NNA Research: Collaborative Research: Socio-ecological considerations for sustainAble Fuel treatments to Reduce wildfire Risk (SAFRR)

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。航行新北极(NNA)是NSF的十大想法之一。NNA项目解决了快速变化的北极地区汇聚的科学挑战。北极研究需要为国家、更大区域和全球的经济、安全和韧性提供信息。NNA增强了从地方到国际的新的研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正式和非正式教育的努力，并在适当的情况下整合共同创造知识。该奖项通过解决以下NNA重点领域的社会系统、自然环境和建筑环境之间的相互作用来实现这一目标的一部分：北极居民、教育、预测、全球影响和弹性基础设施。北方针叶林是环绕北极冻土带南部的一条带，约占全球森林面积的30%，为当地和土著人民和野生动物提供关键的食物、住所和其他需求，以及在地方、区域和全球范围内的关键经济机会。野火自然发生在北方森林中，但随着气候变暖，野火变得越来越危险。自20世纪90年代以来，阿拉斯加和加拿大西部每年烧毁的北方森林面积增加了一倍，该地区在过去十年中经历了一些最致命、代价最高的野火事件。间伐和规定的焚烧等植被管理方法，也被称为燃料处理，是土地管理机构、土地所有者和社区为减少居民和基础设施风险而采用的主要工具之一。有效的燃料处理需要大量的规划、实施成本和维护。燃料处理也可能是有争议的；它们可能会面临阻力，并影响附近居民的态度和行为。在这个项目中，研究人员与管理林地和野火的机构人员合作，创建一个综合框架来评估燃料处理；评估它们的短期和长期生态影响以及对野火行为的影响；检查它们被居民接受的可能性；以及评估替代燃料处理设计实现社会、生态和公共安全目标的能力。该项目正在深入了解植被如何对不同的处理方法做出反应，安装和维护成本，以及北方森林中不同类型处理方法的居民可接受性，并正在改善土地管理者、土地所有者和社区如何使用燃料处理来减少野火风险。该项目团队正在与公共土地和野火从业者、土著组织以及位于阿拉斯加内陆的基奈半岛、安克雷奇和育空地区的怀特霍斯社区合作，共同制定一项关于燃料处理的综合评估。该小组正在遵循一种共同制定的方法，以建立一个综合的社会-生态评估框架。该项目包括与土地管理人员和野火从业者的讲习班和访谈，以确定首选战略、实施障碍和有关燃料处理的关键政策，并促进知识交流和合作。研究小组成员正在对不同类型的燃料处理和生态区域的燃料回收率提供新的估计，以更好地了解燃料处理和维护要求的短期和长期生态影响。他们还在测试植被演替轨迹是否可以指向以较低的维护成本创造更持久的治疗，并评估替代设计实现已确定的社会、生态、经济和公共安全目标的能力。调查和访谈被用来评估阿拉斯加公众对燃料处理的接受程度，并增加对燃料处理的偏好和社会可接受性如何影响亚北极社区房主风险缓解行为的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. The Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, the natural environment, and the built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents, Education, Forecasting, Global Impact, and Resilient Infrastructure.The boreal forest, a belt surrounding the Arctic south of the tundra, represents about 30% of the global forest area and provides critical food, shelter, and other needs to local and Indigenous peoples and wildlife, as well as key economic opportunities at the local, regional, and global scale. Wildfires occur naturally in boreal forests, but they have become increasingly dangerous as the climate warms. The area of boreal forest burned each year in Alaska and western Canada has doubled since the 1990s, and the region has experienced some of the most deadly and costly wildfire events in the last decade. Vegetation management methods such as thinning and prescribed burns, also known as fuel treatment, are among the main tools employed by land management agencies, landowners, and communities to reduce risk to residents and infrastructure. Effective fuel treatments require significant planning, implementation costs, and maintenance. Fuel treatments can also be controversial; they may face resistance and affect attitudes and behaviors of nearby residents. In this project, researchers are working with agency personnel managing forest lands and wildfire to create an integrated framework to evaluate fuel treatments; assess their short-term and long-term ecological effects and influence on wildfire behavior; examine how likely they are to be acceptable to residents; and evaluate the ability of alternative fuel treatment designs to achieve social, ecological, and public safety goals. The project is providing insights into how vegetation responds to different treatments, installation and maintenance costs, and acceptability to residents of different types of treatments in boreal forests, and is improving how land managers, landowners, and communities can use fuel treatments to reduce wildfire risk.The project team is working with public land and wildfire practitioners; Indigenous organizations; and communities on the Kenai Peninsula, in Interior Alaska, and Anchorage, and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, to co-produce an integrated assessment of fuel treatments. The team is following a co-produced approach to an integrated social-ecological evaluation framework. The project includes workshops and interviews with land managers and wildfire practitioners to identify preferred strategies, barriers to implementation, and key policies regarding fuel treatments and promote the exchange of knowledge and collaboration. Team members are providing new estimates on rates of fuel recovery across different types of fuel treatments and ecoregions to better understand the short and long-term ecological effects of fuel treatments and maintenance requirements. They are also testing whether vegetation successional trajectories can be directed towards creating longer-lasting treatments with lower maintenance costs, and evaluating the ability of alternative designs to achieve identified social, ecological, economic, and public safety goals. Surveys and interviews are being used to evaluate public acceptance of fuel treatments in Alaska and increase the understanding of how preferences and social acceptability of fuel treatments affect homeowner risk mitigation behavior in subarctic communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.