This working group will collaborate with stakeholders to more fully incorporate human health implications from wild and managed forest fires into forest restoration planning and implementation in the Western U.S. The team will catalogue approaches based on the best available evidence and develop a consensus-driven, evidence-based approach to integrate human health considerations into spatial and temporal planning for forest management.  The team will also develop strategies for communicating and coordinating relative human health implications for stakeholders and policymakers involved in forest management and the mitigation of health risks from fire smoke.

Our Approach: Our team integrates expertise in the conservation and health sectors to combine scientific evidence and stakeholder input to evaluate the human health implications of wildfires as compared to ecological restoration focused forest management. We are using existing studies as well as novel modelling efforts to better understand the health implications of policies and practices related to forest and fire management.  This allows a grounded approach to develop products to support communication, coordination, and decision-making among stakeholders involved in — and affected by — forest restoration, including managed fires.