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Rangeland Fire Protection Associations in Great Basin Rangelands: A Model for Adaptive Community Relationships with Wildfire?

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Abstract

Widespread concern with the negative impacts of wildfire on human communities has spurred calls to foster more resilient and adaptable forms of community coexistence with fire. However, numerous institutional barriers work to perpetuate maladaptive individual and collective behaviors in many communities. Here we examine a unique institutional model in the remote U.S. West in which rural community members play active roles in responding to wildland fire under state-sanctioned Rangeland Fire Protection Associations. Our findings drawn from case studies of four associations in Idaho and Oregon suggest that the Rangeland Fire Protection Association model presents opportunities to leverage the motivations, skills, and knowledge of ranchers to inform effective fire response and create opportunities for learning and adaptation. At the same time, this model of coproduction presents challenges to the integration of formal and informal institutions.

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Notes

  1. Note that the term “country” here refers to a rural landscape, not a nation-state.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, 130 Hendricks Hall, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Jesse Abrams

  2. Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, 321 Richardson Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Emily Jane Davis

  3. Department of Natural Resources and Society, University of Idaho, 875 Perimeter Drive MS 1139, Moscow, ID, 83844, USA

    Katherine Wollstein

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  1. Jesse Abrams
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  2. Emily Jane Davis
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  3. Katherine Wollstein
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Correspondence to Jesse Abrams.

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All human subjects research was conducted with the informed consent of those involved. Research was authorized and overseen by the University of Oregon Institutional Review Board, protocol #06062014.010.

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Abrams, J., Davis, E.J. & Wollstein, K. Rangeland Fire Protection Associations in Great Basin Rangelands: A Model for Adaptive Community Relationships with Wildfire?. Hum Ecol 45, 773–785 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-017-9945-y

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