“Evergreen and Charcoal Black”: The Institutional and Organizational Development of the Washington Department of Natural Resources in the Era of Megafires

Abstract

In Washington State in the US, the story of the Washington Department of Natural Resources’ (WA DNR) work to manage increased wildfire threat and the resulting internal and external shifts in agency policy and practices is the subject of this analysis. A narrative policy framework is a lens adopted to examine how the elected leadership of the agency sought to institute adaptive change and increase available resources to implement such change through the initiation and support of a key piece of legislation and through strategic shifts in its land management emphasis. These changes were initiated to increase agency land management and firefighting capacity while not abandoning its long-standing mandate to generate financial returns for the State trusts. Although the implementation of these policy changes is in an initial stage, we suggest the lessons from these shifts in policy and practice are relevant to many other land management agencies facing similar challenges.

Keywords:

• Narrative policy framework
• organizational change
• wildfire policy and management

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Kent Keller, Mr. Michael Gaffney, and Mr. Chris Loftis for their assistance in reviewing early drafts of this work, and personnel of the WSU School of the Environment, Washington Department of Natural Resources, and Okanogan Conservation District for their assistance and support.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially supported by the Rocky Mountain Research Station of the USDA Forest Service, United States (agreements 19-JV-11221636-073, 21-CS-11221636-080).