Decision Processes for Multijurisdictional Planning and Management: Community Wildfire Protection Planning in Oregon

Abstract

Recently, national fire policy has been redirected from a primary focus on suppression toward a more integrated and comprehensive approach developed at the community level. As part of this policy shift, Congress passed the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (P.L. 108-148) in 2003, encouraging communities to develop community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) to guide wildfire mitigation efforts on both federal and nonfederal lands. This research examines U.S. Forest Service and community collaboration in the development of CWPPs through a case-study analysis of two CWPP efforts in Oregon. A decision process framework is used to examine the effectiveness of each community's planning effort to address the wildfire problem. Findings indicate that communites lack effective multijurisdictional decision processes and fail to adequately address all of the decision functions necessary to successfully mitigate the wildfire threat.