Building a prescribed fire program on the Colorado Front Range: the role of landowner engagement
2020 Fall. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Despite recognition of the value of prescribed fire in scientific literature and policy, a number of factors impede its widespread implementation in the United States. Social acceptance of prescribed fire is a key factor, making consistent and effective outreach an important part of efforts to increase prescribed fire implementation. The Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, located in northern Colorado, has set a goal to increase the level of prescribed burning, on its land and at a larger landscape level when possible. As part of this effort it has been working to improve active stakeholder involvement and education about forest restoration planning and implementation, with special attention paid to those who might be most directly impacted by future prescribed fires. Through a case study on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, this thesis analyzes: strategies the USFS and its partners have used to communicate to landowners and meet their goals; challenges and benefits associated with outreach; and how outreach has been perceived by its recipients. To address each of these questions, I interviewed 23 individuals from the US Forest Service, its governmental and non-governmental partners, and community members in the study area. This thesis consists of four chapters: a brief introduction, a report of my findings developed for practitioners, an article intended for submission to a journal, and a conclusion. The US Forest Service report is a technical document which reviews the goals for outreach, strategies employed to achieve those goals, how community members perceived strategies used, and researcher insight into how outreach might be improved for future projects. My findings show that outreach providers in the study area had two primary goals: to garner understanding of and support for forest restoration projects in the community, and to encourage private landowners to consider implementing projects on their own land. These strategies were emphasized differently based on the specific goal and the outreach recipients' phase of learning. The second stand-alone chapter, which will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, offers a comparison of outreach provider and recipient perspectives on goals and outreach strategies used. I found that most of the community members I interviewed perceived a high level of wildfire risk to their homes and other material assets, and that was often their reason for seeking information initially. Providers and recipients of outreach generally perceived that interactive strategies, such as project tours and personal communication, were the most effective in achieving their goals. However, providers faced problems with capacity for this type of outreach, and recipients struggled to find information independently after they had established a general understanding of forest restoration techniques. In each chapter, I offer recommendations for improving future outreach programs based on feedback from interview participants and my own observations. Following initial data collection for this project, a prescribed fire in the study area escaped and was declared a wildfire. I conducted follow-up interviews with 16 of the original 23 interviewees to understand how outreach informed community members before, during, and after the escape, whether changes to the outreach program would or should be made following the escape, and whether community members' perspectives on forest restoration had changed after such an event. My conclusion chapter introduces key findings from these follow-up interviews, and summarizes key findings about initial interviews from the previous two chapters. Key findings in this chapter show that outreach recipients prefer a standardized email notification system no matter what entity is burning, and that those who were supportive of prescribed fire before remained supportive after the escape. Findings from this study can be used to improve the ongoing outreach program in this study area, while adding to existing literature on prescribed fire outreach and informing similar efforts in other locations. Further research in other communities is necessary to identify contextual factors that influenced my findings.