|
|
 |  |
 |
|
Demographic and Geographic Approaches to Predicting Public Acceptance of Fuel Management at the Wildland-Urban Interface
Investigators:
Jeremy Fried, Team Leader, U.S. Forest Service, PNW Research Station, Portland, OR
Gregory Winter, Research Director, Paul Schissler Associates, Bellingham, WA
Christine Vogt, Assistant Professor, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Sponsored by the interagency Joint Fire Science Program1 and the USDA Forest Service North Central Research Station's Natural Environments for Urban Populations Research Work Unit
Overview
This three-year project will develop, test, refine and evaluate protocols and techniques for assessing the knowledge and understanding of residents of wildland-urban interface WUI settings concerning management of wildland vegetation fuels, and their acceptance of fuel management treatments. Empirical models linking attitudes, behavior, demographic profiles and place-based variables will be developed to represent residents' dispositions toward the management of fires and fire risk in and near their neighborhoods. Focus groups with residents and forest managers in four WUI settings across the U.S. will provide the basis for developing a mail survey questionnaire (e.g., scale construction) and analysis protocol (e.g., spatial analysis and modeling). This protocol will be implemented and evaluated in two WUI settings.
Background
A century of fire suppression has generated a proliferation of fire-prone landscapes across much of the United States. These landscapes are not always isolated in remote wilderness areas; rather, they are juxtaposed with suburban and rural development, often in areas experiencing rapid human population growth. A combination of fire suppression, urban sprawl and rural migration has created an extensive and still-expanding wildland-urban interface where fire poses a serious threat to people, property, and resources.
Prescribed and prescribed natural fires have been widely touted as promising alternatives capable of mimicking natural ecosystem processes. Such fires can reduce fuel accumulations, and thus the intensity and spread potential of future wildfires. But, the sometimes complex impacts and rationales of prescribed fire are rarely well-understood by WUI residents, and this often translates to lack of acceptance of the approach. Prescribed fire may be feasible if its use is preceded by targeted information programs designed to match the public's knowledge and understanding of fire processes and management at the wildland-urban interface. Developing such information programs calls for intensive study of residents and fire managers in WUI areas, and the formulation of generalizable models that include human perspectives and can be applied to restore ecosystem health at the wildland-urban interface.
Our Research Process and Guiding Questions
Four WUI areas (Clay County, FL; Stanislaus NF, CA; Marin Co, CA; and Oscoda Co., Michigan) were selected to reflect the variety of fire regimes, interface configurations, and cultural experiences with wildfire found in the U.S. Forest and fire managers in the selected interface areas assisted us in assembling lists of residents and participated in manager focus groups in 2000. Several resident and manager focus groups were held in each area to surface and document the range of perspectives, concepts and lexicon for discussing fire management and fuel treatment. Scales for factors such as knowledge levels, attitudes toward fire practices, and preferred communication messages and formats were subsequently developed from the focus group data. These scales have been placed in a draft questionnaire designed for resident response. Refinement of these scales will follow pre-testing and piloting of the questionnaire. Then, the questionnaire will be mailed to a representative sample of residents in three WUI areas: Clay County, FL; Placer and El Dorado Counties, CA; and a Lake States site TBD. Indices and models will be developed to interpret survey results. The final step will be to georeference survey responses to allow mapping of response patterns and support exploration of geostatistical patterns and analysis of potentially explanatory geographically based factors.
Research questions include:
- How is fuel management perceived and understood by homeowners in wildland settings?
- Are perceptions and knowledge based on or aligned with ecosystem management practices?
- Do fundamental beliefs about the role of humans in the ecosystem affect perception of fuel management actions?
- How do perceptions and knowledge vary by fuel management types, proximity of application, treatment objectives and perceived treatment efficacy?
- How do perceptions, knowledge levels and understanding vary from place to place and by demographic status?
Outcomes
A set of tested scales will be available for forest and fire managers to use with residential populations to better understand the acceptability of fuel management approaches. These scales can be used across the U.S., will be easy to apply, and cost-effective to implement.
Indices will be generated based on data that will allow managers to construct information programs targeted to specific populations of WUI residents and ultimately, to control wildfires and conduct fuel treatments in ways likely to meet with acceptance. Models based on demographic and geographic characteristics will predict acceptance of fuel management and maps will be produced that can be used to target education and outreach intervention programs.
For additional information, please contact:
Homepage -- Project Overview -- Study Sites -- Investigators
Site Cooperators -- Presentations -- Publications -- Related Links
|
|
|
