Increasing Wildfire in Alaska's Boreal Forest: Pathways to Potential Solutions of a Wicked Problem

ABSTRACT Recent global environmental and social changes have created a set of “wicked problems” for which there are no optimal solutions. In this article, we illustrate the wicked nature of such problems by describing the effects of global warming on the wildfire regime and indigenous communities in Alaska, and we suggest an approach for minimizing negative impacts and maximizing positive outcomes. Warming has led to an increase in the areal extent of wildfire in Alaska, which increases fire risk to rural indigenous communities and reduces short-term subsistence opportunities. Continuing the current fire suppression policy would minimize these negative impacts, but it would also create secondary problems near communities associated with fuel buildup and contribute to a continuing decline in subsistence opportunities. Collaborations between communities and agencies to harvest flammable fuels for heating and electrical power generation near communities, and to use wildland fire for habitat enhancement in surrounding forests, could reduce community vulnerability to both the direct and the indirect effects of global climate change.

[1]  H. Huntingdon.  Wildlife Management and Subsistence Hunting in Alaska , 1992 .

[2]  F. Chapin,et al.  Boreal Fire Effects on Subsistence Resources in Alaska and Adjacent Canada , 2008, Ecosystems.

[3]  Carl J. Walters,et al.  Adaptive Management of Renewable Resources , 1986 .

[4]  John E. Walsh,et al.  IMPACTS OF LARGE‐SCALE ATMOSPHERIC–OCEAN VARIABILITY ON ALASKAN FIRE SEASON SEVERITY , 2005 .

[5]  Bruce Shindler,et al.  Fuel Reduction Strategies in Forest Communities: A Longitudinal Analysis of Public Support , 2003 .

[6]  Kyle Joly,et al.  Simulating the influences of various fire regimes on caribou winter habitat. , 2006, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[7]  R. J. Wolfe.  Alaska's great sickness, 1900: an epidemic of measles and influenza in a virgin soil population. , 1982, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.

[8]  B. M. Wotton,et al.  Climate Change and People-Caused Forest Fire Occurrence in Ontario , 2003 .

[9]  E. Kasischke,et al.  Stand-level effects of soil burn severity on postfire regeneration in a recently burned black spruce forest , 2005 .

[10]  H. Rittel,et al.  Dilemmas in a general theory of planning , 1973 .

[11]  E. Kasischke,et al.  Recent changes in the fire regime across the North American boreal region—Spatial and temporal patterns of burning across Canada and Alaska , 2006 .

[12]  J. Vaske,et al.  Using normative beliefs to determine the acceptability of wildlife management actions , 1998 .

[13]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  Planning for resilience: modeling change in human–fire interactions in the Alaskan boreal forest , 2003 .

[14]  F. Chapin,et al.  Human Influences on Wildfire in Alaska from 1988 through 2005: An Analysis of the Spatial Patterns of Human Impacts , 2008 .

[15]  F. Chapin,et al.  The Significance of Context in Community-Based Research: Understanding Discussions about Wildfire in Huslia, Alaska , 2006 .

[16]  F. Chapin,et al.  Research, part of a Special Feature on Crossing Scales and Disciplines to Achieve Forest Sustainability Factors Contributing to the Cultural and Spatial Variability of Landscape Burning by Native Peoples of Interior Alaska , 2007 .

[17]  John E. Walsh,et al.  Integrated regional changes in arctic climate feedbacks: Implications for the global climate system , 2006 .

[18]  Wolfe Rj.  Alaska's great sickness, 1900: an epidemic of measles and influenza in a virgin soil population. , 1982 .

[19]  Christopher A. Wood,et al.  Wildfire Policy and Public Lands: Integrating Scientific Understanding with Social Concerns across Landscapes , 2004 .

[20]  Kat Anderson.  Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources , 2005 .

[21]  R. J. Wolfe.  Trapping in Alaska communities with mixed, subsistence-cash economies , 1991 .

[22]  E. Johnson,et al.  Large-scale climatic patterns control large lightning fire occurrence in Canada and Alaska forest regions , 2006 .

[23]  S. Todd,et al.  Wildland Fire in Alaska: A History of Organized Fire Suppression and Management in the Last Frontier , 2006 .

[24]  Leslie A. Viereck,et al.  Decadal observations of tree regeneration following fire in boreal forests , 2004 .

[25]  J. Hoef,et al.  Distribution and density of moose in relation to landscape characteristics: effects of scale , 2005 .

[26]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Policy strategies to address sustainability of Alaskan boreal forests in response to a directionally changing climate , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[27]  Bruce Shindler,et al.  Shifting public values for forest management: making sense of wicked problems. , 1999 .

[28]  David C. Natcher.  Implications of Fire Policy on Native Land Use in the Yukon Flats, Alaska , 2004 .

[29]  T. Swetnam,et al.  Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity , 2006, Science.

[30]  F. Chapin,et al.  Human Impacts on the Fire Regime of Interior Alaska: Interactions among Fuels, Ignition Sources, and Fire Suppression , 2006, Ecosystems.

[31]  J. Randerson,et al.  The Impact of Boreal Forest Fire on Climate Warming , 2006, Science.

[32]  G. H. Brundtland.  World Commission on environment and development , 1985 .

[33]  R. Halsey.  Burning Questions: America's Fight with Nature's Fire , 2005 .

[34]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  Effects of Soil Burn Severity on Post-Fire Tree Recruitment in Boreal Forest , 2006, Ecosystems.

[35]  J. Lynch,et al.  Geographic and temporal variations in fire history in boreal ecosystems of Alaska , 2002 .

[36]  Jonathan M. Graham,et al.  Analysis of Alaskan burn severity patterns using remotely sensed data , 2007 .

[37]  Millenium Ecosystem Assessment.  Ecosystems and human well-being: synthesis , 2005 .

[38]  A. M. Starfield,et al.  Modeling the Impact of Black Spruce on the Fire Regime of Alaskan Boreal Forest , 2002 .

[39]  Richard K. Nelson,et al.  Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest. , 1984 .

[40]  Nancy C. Roberts,et al.  Wicked Problems and Network Approaches to Resolution , 2000 .

[41]  O. Edenhofer,et al.  Mitigation from a cross-sectoral perspective , 2007 .

[42]  Sarah McCaffrey.  Thinking of Wildfire as a Natural Hazard , 2004 .