Facilitating Collective Wildfire Action: Exploring Needs, Challenges and Roles of County Wildfire Coordinators

Abstract Wildfire science and policy have long recognized the critical role of place-based facilitators or organizers when advancing collective action for wildfire management. Yet it is only more recently that support for “wildfire coordinators” have been codified in state, federal or university programs through hiring of specialized positions. The research presented here explores the experiences, challenges and needs of county wildfire coordinators funded across California. We interviewed 62 individuals, including all 52 active county wildfire coordinators, to better understand how their work engaged new or ongoing wildfire initiatives across diverse social contexts. Results indicate that coordinators are pursuing very different wildfire management objectives or foci in their duty areas based on the variable histories, collaborative momentum, and administrative home established in each county. Coordinators spent much of their time trying to understand the variable needs and local cultures of diverse ‘communities’ where fire management progress was most feasible. They wanted help experimenting with or learning from “tailored” collaboration approaches through additional opportunities for shared learning. Participants also expressed concern about the longevity of the pilot coordinator program, including a perceived lack of metrics or procedures for documenting the relationship building, collaborative facilitation or trust formation developed through their work. We conclude the article by demonstrating how our results extend existing literature about the roles of coordinator positions in a multiscale system. We also provide a series of empirically oriented suggestions outlining the types of tools, outside partnerships, or metrics that could enable additional flexibility in administration of coordinator programs.