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Information, Resources, and Management Priorities: Agency Outreach and Mitigation of Wildfire Risk in the Western United States
Author(s) -
Crow Deserai A.,
Lawhon Lydia A.,
Koebele Elizabeth,
Kroepsch Adrianne,
Schild Rebecca,
Huda Juhi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
risk, hazards and crisis in public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.634
H-Index - 8
ISSN - 1944-4079
DOI - 10.1002/rhc3.12073
Subject(s) - outreach , agency (philosophy) , business , context (archaeology) , wildland–urban interface , environmental planning , population , environmental resource management , risk management , geography , political science , environmental science , environmental health , finance , law , medicine , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology
States in the American West are experiencing significant population growth and exurban development, in addition to a longer fire season and a changing climate. These factors contribute to the increasing difficulty of managing wildfire in the Wildland–Urban Interface. Using data collected through a survey of fire professionals, this research investigates the strategies that agencies use to promote wildfire mitigation on private property within the WUI, fire professionals’ sense of the effectiveness of those strategies, and support among fire professionals for various regulatory approaches to wildfire mitigation. The findings indicate that fire professionals are keenly aware of the constraints imposed by the political context and acceptability of some tools that they could use to promote more aggressive mitigation on private property. Recommendations based on these findings suggest that fire professionals should consider capitalizing on citizen network approaches to outreach in order to build trust between agency personnel and homeowners and to cope with limited support for regulatory mandates for wildfire mitigation.