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Wildfire Research (WiRē)�A Practitioner-Researcher Approach to Wildfire Adaptation��Hannah Brenkert-Smith�University of Colorado at Boulder�Patricia Champ�Rocky Mtn Research Station, USDA Forest Service��FIREWALL Workshop 2021�Foundations for Improving Resilience in the Energy Sector against Wildfire on Alaskan Lands �Panel 5: Research Directions for Wildfire Resilience �15 September 2021�

The Wildfire Research Center

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WiRē’s core concepts:

Wildland-urban interface residents are critical actors in the wildfire problem.
Action is central to adaptation.
People and their decisions are complex.
Decisions are not made in a vacuum.

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�The ability to prepare for anticipated hazards, adapt to changing conditions, and withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions.

Activities, such as disaster preparedness—which includes prevention, protection, mitigation, and response—are key steps to resilience.

National Institute of Standards and Technology�

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The WiRē Team’s operating premise:

Community wildfire resilience is enhanced when residents are prepared for a fire and have mitigated risk on their properties.

Understanding resilience is contingent on measuring change over time.

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Wildfire Programs and Outreach

Chipper Days
Grants
Community Meetings
On-Site Assessment + Report (Subset of Parcels)
Parcel-Specific Wildfire Risk Webpages
Emergency Notification Sign-Up
And More...

Properly Mitigated and Prepared

Landscape level wildfire risk assessments.

Distribution of hazard between communities.

WiRē parcel risk assessment. Census of all parcels.

Distribution of risk within a community.

WiRē household survey paired with parcel risk assessments.

WiRē Approach to Wildfire Adaptation:

Research Embedded in Practice

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Distribution of Rapid Wildfire Risk Assessment

Scores by community

Methow

Wenatchee

Heights

Squilchuck

Valley

Forest

Ridge

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Defensible space

Vegetation near structures – leveraging risk assessment data

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34%

Financial expense/cost

41%

Lack of specific information on how to reduce risk

Hand clipart: Helping Hands Cliparts, CC BY-NC 4.0

Defensible space - reducing combustibles

by leveraging data on barriers to taking action

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53% think it’s very or extremely likely the fire department will save their home

74% think local fire fighters have sufficient resources to protect homes

Expectations of fire response

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Site-specific dataset:

50% response rate,

557 survey responses

1162 rapid assessments

Master dataset:

12 studies (+9 in progress)

4,334 survey responses

15,653 rapid assessments

Combining with a Bayesian modeling framework

Prior beliefs

Site-specific data

Posterior beliefs

Master dataset provides power (and is increasingly generalizable)

Local dataset provides context

🡪 Neither gets it “right” alone

Expanding the evidence

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Socio-ecological considerations for �sustainAble �Fuel treatments to �Reduce wildfire �Risk (SAFRR)

WiRē Team and the other SAFRR scientists (ecological, forest, fire, and economics) will partner with stakeholders to co-produce a framework for research on fuel treatments.

WiRē Approach will be used to collect data in four communities adjacent to past, current, and planned fuel treatments. Data on acceptability of fuel treatments will be used to identify:

preferred strategies, barriers to implementation, and fuel treatments opportunities.