USDA Forest Service: Social Science Research Group (SSRG) For Wildfire

• In Event: 40264 - Advancing Sociological Practice through Computational Research and Community Engagement

Abstract

The USDA Forest Service (USFS) is the largest wildfire management agency in the United States. Despite this, it does not have sole responsibility and authority to comprehensively address wildfire risk in the US. To successfully address wildfire risk, the USFS must work together with multiple organizations both to improve coordination and to engage in collaborative learning to improve social and ecological outcomes.

Further, many of the greatest wildfire threats that we currently face are not only due to shifts in climate or other environmental processes; these challenges are deeply rooted in policy, the economy, demographic shifts, and local community characteristics. Thus, it is vital to invest in a targeted program of wildfire social science to provide scientific insight with practical implications to meet future challenges in collaborative resource management.

The establishment of a Social Science Research Group (SSRG) for wildfire offers a unique opportunity to examine the complex interactions required to address wildfire risk. As a long-term effort, the SSRG will bring together seasoned practitioners from USFS and senior-level social scientists to gain insights about wildfire interagency organizational learning and how practitioners and researchers can work together to reflect on wildfire mitigation and suppression actions in the field, develop lessons learned, and implement informed policies and practices ahead of the next wildfire. Members of the SSRG will work independently as well as collectively to generate situational- and culturally-specific knowledge.

This presentation will introduce attendees to the SSRG as a case study for implementing social science initiatives in federal government agencies and for practitioner-academic collaborations.

Author

• Melissa Villarreal, ORISE