contact |
Patricia A. Hawk |
Oregon State University |
Office of Sponsored Programs |
Budget Contact |
Patricia A. Hawk |
Oregon State University |
Office of Sponsored Programs |
Co-Principal Investigator |
Tony S. Cheng |
Colorado State University |
Colorado Forest Restoration Institute |
Co-Principal Investigator |
Heidi R. Huber-Stearns |
University of Oregon |
Institute for a Sustainable Environment |
Co-Principal Investigator |
Darren J. McAvoy |
Utah State University |
Department of Wildland Resources |
Collaborator/Contributor |
Dennis R. Becker |
University of Idaho |
Department of Natural Resources and Society |
Project Locations
Fire Science Exchange Network |
Great Basin |
Northern Rockies |
Southern Rockies |
Southwest |
Level |
State |
Agency |
Unit |
REGIONAL |
Pacific Coast States |
MULTIPLE |
|
REGIONAL |
Interior West |
MULTIPLE |
Project Deliverables
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Supporting Documents
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