North Central Research Station NFP 2000 -Community partnerships: Landscape level strategies to reduce the risk and loss from catastrophic fires

Introducing the Northern Research Station

The North Central Research Station and the Northeastern Research Station have joined to form the Northern Research Station. Our 20-state region spans the Midwest from Minnesota to Missouri and the Northeast from Maine to Maryland.

Our Research Programs in the National Fire Plan 2000

Community partnerships: Landscape level strategies to reduce the risk and loss from catastrophic fires

Topics: B-i Restoring landscapes and rebuilding communities, post-fire treatments; C-i Reducing hazardous fuels and fire risk; and D-i Working with communities, social and economic sys

Proposal title: Community partnerships: Landscape level strategies to reduce the risk and loss from catastrophic fires

Other proposals to which this is linked (Proposal code): Although not directly linked to National Fire Plan Proposals, this research is linked to the North Central Landscape Change Integrated Program

Research Work Units: RWU NC-4803, Social and Economic Dimensions of Ecosystem Management, St. Paul, MN; and RWU NC-4902, Managing Forest Environments for Urban Populations, Evanston, IL.

Description: Research or Development, Question, Issue, or Need: This project will result in new strategies to help communities be proactive in developing partnerships with neighboring communities, agencies, and others to decrease their vulnerability to catastrophic fire.

The vulnerability of communities at the wildland urban interface to natural disasters such as catastrophic fire is a function of the community's resiliency, institutional capacity, and cultural norms. In addition to these community characteristics, there are factors acting from outside the community that may limit its ability to prepare for or manage catastrophic fire. One set of factors relate to ecological conditions occurring on the landscape in which the community is located. These landscape conditions are critical in determining the vulnerability of communities at the wildland urban interface. Another set of factors includes regulations at the neighborhood, city, state and federal level that mandate land use or vegetative conditions that may act against a community's efforts to minimize the impacts of fire. For example, vegetation management recommended to increase water yield may increase fire risk. Finally, various factors have an impact on a community's ability to coordinate disaster preparedness with neighboring communities and with county, state or federal agencies. Organizational culture, institutional style, and the strength and nature of horizontal and vertical ties within and between communities and agencies can all have an impact on successful preparedness planning. For instance, some organizational cultures may actually discourage community participation in fire management activities.

Scientists at the North Central Research Station have worked with communities throughout the Lake States, evaluating their ties to the forests of the region and their dependency on the national forests. Research on communities has included the American Indian communities of the region, with consideration of the special relationships of the tribes to the federal lands. We have also studied the role of seasonal residents in the sustainability of rural communities. Seasonal residents have played a major role in expanding the wildland urban interface. North Central scientists are also committed to addressing priority research questions identified in the Station's integrated research programs. For the Landscape Change and Forest Productivity integrated programs in particular, the impacts of fire are of great interest.

By partnering with social scientists in other regions we can expand the applicability of our findings. We will work with scientists at the Pacific Northwest Station, building on their research on organizing communities to conduct and participate in community assessments and social impact analyses. By working with partners at the University of Florida we can facilitate their efforts to aid communities in their recovery from 1998 catastrophic wildfires in Florida.

In our own region, communities look to what has occurred in terms of catastrophic fires in the south and west, and realize that it can happen here. Some north central communities have initiated efforts to organize for and manage wildland fires. Cooperation with the Northwest Regional Planning Commission will allow us to tie into the landscape-level planning being done in northwestern Wisconsin, where the presence of high risk fire ecosystems and fragmented forest ownership have resulted in an identification of fire preparedness as a top priority planning issue.

Research and Development Approach: In the first phase of this research we will identify communities who have been successful in developing programs that prepare the community for natural disasters, or facilitate management of conditions to minimize the impacts of these disasters. We will look not only at community programs related to fire management, but programs developed to respond to a range of natural disasters that may have relevance to fire management. We will also evaluate any natural resource management activities, such as ecosystem restoration, that have implications to fire management. Through key informant interviews and focus groups we will determine the factors that were critical to the success of these programs. In addition to the factors mentioned above, we are interested in how individuals are mobilized to take collective action, how partnerships are formed between communities or between communities and agencies or other organizations, and the role of landscape in a community's disaster management program. In phase two we will use the information gained from the case studies to develop an instrument to query residents of other communities who have experienced catastrophic fire. The purpose of contacting this second larger group is to test the universality of the factors identified in the successful programs. In phase three we will develop a typology of communities and landscapes based on factors found critical to the success of strategies aimed at minimizing the loss to catastrophic fires. Finally, we will develop models of cooperation and partnership that promise to increase the effectiveness of fire management programs for different types of communities and landscapes.

First year: Identify communities for study, and develop protocol for collecting information from these successful communities. Establish research joint ventures with partners.

Second year: Complete case studies and develop protocol for testing information from the case studies with residents of other communities who have experienced fire.

Three to five years out: Develop typology of communities and landscapes, and models of cooperation and partnership that will increase the effectiveness of fire management programs.

Description of skills required: We will hire someone who can conduct statistical analyses based on the physical location of spatial entities (for example, communities, national forests, ecosystems) in a landscape. These skills are critical to identifying shared and unique characteristics of communities relevant to fire management within an ecosystem.

Potential partners: Dr. Linda Kruger, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Seattle, WA; Dr. Martha Monroe, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; Dr. Jan Hacker, Northwest Regional Planning Commission, Hayward, WI.

Funding requested: $487,500 for 2 research joint ventures (one in south and one in the west) and one technician

Leveraging: Builds on previous work with forest dependent communities and seasonal residence in the region.