Research Brief

In this paper, researchers examined the design and outcomes of RFPA programs in Oregon and Idaho through comparative studies of four established RFPAs. They set out to understand whether and how the design and implementation of state programs and interactions with BLM fire professionals allowed ranchers to participate on the fireline, encouraged adaptive learning, and fostered engagement in proactive fire preparation as well as suppression.

In this study, researchers interviewed 48 residents, community leaders, and professionals involved in wildfire and forest management during the 2006 Columbia Complex Fire in southeastern Washington State. The fire burned 109,402 acres of grain, pasture, and forest as well as 28 structures around Dayton, WA and was managed at different stages by teams from all three levels of the Incident Command (IC) system, with multiple state, federal, and international fire teams involved. Conflict surrounding the fires’ management was covered by the media. Researchers interviewed local community members (external IC team members were not interviewed) about the roots of the conflict between local rural residents and the external Incident Command system. In particular, they sought to identify specific elements of social interaction and underlying structure that led to tensions with Incident Command teams during the wildfire, and whether the conflict persisted long-term.

In this paper, the authors describe an approach to facilitate development and implementation of climate change adaptation options in forest management which they applied to a case study area in southwestern Oregon, USA. Their approach relied on participation of local specialists across multiple organizations to establish a science–manager partnership, development of climate change education in multiple formats, hands-on development of adaptation options, and application of tools to incorporate climate change in planned projects.

In this study, researchers used data from the US Forest Service’s National Resource Ordering and Status System to investigate how private sector resources were dispatched to fires. In particular, they examined the dispatch of private engines in the Northwest Geographic Area (GA), which encompasses Oregon and Washington, from 2008 to 2015. The researchers also investigated how private sector engine capacity compared to demand by focusing on engine dispatch during the 2015 fire season, which was widely considered the most severe in the Northwest’s modern history.

Continued conflict around natural resource management and dwindled public confidence in land management agencies has necessitated the development of a new collaborative social contract for land management in the West. However, even within the sphere of collaboration, restoring the key characteristics of landscape resilience to landscapes has been a challenge. Science has a golden opportunity to help inform a sound socio-ecological approach to restorative management, which can be understood by all land ownership and partners. To help guide these landscape planning efforts, researchers have created a framework of seven core principles and their implications for management of fire-prone interior forest landscapes.

In this paper, researchers examine the problem of growing wildfire risk through a coupled natural and human systems (CNHS) perspective. They characterized the primary social and ecological dimensions of what they termed a socioecological pathology of wildfire risk in temperate forests, or “a set of complex and problematic interactions among social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales.” By paying particular attention to the wildfire risk governance system, which is influenced by both ecological conditions and diverse parties with competing goals, policies, and practices, the authors investigate strategies for reducing wildfire risk.

This study investigated the long-term response of understory vegetation to two post-fire logging treatments (commercial salvage logging with and without additional fuel reduction logging) in northeastern Oregon. Researchers assessed if there were lasting effects on understory plant cover, species diversity, plant community composition, and exotic species cover in experimental treatment units 15 years post-treatment. The study area is located within the area burned by the 1996 Summit Fire, which burned mostly at high severity although it occurred in dry coniferous forests that historically burned at frequent intervals (14-16 years) and at low severity.

In this study, researchers developed models of freshwater habitat for spring Chinook Salmon in pre- and post-fire scenarios in the Wenatchee River sub-basin of central Washington, where a large number of wildfires have occurred in the past 30 years. They predicted changes in in-stream wood, sediment, and water temperature as a result of wildfires and modeled their influence on habitat quality for three life stages (egg/fry, juvenile, and adult) of spring Chinook Salmon. They also compared their model results with the current and historic distribution of spring Chinook Salmon to better understand if decreasing populations are distributed in ways that correlate with fire impacts on habitats.

Previous research has focused on quantifying fuel loadings and using operational fire behavior models to understand changes in fire severity following MPB outbreaks. In this study however, researchers used direct field measurements taken from the 2012 Pole Creek Fire that burned in lodgepole pine forests in central Oregon’s Eastern Cascade Mountains, which had experienced a MPB epidemic 8-15 years prior to the fire. They examined the combined effects of MPB and fire disturbances on stand structure, and investigated the influence of previous MPB severity and fire weather on subsequent fire severity and cumulative disturbance severity.

In this study, researchers analyzed the influence of pre-incident familiarity, stakeholder affiliation, and primary wildfire response/functional role on communication frequency and efficacy during three western U.S. wildfires ignited on U.S. Forest Service land. All fires occurred in wildland/urban interface areas, and involved a range of parties including Type 1 Incident Management Team response teams, local forest leaders, and responding agencies.