Principal Investigators: Heidi Huber-Stearns (Institute for a Sustainable Environment)

Project Summary: The goal of this project is to analyze the links between science communication, municipal and institutional-level decision-making, and wildfire research.  The team aims to promote socioecological resilience in the western US by expanding the scope and scale of wildfire communication and decision-making from the localized, immediate impacts of flames to the non-point source and longer-term impacts of smoke and sediment.  This research is timely and urgent as the hazards associated with wildfire now extend beyond the immediacy of direct fire and flame damage to expansive risks associated with smoke and stream water sediment contamination. Wildfires create major risks in air and water systems in communities thousands of miles away from the fire source itself, yet little is understood about how to communicate about these risks to communities facing non-point source impacts, nor how decisions are made within local structures of governance, public health, etc.