Title: Code Descriptions for “Spanning boundaries for managing wildfire risk in forest and range landscapes: Lessons from case studies in the western United States.”  

DOI: [TBD]

Authors: 
Davis, Emily Jane; Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Forestry and Natural Resources Extension, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
Huber-Stearns, Heidi R.; Institute for Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.
Cheng, Antony S.; Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship and Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Deak, Alison; Institute for a Sustainable Environment and Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

Contact: Heidi Huber-Stearns, hhuber@uoregon.edu 

Date: [TBD]

Abstract: Managing wildfire risk across boundaries and scales is critical in fire-prone landscapes around the world, as a variety of actors undertake mitigation and response activities according to jurisdictional and administrative boundaries; and available human, organizational, technical, and financial resources. There is a need to catalyze their coordination more effectively to collectively manage wildfire risk. We interviewed 102 people across five large landscape case studies in the western US to categorize how boundary spanning people, organizations, settings, concepts, and objects were deployed in range and forestlands to collectively address wildfire risk. Across all cases, actors spanned jurisdictional, conceptual, and administrative boundaries to create: 1) conductive settings for boundary work to occur; 2) concepts to communicate across boundaries; and 3) concrete objects as joint reference points, and to navigate challenges to implementing work on the ground. This work highlights context-specific ways to advance cross-boundary wildfire risk reduction efforts, and uses a boundary spanning lens to provide insight into how collective action in wildfire management evolves in different settings. This research also shows prescribed fire as a gateway for future collective action in wildfire risk, including managing naturally ignited wildfires for resource benefits or improved coordination and communication during wildfire suppression efforts.

Keywords: wildfire governance, boundary spanning, prescribed fire, US Forest Service

Details: This project was funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (Project # 17-1-06-6) in 2017 with the objective exploring how entities involved in wildfire mitigation and suppression can better coordinate actions before, during, and after wildfires. In 2018 and 2019, a total of 93 interviews were conducted of 102 practitioners with knowledge of how actors were working across boundaries to address wildfire risk in five different case studies in the western United States: Larimer County (Colorado), Rio Grande Water Fund (New Mexico), Owyhee County (Idaho), Harney County (Oregon), and Iron and Garfield Counties (Utah). These data consist of themes used to code these interviews, such as boundary spanning features, actor functions, and actor types.