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.
This paper examines the smoke exposure and health tradeoffs linked to forest management in the Central Sierra and presents a roadmap on how to incorporate public health considerations into forest management planning in a real-world setting.
This ground-breaking study from the Wildfires and Human Health working group shows counties in the US with the highest sustained smoke particulate matter include the most vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities, single family homes, and Black, LatinX and Tribal communities. The paper also provides updates to the 2017 wildfire smoke vulnerability assessment, showing dramatically increased vulnerability in the US Pacific northwest.
This article details how SNAPP support made possible the creation and mobilization of interdisciplinary partnerships to tackle the harmful effects of wildland fire smoke across Washington State.
The Nature Conservancy
University of Washington
University of Washington
The Nature Conservancy
School of Engineering, UC Merced
Washington State Department of Natural Resources
McGill University
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington
The Nature Conservancy
San Jose State University
Evans School of Public Health, University of Washington
University of Washington
Fire and Fuels Program, USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station
Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington
Dept. of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington
Washington State Department of Health
California Environmental Protection Agency
Partnership for Air Matters, Tribal Healthy Homes Network
Washington State Department of Ecology
Applegate Forestry, LLC
School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia
USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
The Nature Conservancy
Washington State Department of Ecology
Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington
College of the Environment, University of Washington
Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center, University of Washington
Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University
College of the Environment, University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
US Environmental Protection Agency
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Washington
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University
Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University
The Nature Conservancy
Stanford University Medical School
USDA Forest Service
(Retired) USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station
USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
Stanford University Medical School
McGill University
University of Washington
New Mexico Landscapes Field Station, USGS
USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region Remote Sensing Lab
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
Howard University
University of Washington
Washington State Department of Natural Resources
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy