Hot Take: The Best Ways to Promote Resilience in the Face of Wildfires.
As climate changes, the frequency and severity of natural disasters are increasing, including wildfire events along the West Coast. Some regions – like Eastern Washington and California – are better prepared for fire events than other regions that experience less exposure to wildfires. Western Washington is one of the regions that has recently been seeing an influx of wildfires during the summer, with more people moving into these wildfire-prone forests. The purpose of this study was to determine some of the best practices of building resilience in wetter, milder climates as wildfires continue to push into these regions. As an intern with the King County Climate Action Team, I assessed the opportunities for improving resilience by the standards of organizations interacting with wildfires the most. As part of my internship, I conducted interviews about existing gaps and opportunities in wildfire risk reduction methods. The last question asked interviewees to list three things that would make a positive difference toward wildfire resilience, which catered toward my research. Additionally, I performed literary analyses on wildfire resilience methods around the West Coast. My findings from both the interviews and literary analyses indicated that some of the best social resilience tactics are better awareness/education and better communication/cross-collaboration. Ecologically, forest thinning is among the most effective resilience tactics used for denser, wetter forests. These results are great first steps in further addressing gaps and opportunities regarding wildfire resilience around the world and building support for the ecological/social health of communities going forward.
