Filter Publications
Safeguarding Nature and Cities in a Burning Country
Raging fires around Los Angeles are another stark reminder of how deeply our lives are intertwined with nature. Fires in the western USA — as with fires around Athens, Sydney or Valparaiso — expose not only the vulnerability of urban communities but also the neglect and overexploitation of the natural systems that sustain us and protect cities. As flames consumed forests, homes and infrastructure in Los Angeles in early 2025 (destroying 16,000 buildings, with thousands more facing continued risk), the controversies around fire prevention and management are likely to burn through political opportunities to build a common vision for a resilient and sustainable future in and around urban areas. Although the Los Angeles fires and political shifts in Washington cast attention on the USA, recent climate emergencies and political transitions to the right or extreme-right internationally call for invoking shared values in the management of the climate crisis and the protection of natural resources.
Read moreThe Influence of Wildfire Risk Reduction Programs and Practices on Recreation Visitation
Figure 1. Area within the Deschutes Skyline Collaborative ForestLandscape Restoration Project (in blue) compared with the area of the remainder of the Deschutes National Forest (in green). Map made in QGIS v 3.30. Background The increasing extent and severity of uncharacteristic wildfire has prompted numerous policies and programs promoting landscape-scale fuels reduction. Aims We used novel data sources to measure how recreation was influenced by fuels reduction efforts under the US Forest Service Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) Program. Methods We used posts to four social media platforms to estimate the number of social media user-days within CFLR landscapes and asked: (1) did visitation within CFLR Program landscapes between 2012 and 2020 change in a manner consistent with the pattern on nearby lands, and (2) was there a relationship between the magnitudes of specific fuel treatment activities within CFLR landscapes and visitation to that landscape? Key results In aggregate, visitation to the CFLR landscapes changed at a rate mirroring the trend observed elsewhere. Within CFLR landscapes, pre-commercial thinning and pruning had slight positive influences on visitation whereas prescribed burning and managed wildfire had slight negative influences. Conclusions Fuel treatments can have a modest influence on visitation, but we didnot find any wholesale changes in visitation within CFLR landscapes. Implications Social media and other novel data sources offer an opportunity to fill in gaps in empirical data on recreation to better understand social-ecological system linkages.
Read moreForest Therapy as a Trauma-Informed Approach to Disaster Recovery: Insights from a Wildfire-Affected Community
Figure 1. The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy standard sequence of events used to guide a forest therapy experience. Clifford and Page, 2020. A trauma-informed approach to disaster recovery recognizes the potential impacts of trauma, promotes resilience to protect against retraumatization, and can support catering the needs of disaster survivors in affected communities. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that interaction with nature is associated with a number of physical and mental health benefits, though literature surrounding nature-based therapy and disaster survivors is limited. Through key informant interviews with forest therapy guides from a program in wildfire affected Butte County, CA, this exploratory study investigates if and how “Forest Therapy ’’ can serve as a trauma-informed approach to promote wellbeing in the face of climate change and associated disasters. We find that community-based forest therapy programs offer a promising, flexible approach to community-based trauma-informed mental health services in disaster-affected communities. Findings also identify opportunities to tailor implementation of future programs to better reach populations most impacted by disasters, including through targeted outreach and diverse guide recruitment. Future research should investigate the impacts of forest therapy on the mental health and wellbeing of participants, as well as the scalability of forest therapy programs in disaster-affected communities.
Read moreWhat Can We Do When the Smoke Rolls In? An Exploratory Qualitative Analysis of the Impacts of Rural Wildfire Smoke on Mental Health and Well-Being, and Opportunities for Adaptation
Figure 1. Suggested content, distribution location, medium, and messenger for a wildfire smoke and wellbeing toolkit Background Extreme, prolonged wildfire smoke (WFS) events are becoming increasingly frequent phenomena across the Western United States. Rural communities, dependent on contributions of nature to people’s quality of life, are particularly hard hit. While prior research has explored the physical health impacts of WFS exposure, little work has been done to assess WFS impacts on mental health and wellbeing, or potential adaptation solutions. Methods Using qualitative methods, we explore the mental health and wellbeing impacts experienced by community members in a rural Washington State community that has been particularly hard hit by WFS in recent years, as well as individual, family, and community adaptation solutions. We conducted focus groups with residents and key informant interviews with local health and social service providers. Results Participants identified a variety of negative mental health and wellbeing impacts of WFS events, including heightened anxiety, depression, isolation, and a lack of motivation, as well as physical health impacts (e.g., respiratory issues and lack of exercise). Both positive and negative economic and social impacts, as well as temporary or permanent relocation impacts, were also described. The impacts were not equitably distributed; differential experiences based on income level, outdoor occupations, age (child or elderly), preexisting health conditions, housing status, and social isolation were described as making some residents more vulnerable to WFS-induced physical and mental health and wellbeing challenges than others. Proposed solutions included stress reduction (e.g., meditation and relaxation lessons), increased distribution of air filters, development of community clean air spaces, enhancing community response capacity, hosting social gatherings, increasing education, expanding and coordination risk communications, and identifying opportunities for volunteering. Findings were incorporated into a pamphlet for community distribution. We present a template version herein for adaptation and use in other communities. Conclusions Wildfire smoke events present significant mental health and wellbeing impacts for rural communities. Community-led solutions that promote stress reduction, physical protection, and community cohesion have the opportunity to bolster resilience amid this growing public health crisis.
Read moreApplying Novel Visitation Models using Diverse Social Media to Understand Recreation Change after Wildfire and Site Closure
Figure 1. Location of study sites in the Columbia River Gorge, USA. The area burned in the Eagle Creek Fire is shown in red. Sites are numbered from west to east. Names and closure and reopening dates are in Table S1. The purple star on the reference map shows the location of the study area in the USA. The Columbia River forms the border between Washington (to the north) and Oregon (to the south) in this region. Natural disturbances such as wildfires are increasing in severity and frequency. Although the ecological impacts of disturbance are well documented, we have limited understanding of how disturbances and associated management responses influence recreation use patterns. This reflects, in part, difficulty in quantifying recreation use across different land ownerships with inconsistent, or non-existent, recreation monitoring practices. In this study, we use visitation models based on social media to examine how recreation use changed after a wildfire and site closures in a large, mixed-ownership landscape. We find that wildfire and associated closures resulted in visitation loss to the recreation system as a whole and little site-to-site displacement within the system in the two years following the wildfire. Our study highlights the importance, when considering how wildfire and management may alter recreation use patterns, of considering the many factors that influence substitution behavior, including the relative locations of visitor origins, disturbances, and substitute sites.
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