Essays in Collaborative Wildfire Planning

This dissertation examines the issue of community involvement in fire risk abatement in order to identify the most effective tools to facilitate long-term engagement of the people who live and work in fire-prone areas. It presents several case studies in community fire risk abatement that focus on leveraging community involvement to achieve resource management goals and create fire-adapted communities.;In Chapter 1, I outline recent changes in wildland fire policy pertinent to managers of parks and protected areas.;In Chapter 2, I deal with the challenges of implementing broad community fire planning mandates through a resource management agency with a decentralized organizational structure. Focusing on the state agency primarily responsible for fire management in California, I examine the difficulties experienced in the implementation of a community fire planning program. I find that, although efforts are in the works to revitalize the program, the local plans are challenged by a lack of currency as well as an erosion of stakeholder involvement in the plan development and implementation processes. I describe the institutional barriers that have barred effective policy implementation in the past, and identify changes that might result in greater policy actualization.;In Chapter 3, I present results from paired surveys of stakeholders and agency facilitators involved in the development of local fire plans in California. I surveyed 810 stakeholders and 42 CAL FIRE Pre Fire Engineers involved in the FMP in two separate efforts to better understand multiple perceptions surrounding engagement and the planning process. Reports on fire planning efforts have typically focused either on the participants or the planners; rarely are results from both perspectives available. I found striking disparities between perceptions of stakeholder engagement by agency facilitators and agency-identified stakeholders. Encouragingly, problematic stakeholder engagement did not seem to dampen their willingness to engage in future planning efforts.;In my fourth essay, I evaluate a group local Fire Management Plans (FMP) to determine their quality as planning documents. I evaluated a network of 27 FMPs in California. Despite the fact that the planners were hired and supported by CAL FIRE, the FMPs were inconsistent in size and scope as well as overall plan quality. My findings demonstrated some of the clear challenges for developers of local fire plans.;In the fifth and final chapter of my dissertation, I examine how long-term collaboration between agencies, fire safe councils, and other stakeholders can significantly reduce the impact of a potentially catastrophic wildfire. This essay analyzes a recent significant human-caused wildfire event in California that burned in an area where extensive long-term interagency partnership with a local fire safe council had resulted in a network of shaded fuel breaks. I chronicle the eleven-year history of the Kern River Valley Fire Safe Council and the exceptional relationships forged with federal, state, and local agencies.;In summary, my results suggest that, though the importance of community outreach and collaboration is widely accepted in the fire community, in practice it is still in its infancy---and experiencing growing pains. A structure for educating collaborative planners and facilitators is only now emerging. Uncertainty still exists as to the best way to educate or train collaborative planners and facilitators. Particularly in agencies responsible for fire suppression, facilitators and planners are most likely to enter their positions with significant fire management expertise but only limited experience with facilitating meetings, developing plans, or collaborating with stakeholder groups. As more and more people move into fire-prone WUI areas, the importance of the collaborative planner and facilitator can only grow. Professionalizing this role and the continuing maturation of the education process is likely to increase the efficacy of future planning efforts and enhance the creation of fire-adapted communities. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...