Public perspectives of fire, fuels and the Forest Service in the Great Lakes Region: a survey of citizen - agency communication and trust

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce A. Shindler ◽  
Eric Toman ◽  
Sarah M. McCaffrey
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Fuel Reduction ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Western Us ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Forest Service ◽  
Study Sites

Relative to the western United States, where fire and fuel management programs have received greater emphasis, few community-based studies have focused on the Great Lakes region. The present paper describes public opinion research from counties surrounding National Forests in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. Survey data address citizen perspectives on (1) fuel reduction practices and related risks, (2) confidence in the US Forest Service to effectively implement treatments, and (3) interactions between the agency and forest communities. Substantial support for prescribed fire and thinning treatments is evident, with few participants believing these practices should not be considered or are unnecessary. However, ratings of agency actions were weak at all three study sites; in particular, there is some skepticism that managers can safely implement prescribed fire programs. Overall, Minnesota residents had fewer concerns whereas Michigan respondents were more cautious. These results are discussed and compared with findings from the western US.

Early Insecticide Controversies and Beekeeper Advocacy in the Great Lakes Region

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bonnell
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Abstract This article examines the debates that surrounded incidents of honeybee poisoning in the southern Great Lakes region in the 1880s and 1890s. Drawing upon the records of beekeepers and allied entomologists from Ontario and neighboring states, it analyzes the history of insecticide use, knowledge development, and risk calculation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here, beekeepers emerge as an important and largely overlooked collective voice in the history of insecticide controversies, contributing as they did to legislation, education, and advocacy efforts on both sides of the US-Canadian border. Their actions in response to a cogent threat to their livelihoods mark them as early advocates for environmental protection. Deeply familiar with the amenities and threats of surrounding land uses for their honey crop, late nineteenth-century beekeepers pressed for prudent insecticide use and “bee-friendly” horticultural practices more than half a century before the more familiar insecticide controversies of the postwar period. By the turn of the century, these efforts had borne some success in reducing incidents of honeybee poisoning. As the frequency, quantity, and toxicity of insecticides increased in the early twentieth century, however, powerful fruit-grower interests left Great Lakes beekeepers (and their bees) to shoulder the risks of an increasingly toxic countryside or to fold their operations, as many chose to do. For environmental historians, their fight presents an early example of the effects of agricultural industrialization, and its associated environmental consequences, on minority producers and the animals they kept.

scholarly journals Forest Service Spatial Information Use for Planning Prescribed Fires

2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 200-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.M. Barrett ◽  
J.G. Jones ◽  
R.H. Wakimoto
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Time Windows ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Western Us ◽  
Severe Constraint ◽  
Survey Responses

Abstract Forest management decision support systems (FMDSS) and geographic information systems have improved the incorporation of spatial information into forest planning. However, most FMDSS have been designed to implement silvicultural treatments rather than prescribed fire and fuel treatments. Results from a survey of 277 Forest Service employees in the western US show FMDSS need modifications to be better adapted to the needs of prescribed fire planners. Survey responses indicate that, on average, prescribed fire planners would like to increase the area treated annually by 12 times current levels. Available time windows for burning provide the most severe constraint for managers, while funding and personnel constraints were rated as comparably less important. Given these results, FMDSS may be most appropriately designed to help managers develop a long-term strategy for prioritizing prescribed fire treatments. Necessary FMDSS modifications may include different methods of delineating treatment boundaries, improved integration with wildlife habitat models, emphasis on short-term costs, and flexible intervals between repeated treatments. West. J. Appl. For. 15(4):200–207.

scholarly journals UNHCR and partner practices of community-based protection across sectors in the East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Mballa ◽  
Josephine Ngebeh ◽  
Machtelt De Vriese ◽  
Katie Drew ◽  
Abigayil Parr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Community Based

scholarly journals The Development of an Organizational Safety Culture in the United States Forest Service

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Flores ◽  
Emily Haire
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Safety Culture ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
Organizational Safety ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Forest Service ◽  
Core Value ◽  
Organizational Safety Culture

Abstract For over 100 years, the US Forest Service (USFS) has developed initiatives to improve safety outcomes. Herein we discuss the engineered solutions used from 1910 through 1994, when the agency relied on physical science to address the hazards of wildland fire suppression. We then interpret safety initiatives of the subsequent 25 years, as the USFS incorporated social science perspectives both into its understanding of emergency fire incidents and its mitigation of vulnerabilities across all fields of work. Tracing the safety programs using a historical sociology approach, we identify, within the agency’s narrative, three recent developments in its organizational safety culture: cultural awareness, cultural management, and cultural reorganization. This article describes how the development of top-down safety initiatives are questioned and shaped by employees who actively influence the trajectory of a safety culture in the USFS. Study Implications: Safety is a core value of the US Forest Service (USFS), and several safety initiatives, along with employee feedback over the years, have shaped the organizational culture of the agency. To build a robust and world-renowned safety culture in high-risk industries, managers require an understanding of the origins of their organization’s current safety culture. Using a critical social science analytical lens, we discuss how safety initiatives and the development of a safety culture position organizations such as the USFS to move away from reactionary safety initiatives and anchor to employee safety as a core value in order to absorb external shocks, such as rapidly changing ecosystems, development in the wildland urban interface, and larger and more intense wildfires.

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