In the face of an uncertain future climate, fire-prone landscapes need better management. A broad range of research perspectives across the western U.S. make science-based fire management plans challenging at all levels, from national to state forest policy to private land management.
OUR APPROACH: Convening practitioners and scientists from diverse geographic and scientific backgrounds, this group highlighted where consensus exists among stakeholders and where to effectively focus policy.
Team Status:
Finding Common Ground
There is much common ground among fire researchers that can be useful to policy and management. High-level alignments include:
The report, Statement of Common Ground Regarding the Role of Wildfire in Forests of the Western US, highlights core research questions and datasets necessary to making progress on the wildfire-related debates. It also focuses on policy and management decisions that do not hinge on resolving specific debate issues and provides recommendations for how to proceed on issues that do.
“We identified common ground about protecting human assets from wildfires, and about the positive role that wildfire can play in supporting biodiversity – and that these are not mutually exclusive.”
–Dennis Odion, Team Member