All-lands management: Convening communities and their lands around fire management

Broadly defined, All-lands Management (ALM) is a land management approach involving collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration at the landscape scale, across ownership and jurisdictional boundaries. My research investigates collaborative groups working to reduce wildfire risk by applying ALM. Fire risk in the Pacific West (California and Oregon) is increasing in severity and extent due to fire suppression and is exacerbated by the effects of drought, climate change, and expanding residential development. For decades federal, state, and local entities have expressed the need to work collaboratively, across boundaries and ownerships to reintroduce fire back onto the landscape to restore forest resiliency. This research reveals barriers that prevent broader ALM utilization, framing the implementation difficulties as bureaucratic rigidity problems. Ultimately, the goal of my research is to reveal the capacities of the cases this study is based that enable ALM. I conducted in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis with two case studies: the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership (WKRP) and the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project (AFR). The cases demonstrate how ALM is being implemented in different contexts, as well as existing social, economic, and political barriers to its effective implementation. Both cases have employed principles of the 2010 National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy – by following these principles both groups aim to shift out of a full suppression model of fire management into a more resilience based model. Both have faced a plethora of challenges, but have problem-solved differently. I explore the ways the two cases developed strategies to enhance their capacities for ALM