“What Are We Protecting Out Here?” A Political Ecology of Forest, Fire, and Fuels Management in Utah's Wildland-Urban Interface

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Notes

*Research was performed while I was a student at North Carolina State University. Travel funding for this research was provided by North Carolina State University.

¹All quotations are presented as spoken in context. The names of crewmembers are presented as pseudonyms loosely based on nicknames. The name of the crew itself is a pseudonym. Official titles of Utah Natural Resources professionals interviewed are not revealed. Names of specific interface communities worked in are presented as pseudonyms. All of this is done in an effort to protect the identity of research participants.

²Manipulation or removal of vegetative fuels by mechanical means to reduce the likelihood of ignition and/or to lessen potential damage and resistance to control. “Fire Terms Glossary,”http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/nfp/glossary.htm#f.

³From May through August 2008, one fuels crew season, the author was both a graduate student performing thesis research and a working member of the 2008 Red Mountain Fuels Mitigation Crew. Employment on the crew constituted the participant-observation portion of the author's research.

⁴All the work of extinguishing or confining a fire, beginning with its discovery. “NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire Terminology,” http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/glossary/s.htm.

⁵The science, art, and practice of managing and using trees, forests, and their associated resources for human benefit. From the USDA Forest Service. 1989. Interim Resource Inventory Glossary. June 14, 1989. File 1900. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.

⁶Burning of fuels on the surface, which includes dead branches, leaves, and low vegetation. “NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire Terminology,” http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/glossary/s.htm.

⁷Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act (1960), Wilderness Act (1964), National Environmental Policy Act (1969), Endangered Species Act (1973), Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act (1974), and the National Forest Management Act (1976).

⁸“Overstocked stands may represent a stagnated condition with trees exhibiting a low live-crown ratio and numerous dead stems” (Avery and Burkhart 2002, 322).

⁹In the western U.S., the area of the wildland-urban interface expanded by 61 percent from 1970–2000 (Theobald and Romme 2007).

¹⁰Population in Utah's Wasatch and Summit counties, where fuels crew efforts were primarily targeted during the author's fieldwork as a result of forest management priority area classification (Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands 2010), increased by 163 percent and 410 percent respectively from 1970–2000 (statistics calculated from data provided by the Population Estimates Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau).

¹¹Utah had one of the greatest proportions of wildland-urban interface expansion nationwide from 1970–2000. Furthermore, Utah's wildland-urban interface is expected to significantly increase from 2000-2030 (Theobald and Romme 2007).

¹²A natural or manmade change in fuel characteristics which affects fire behavior so that fires burning into them can be more readily controlled. “NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire Terms,” http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/glossary/f.htm.

¹³From 1997–2006, “Wildland fires had affected more than 24 million hectares at a direct suppression cost of $9.642 billion” (González-Cabán 2007, 1).

¹⁴From 1985–2010, the state of Utah averaged approximately 759 wildfires burning 134,507 acres per year. During the years 1991-2002, the total state costs for these fires averaged $4,018,706 per year (statistics calculated from data provided by the 2010 State of Utah Hazard Mitigation Plan, http://publicsafety.utah.gov/homelandsecurity/UtahHazardMitigationPlan.html; and The National Interagency Fire Center, http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/fire_stats.htm.

¹⁵Fuels that provide vertical continuity between strata, allowing fire to spread from surface fuels into the crowns of trees or shrubs with relative ease. They help initiate and assure the continuation of crowning. “NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire Terms,” http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/glossary/l.htm.

¹⁶“Firefighter Training.”

¹⁷“Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior.”

¹⁸Seventy-seven percent of lodgepole pine stands were at moderate or high risk of attack by bark beetles in 1993 (O'Brien 1999).

¹⁹Fuels lying on or near the surface of the ground, consisting of leaf and needle litter, dead branch material, downed logs, bark, tree cones, and low stature living plants. “NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire Terms,” http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/glossary/s.htm.

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Notes on contributors

Jason Roberts

I would like to thank all the members of the 2008 Red Mountain Fuels Removal Crew and the numerous other State of Utah employees who were so instrumental to this research. Keep “walkin’ hard” my friends. I am also greatly indebted to my primary graduate advisor Jerry Jacka for his patience and input every step of the way. Thank you to the members of my graduate committee at North Carolina State University, Nora Haenn and Fred Cubbage, for their many contributions to this work. Thank you to the editors of this journal and the anonymous reviewers who provided so many thoughtful remarks and suggestions. Thank you to all my family and friends for their continued support. Special thanks should also go to Carrie McMillan, esq. and Martha Searcey for their tireless efforts to try to lead me away from the boring world of the passive voice. Thank you to Caroline Barlow for her expert archival assistance. Finally, thank you to Dr. Janice Odom for always being “Skippy.”