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Project ID:

25-2-01-18

Year:

2025

Date Started:

12/01/2025

Date Completed:

Title:

Accelerating science into action in fire-adapted wilderness ecosystems: Supporting wilderness prescribed fire through knowledge exchange and place-based partnerships

Project Proposal Abstract:

Proposal Overview: This proposal addresses JFSP announcement 25-2-01, Task Statement I. Although policy generally allows for lightning-ignited fires to burn with minimal suppression efforts in federally designated wilderness areas, many wildernesses have long histories of fire exclusion. Especially in fire-adapted landscapes, fire exclusion has resulted in significantly altered ecosystems and fire regimes, thereby increasing threats to adjacent lands and resources. While prescribed fire has been identified as an effective strategy to restore conditions and mitigate uncharacteristically severe fires, implementation has been difficult due to long-standing wilderness management paradigms, capacity, and other constraints. Even so, prescribed fire and cultural burning in wilderness have gained visibility and momentum in recent years. As support for prescribed fire and federal-Tribal partnerships grows, it is critical to evaluate if and how these efforts facilitate the use of prescribed and cultural fire in wilderness, and what more is needed to move science into action. Our research responds to this need through a qualitative comparative case study approach that builds on Hunter et al.’s (2022) framework with a focus on implementing prescribed fire to achieve desired conditions within wilderness. Through interviews with wilderness managers and partners of past prescribed fire efforts (e.g., Mission Mountains, Scapegoat), we will identify, post hoc, what leads to successful and failed implementation and collate findings into a preliminary “roadmap” of best practices for wilderness managers (Phase I of our research). Through workshop focus groups in two wilderness areas planning for prescribed fire, we will integrate preliminary roadmap findings along with existing and developing fire science tools to support planning efforts and learn how desired conditions, current science, policy, organizational culture, institutional capacity, and other constraints are considered and integrated into prescribed fire planning efforts (Phase II). These findings will then be used to further develop and refine the preliminary roadmap from Phase I. Our research objectives address all three research questions listed in Task Statement I. Our research will evaluate current predictive capabilities of altered fire regimes and future ecosystem trajectories (RQ1) by leveraging existing and developing fire science tools. Through the development of a best practices roadmap for prescribed fire in wilderness, our work will provide insights into the complex challenges faced by the wilderness management community, and examples of how managers have overcome these challenges (RQ2). And, we will gain a better understanding of the role of, and potential for, partnerships and public support in facilitating action (RQ3) by including discussions of partnership-building, outreach, and communications strategies in both Phase I and II. Results from this research will have local, regional, and national benefits supporting the fulfillment of national directives such as Executive Order 13855 Promoting Active Management of America’s Forests to Improve Conditions and Reduce Wildfire Risk and Executive Order 14225 for the Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production. Outcomes of this research will benefit the public by facilitating prescribed fire in wilderness, which will improve wilderness character management and ecosystem resilience, and will reduce threats to communities and infrastructure on wilderness-adjacent lands.

Principal Investigator:

Andrew J. Larson

Agency/Organization:

University of Montana

Branch or Dept:

College of Forestry & Conservation

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Agreements Contact	Bryson J Hillyard	University of Montana	Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
Budget Contact	Bryson J Hillyard	University of Montana	Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
Co-Principal Investigator	Jaclyn Rushing	Forest Service	RMRS-Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute
Co-Principal Investigator	Sean A. Parks	Forest Service	RMRS-Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute