There are currently a number of ongoing projects at ERI related to the human dimensions of forest restoration, which refer to activities contribute to building support and motivating action for restoration. Highlights from these projects are summarized below.
Assisting the Forest Service to Modernize Restoration Implementation
- Currently, the ERI is helping facilitate the development of the Digital Timber Sale Manager (DTSM) pilot, which is a system that will manage spatial data for the life of a timber sale and help improve efficiency in restoration treatment implementation.
Supporting Collaboration
- The ERI is working with the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) to develop a core social monitoring indicator for collaborative health, function, resilience, and outcomes on new CFLR projects with the Forest Service Washington Office.
Understanding Current Policies and Direction on Wildfires Managed for Forest Restoration
- ERI ecological research on resource objective wildfires has highlighted how ecological outcomes are often a reflection of how policy and direction is interpreted by managers.
- To that end, the ERI is conducting research to better understand policies and guidance on wildfire managed for forest restoration and how they are interpreted by fire managers.
Understanding the Effectiveness of Decision Support Tools
- The ERI is partnering with the CFRI and the Forest Service to examine the use of DSTs like Risk Management Assistance (RMA) and Potential Operational Delineations (PODs).
- The ERI and CFRI are conducting a survey to provide baseline information on the state of RMA use on wildfire incidents to set the stage for additional case studies that will generate recommendations for effective use of DSTs.
Documenting the Economic Impact of Wildfires and the Value of Restoration
- The ERI is working on a project in partnership with the Conservation Economics Institute to estimate the economic value of a restored acre or what might be framed as the return on investment of restoration.
- This will help to quantify the benefits of restoration and further support the need for proactive treatments.
Understanding Public Attitudes Toward Restoration and Fire
- Using leveraged state funding, the ERI continues to partner with Dr. Catrin Edgeley at Northern Arizona University’s School of Forestry to survey Flagstaff residents about their experience with the 2019 Museum Fire and post-fire flooding.
- A second survey will be deployed in 2022 to examine public perceptions following post-fire and non-fire related flooding in the summer of 2021 near the Museum Fire burn scar.
