Link to Session Platform

Chairs(s):

Riva Denny, University of Michigan

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Description:

Wildfires are burning in forested areas with increasing size and frequency and at great social and ecological costs, most recently in the western United States. Wildfire is a product of interactions between humans and nature across space and time. Humans shape wildfire risk through forest management, livestock grazing, and development practices, often implemented in the far past and in locations quite distant from the source of ignition. Moreover, management efforts to exclude fire (i.e., suppression) create conditions that result in large damaging wildfires, presenting a clear case of long- and short-term tradeoffs. In turn, the constant and increasing threat of wildfire may limit societal adaptation to long-term environmental change by trapping people in near-term cycles of failed prevention and recovery. Wildfires in forests are a particularly difficult natural hazard to address because fires themselves, and the vegetation through which they burn, cross land ownership boundaries, blurring responsibilities for mitigation. Lack of understanding of social and ecological interactions limits society's ability to adapt to this complex environmental management challenge.

Non-Presenting Participants Agenda