Using Q-methodology to identify local perspectives on wildfires in two Koyukon Athabascan communities in rural Alaska

Sustainable resource management depends upon the participation of resource-dependent communities. Competing values between community members and government agencies and among groups within a community can make it difficult to find mutually acceptable management goals and can disadvantage certain resource users. This study uses Q-methodology to discover groups with shared perspectives on wildfire policy in the Koyukon Athabascan villages of Galena and Huslia, Alaska. Before the study, participants appeared to disagree over the amount of wildfire suppression needed, but Q-method results showed three perspectives united around deeper, less oppositional concerns: Caucasian residents and resource managers who preferred natural processes; older Koyukon residents concerned about losing local control, small animals, and cultural places; and younger Koyukon residents who felt subsistence activities were resilient to social-ecological change. Additionally, both Koyukon groups suspected it was cheaper to suppress all wildfires while small. These results imply that community frustration with wildfire management may be reduced through collaborative research with Koyukon elders on locally important issues, cultural site mapping in order to extend some level of wildfire protection, and greater agency transparency about wildfire-suppression costs. The results also indicate that age may be an understudied driver of community resource-use preferences. This study proposes that without identifying resource user-interest groups and their main concerns, it is difficult to develop equitable environmental goals. It shows how Q-methodology provides a systematic approach for identifying the stakeholders and issues needed in resource management.