Incorporating 4FRI Stakeholders into Wildfire Crisis Strategy Prioritization
Ecological Restoration Institute staff have long supported the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) through shared leadership roles, and have providing the best available science to planning efforts, monitoring efforts, and implementation efforts. In 2021, the 4FRI landscape was named one of the Wildfire Crisis Strategy High Priority Landscapes by USDA Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. As part of that initiative, WCS landscapes are tasked with prioritizing and optimization work to efficiently build landscapes resilient to climate change and uncharacteristically severe wildfire.
ERI-led efforts are bringing the 4FRI stakeholders together to better realize how stakeholder values can tier to and be incorporated with WCS efforts. We plan to utilize available national and regional tools, while ensuring local values and long-described collaborative values at risk are incorporated into the prioritization plan.
Together with the Forest Service team, the 4FRI Stakeholders have developed and documented shared understanding and goals. We envision the ability to answer the question, “Why here, why now” for mechanical treatment, prescribed fire, and wildfire managed for resource benefit, to a diverse audience. We acknowledge that the extent and intensity of wildfires in our region continues to increase at a pace and scale that is unmatched by current forest restoration treatments. Challenges with 4FRI restoration plan implementation at scale necessitate a prioritization and sequencing of areas within the 4FRI landscape to optimize efforts that meaningfully reduce overall risk of catastrophic wildfire and improve forest health. The objective of our work is to increase transparency of mechanical and non-mechanical (e.g., prescribed fire) treatments sequencing and prioritization over temporal and spatial scales, and among Forest Service administrative units, the 4FRI Stakeholder Group, and additional state, regional, and federal audiences. (Text modified from 4FRI Prioritization Letter of Commitment.)
