State and Federal agencies in the United States manage wildland fires to
minimize forest loss and reduce fire impacts on communities living near
forests. Despite changes to policy that emphasize the importance of
collaborative management with Tribes and
local communities, stakeholders with place-based knowledge still have
limited access to meaningful participation in policy development and management
planning. These barriers contribute to the alienation of communities
disproportionately burdened with the negative impacts of wildfire. Reduced
community-level support and a lack of inclusive practices regarding place-based
knowledge result in less robust management plans and poor ecological outcomes.
These outcomes highlight the need for improved multi-stakeholder collaborations
that holistically address interconnected management areas. In this paper,
Federal wildfire policy development and implementation are assessed to identify
barriers to collaborative management. An examination of multi-stakeholder fire
management organizations showed that coupling of federal policy, practices and
norms and the underrepresentation of external stakeholders may hinder progress
toward collaborative partnerships. A linguistic examination of federal wildfire
policy showed that directive, rather than cooperative language predominated.
This may promote unequal power-sharing dynamics that reduce opportunities for federal engagement and collaboration with
stakeholders from Tribes and local communities. Tribal barriers to
equitable partnership and decision-making were found to be tied to culturally
mediated frameworks for environmental management. Based on these findings, this
article offers suggestions for changes to policy and institutional culture that
will allow for an inclusive, holistic fire management model.
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