Year: 2005
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Federal wildland fire policy and program reviews following the 1994 and 2000 fire seasons required recognizing fire as a natural process and reducing hazardous fiiel accumulations.To meet this requirement, new policy encouraged managing natural ignitions to meet resource benefits (called Wildland Fire Use, WFU).However, mechanical treatments and prescribed burning comprise the majority of fuel reduction treatments effected to date.Budget constraints and the need for repeated treatments suggest that successful fuel and ecosystem management hinges on expanding the WFU program.The decision to authorize WFU in the U.S. Forest Service ultimately rests with the line officers, typically the district rangers.The so-called 'go/no go' decision constitutes a time-critical risk assessment.The factors weighing in to this risk assessment underpin the feasibility of expanding the WFU program.This study aimed to determine the influences on the line officers' go/no go decision.This study conducted a telephone survey of all the U.S. Forest Service district rangers with the authority to use WFU in the Northern, Intermountain, and Southwestern Regions.The census was completed during February of 2005 and obtained an 85 percent response rate.This study used classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to examine the data collected.Personal commitment to the WFU program provided the primary classifier for 91 percent of the district rangers who authorized WFU.External factors, negative public perception, resource availability, and a perceived lack of support from the agency surfaced as the main disincentives to authorizing WFU ii
Source: The Mathematics Enthusiast
Author: Martha A. Williamson
Institution: University of Montana
Language: English
Topic: Fire effects on ecosystems
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W744647531