- Developing a reforestation social science project, which seeks to understand the impact of the REPLANT Act and climate-informed reforestation in the Southwest. The 2021 REPLANT Act more than quadrupled the amount of funding for the Forest Service to complete reforestation largely due to the growing need for planting in post-fire landscapes.
- Building a tool that aggregates data from existing systems of record. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) tasked the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes (SWERI) with building a tool to better inform planning, prioritization, monitoring, and evaluation of fuel treatments and wildfires on public lands. Team members working on this program investigate how such tools inform decision-making in collaborative settings.
- Administering a survey, in response to requests from partners in fire management, to explore how residents in the Flagstaff area experience smoke from beneficial fire, their communication preferences, and their engagement with health-protective behaviors. Results will be used to facilitate the continued use of beneficial fire, while mitigating negative impacts to nearby residents. More information can be found here.
- In collaboration with the other SWERI, we are engaged in several projects to understand the application of wildfire risk science and use of decision support tools. For example, we are working with the USDA Forest Service to evaluate tools and approaches like the Risk Management Assistance (RMA) platform and Incident Strategic Alignment Process (ISAP). More information can be found here.
The Policy and Communications group has been growing in recent years, and the ERI is excited to expand the reach of our actionable social science with four full-time staff.
The members of the group now include:
Melanie Colavito, the ERI Director of Policy and Communications, has been with the ERI since 2017. Melanie works across the Policy and Communications group on government relations and social science and is also engaged in the SWERI ReShape Project.
Niki vonHedemann, the ERI Human Dimensions Specialist, has been with the ERI since 2022. Niki works on multiple projects with the Policy and Communications group and closely with the ERI Native American Forest and Rangeland Management Program.
Scott Franz, Research Assistant with the SWERI ReShape Project and Policy and Communications group, has been with the ERI since the spring of 2024.
Sarah Devenport, Research Assistant with the Policy and Communications group, has been with the ERI since the spring of 2024.
