Integrating social and ecological values in the prioritization of wildfire management can protect critical forest ecosystems and direct resources to the communities that need them most.

Project Description:

In response to mounting wildfire risks across the continent, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has been devising a strategy to dramatically increase fuels mitigation and forest health treatments over the coming decades to safeguard the ecological integrity of forests, minimize impacts to key ecosystem services, and protect communities from loss of life and property. While communities vary widely in their capacity to recover from wildfire, community vulnerability has historically been left out of the decision-making process when prioritizing areas for wildfire risk mitigation treatments. To aid in a more equitable and informed spatial prioritization of those treatments, the Changing Landscapes Lab has developed a spatial model that aims to balance current wildfire risk and the social vulnerability of communities potentially affected by wildfire, while also considering the ecological value of, and ecosystem services provided by, forest ecosystems.

(Credit: Neil Mark Thomas)

Working with the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Forest Service, we have developed indices describing wildfire restoration potential and social and ecological values potentially at risk from wildfire. By identifying where high values of these two indices overlap on U.S. Forest Service land, these models will help to better target wildfire management to places where it is likely to be effective in both reducing the severity of future fires and in safeguarding important social values and ecological processes. The results of this work highlight a need for greater consideration of both the vulnerability of communities to wildfire and their capacity to respond to its impacts when seeking equitable implementation of wildfire risk mitigation resources.

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