Wildfire involves a diversity of land managers, owners, and stakeholders with their own roles and resources. Strategic coordination across this diversity of actors can be challenging. Social science research about collaboration recognizes the importance of building trust, but that can be hard to foster at large scales. To sustain necessary collective action, we find that several “boundary spanning features” may be key.
This presentation will share key findings from a recent Joint Fire Science Project, specifically on:
1) the multiple types of boundaries in managing wildfire risk, and the boundary spanning features that can help cross them;
2) what strategies actors utilized for wildfire risk reduction across five case studies in the West; and
3) questions and ideas for future research and practice. This work is intended to help wildfire practitioners and managers better understand and address these organizational complexities as they work toward greater collective impact.