TXST researchers look to improve wildfire mitigation collaboration

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Joint Fire Science Program has awarded Texas State University’s Christopher Serenari, Ph.D., a grant to leverage the interests of public institutions and private landowners to foster improved collaboration efforts in wildfire mitigation. 

Serenari is an assistant professor of human dimensions of wildlife in the Department of Biology. The two-year, $230,000 award will support his study, “Mapping the socio-political context of fire suppression through multi-institutional collaboration.”

Collaboration is essential for tackling large-scale wildfire problems that cross jurisdictions and involve multiple interests, including but not limited to governments, wildlife agencies and private landowners. Though wildfire mitigation has become more expensive, complex and increasingly prone to conflict, cross-jurisdictional collaboration to create fire-resistant landscapes and reduce suppression costs has been limited. Collaboration has been undermined by social, political and institutional factors such as prevailing fire culture and the politicization of wildfire. 

To address these challenges, the study will focus on wildlife agencies as collaboration brokers to overcome deficits. These agencies have institutionalized engagement with landowners to encourage reduction of brush and deadfall, which are potential fuel for wildfires, as well as to promote habitat conservation on private lands. Both areas are essential pieces of wildfire management. Serenari and postdoctoral researcher, Heath Starns, Ph.D., will interview wildlife and fire experts in Oklahoma, Florida and Texas, states with elevated wildfire risk to private lands, to answer two questions within the nexus of wildfire and wildlife governance: Which socio-political factors enable or constrain cross-jurisdictional action about wildfire? And how can multi-institutional collaboration expand institutional boundaries to strengthen wildfire decision making? 

The study is expected to provide a more accurate assessment of how large-scale wildfire mitigation efforts can partner with wildlife entities to help create fire resilient communities and improve efficiency of government spending. The resulting comprehensive framework will outline how to make fire suppression decision-making more sustainable, resilient and adaptive by cultivating trust, reciprocity and mutuality. 

For more information about the Joint Fire Science Program, visit www.firescience.gov.