REFOCUSING PRIORITIES FOR AT-RISK COMMUNITIES: FIRE MANAGEMENT FOR THE JUST TRANSITION

• Published in: Environmental law (Portland, Ore.) Ore.), 2023-06, Vol.53 (3), p.509-539
• Main Author: Herrmann, John
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CHAPTERS; Company business management; Decision making; Decisions; Environmental justice; Fire prevention; Fires; Forest & brush fires; Forest management; Forest policy; Forests; Government regulation; Indigenous peoples; Land management; Laws, regulations and rules; Management; Policies; Public lands; Rural areas; Rural communities; Social aspects; Wildfires; Wildland-urban interface
• ISSN: 0046-2276

Due to a century of disruption in natural fire in ecosystems paired with the rapid growth of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), wildland fire has become one of the most pressing issues in forest management because it places millions of people in close proximity to dangerous wildfires. Throughout the American West, forest managers are now facing declining forest health, high fuel loads, and inefficient systems for confronting the wildfire crisis, all while making decisions that dramatically affect the communities that live in the WUI. As policymakers wrestle with containing the dangers of intensifying wildfires, it becomes critically important that solutions consider the needs and desired outcomes of environmental justice communities who bear the consequences of land management decisions. Forest management decisions concerning federal public lands have long neglected and disregarded the rural communities and Indigenous peoples most directly impacted by wildland fires. With each passing fire season wreaking further devastation on vulnerable communities, it becomes increasingly necessary to develop policy solutions that prioritize the groups with the most at stake. By promoting a just transition for forest-dependent communities, we can seek to rectify previous mismanagement and injustices while working towards a healthier environment. This Chapter begins by evaluating the history of federal forest management and how policy regimes have created unsustainable conditions for remedying the wildfire crisis, then discusses possible solutions for uplifting rural and tribal communities in the WUI to develop better fire policy and restore prosperity to neglected groups. With particular focus on what the Biden administration has done in its first term, the Chapter analyzes what steps the administration has taken towards incorporating environmental justice into fire policy and what other policy initiatives are worth exploring further.