Researchers and managers kick off a workshop series to enhance PODs on fire-prone landscapes

In April, USDA Forest Service Chief Randy Moore inaugurated the 2024 wildfire season with his Letter of Intent for Wildland Fires, an annual event in which the Chief articulates expectations for wildfire management activity across the agency. In it, he refers to Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) as the “best research-informed tool we have” for pre-wildfire planning and wildfire response decision support, as it uses strategic risk assessment and involves collaboration with local partners. As PODs continue to catch on in forests across the country, with over 70 national forests already using PODs for pre-season wildfire planning, Forest Service researchers and their partners are already devising and testing ways to improve and expand upon the PODs framework.

Photo Credit

Joseph St. Peter

Researchers lead small group discussion during a workshop with managers of the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest. 

Over the summer, a team of researchers led by Research Ecologist Christopher "Kit" O’Connor of the Rocky Mountain Research Station, forest managers, and supporting partners kicked off a series of workshops geared toward this mission and new chapter in PODs development. They contribute to a big picture goal to develop new science that directly supports the safety and effectiveness of managers tasked with restoring the health of fire-dependent forests while also reducing hazardous conditions that intensify wildfire behavior.  These workshop activities are also core to the process of science co-production in which research is rooted in manager needs and steered by a collaborative feedback loop between researchers and managers.

Managers draw POD boundaries to strategically subdivide large landscapes into smaller, more manageable spatial units. POD boundaries are typically defined by potential control features such as roads, rivers, major ridges, barren areas, waterbodies, major fuel changes, or other locations that facilitate control – in other words, they are not defined by political or other jurisdictional boundaries. They do this in collaboration with community partners before wildfire season so that when the fire starts, they can act swiftly, collectively, and effectively to protect public and fire responder safety and preserve the infrastructure and natural resources most valued by local communities. Managers can also use the PODs process to identify where targeted enhancements to POD boundaries could strengthen existing fire control features.

The summer workshops are part of a project funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and in support of the Forest Service Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The project aims to link fuel treatment planning to fire management and post-fire recovery – all across large landscapes that encompass multiple jurisdictions. Specifically, it focuses on PODs networks in areas with a high risk of transmitting wildfire to neighboring landowners and communities: the Colorado Front Range (CO), the Central Washington Initiative (WA), and the Four Forest Restoration Initiative of Arizona, or 4FRI (AZ). 

Photo Credit

Daniel Godwin

Managers from the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest show researchers a POD boundary where a backburn had been utilized to slow a fire. 

Researchers planned these workshops to collaboratively define objectives specific to each landscape. At the same time, the project team seized opportunities to document and integrate more local knowledge and data into existing PODs-related tools. This upgrade will make it possible for managers to account for seasonal and local conditions along specific POD boundaries during risk assessment and POD delineation processes. For example, if assessments account for seasonal variability of grass conditions, more prescribed burning could happen when and where grasses are green, before they dry out and become flammable.

Adding these capabilities will equip managers with more precise information about the vulnerability of valuable assets and resources and fire behavior under incident-specific conditions. Managers can use this information as they make important decisions – not only when drawing POD boundaries or responding to wildfires, but also when prioritizing fuels treatments, whether in the off season or during a wildfire incident. The expanded PODs framework could therefore improve both the safety and effectiveness of fire management strategies throughout the management cycle. Where appropriate, these enhancements could pave the way for managers to use fire as a tool to meet agency objectives to reduce hazardous fuels and restore forest health, thereby mitigating hazards posed by large, destructive wildfires.

Photo Credit

Joseph St. Peter

A field visit during a workshop with Forest Service researchers and partners from the Central Washington Initiative. 

The workshops represent an important first step to co-development of research. These types of face-to-face discussions create unique opportunities to build trust and forge or strengthen partnerships between managers and researchers. Scientists learn about land management priorities and the social and political components of decision making, while managers learn what is possible and how science can help with communication and weighing alternatives. Already, the workshop format and field discussions have catalyzed relationships and immediately improved communication and  data sharing.

So far, the collaborative research efforts of 2024 are setting the stage for a promising 2025.