Youth Preferences for Wildfire Resilience Involvement: Piloting A Stated Choice Experiment in Oregon and California
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Date
2024
Authors
Trefny, Kyle
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The western United States has a tumultuous relationship with wildfire, exacerbated by a fire workforce with high turnover rates and substantial disparities in gender and racial representation. As wildfire disasters intensify, and the costs on lives and livelihoods grow, solutions depend on restructuring the fire field to foster and sustain higher levels of involvement. The need for greater involvement applies to wildland firefighting, but also to sectors that reduce community risk, restore ecosystems, and increase public familiarity with fire. Restructuring these sectors requires addressing the exclusion of high-involvement Indigenous fire cultures and transforming the field to be accessible for more people. Despite the need for new involvement, most workforce studies focus only on established personnel. Little previous research examines the pathways and job configurations that would encourage more young people to get involved. The following thesis details the creation and pilot distribution of a discrete choice experiment survey focused on young peoples’ preferences and needs for engagement in fire resilience and land stewardship work and activities. Survey development took place in partnership with a youth and Indigenous-led fire organization and was guided by over three dozen representatives of stakeholder groups, including public officials, fire program managers, fire practitioners, wildland firefighters, researchers, and students. The survey was then pilot tested to more than 600 young people between the ages of 16 and 30. Pilot distribution took place in 24 classes across high school, community college, and university settings in Lane County, Oregon and San Francisco County, California. This outreach generated high response rates and numerous substantive and significant results. As a pilot study, these results are not generalizable. However, they reflect a compelling potential for this method to examine ways that current fire job structures aggravate low involvement and exacerbate racial and gender interest gaps. Even more promisingly, the initial results underscore the method’s ability to suggest alternative architecture for fire pathways and jobs that could foster increased participation and representation in the field.
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Keywords
Workforce development, Youth, Wildfire, Land stewardship, Climate resilience