geospatial technologies

Participatory Geographic InformationSystems as an Organizational Platform forthe Integration of Traditional and ScientificKnowledge in Contemporary Fire and FuelsManagementBrooke Baldauf McBride, Fernando Sanchez-Trigueros,Stephen J. Carver, Alan E. Watson, Linda Moon Stumpff,Roian Matt, and William T. Borrie

Traditional knowledge about fire and its effects held by indigenous people, who are connected to specificlandscapes, holds promise for informing contemporary fire and fuels management strategies and augmentingknowledge and information derived from western science. In practice, however, inadequate means to organizeand communicate this traditional knowledge with scientists and managers can limit its consideration in decisions,requiring novel approaches to interdisciplinary and cross-cultural communication and collaboration. We proposethat Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) is one platform for the assemblage and communicationof traditional knowledge vital to fire and fuels management, while preserving linkages to broader culturalcontexts. We provide summaries of four preliminary case studies in the Intermountain West of North Americato illustrate different potential applications of a PGIS tool in this context and describe some remaining challenges.

Keywords: fire and fuels management, traditional knowledge, indigenous knowledge, ParticipatoryGeographic Information Systems

F or thousands of years, indigenouspeoples have used fire to managetheir landscapes for a wide variety of

subsistence and cultural purposes, includingpromoting the growth and yield of crops andcertain native plants, minimizing pests, im-

proving habitat for game animals and hunt-ing, protecting areas from wildfire, andclearing areas for travel and other activities(Mason et al. 2012, Huffman 2013, Vog-gesser et al. 2013, Christianson 2015). Atlocal and regional scales, traditional fire

knowledge entails a multifacteted under-standing of how subsets of multiple socialand ecological elements interact and influ-ence one another, producing many pyro-geographies of considerable nuance and so-phistication (Huffman 2013). In otherwords, culturally linked fire regimes haveemerged as a result of time-tested knowledgeregarding the effects of fire on culturally val-ued resources, both for increasing resourcepredictability and promoting resilience tochanges in the environment (Voggesser et al.2013). In addition to human-ignited fire re-gimes, tribal cultures are believed to haveadapted their subsistence strategies and so-cioeconomic systems in response to climateand changing nonanthropogenic fire re-gimes for millennia. They observed andadapted to the effects of fire on ecologicalprocesses at various scales, from local habi-

Received November 24, 2014; accepted May 10, 2016; published online July 7, 2016.

Affiliations: Brooke Baldauf McBride (brooke.b.mcbride@gmail.com), College of Forestry and Conservation, The University of Montana. Fernando Sanchez-Trigueros (f.sancheztrigueros@leeds.ac.uk), School of Geography, University of Leeds. Stephen J. Carver (s.j.carver@leeds.ac.uk), School of Geography, University ofLeeds. Alan E. Watson (awatson@fs.fed.us), Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula, MT.Linda Moon Stumpff (stumpffl@evergreen.edu), Native Studies Program, The Evergreen State College. Roian Matt (greeneyednativewoman@yahoo.com), Con-federated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Forestry Department. William T. Borrie (bill.borrie@umontana.edu), College of Forestry and Conservation, The Universityof Montana.

Acknowledgments: This project was jointly supported by the Joint Fire Sciences Program (12-2-01-18), the Rocky Mountain Research Station–Aldo LeopoldWilderness Research Institute, The University of Montana, and The University of Leeds. We thank the tribes for their support and engagement in these casestudies.

PRACTICE OF FORESTRY

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J. For. 115(1):43–50http://dx.doi.org/10.5849/jof.14–147

tats to landscapes encompassing diverse eco-systems (Voggesser et al. 2013). Traditionalphenological knowledge has been used to in-form both fire prescription and adaptationto wildfire events, including postfire recov-ery (Armatas et al. 2016).

In North America, some of this knowl-edge has been lost to time and forced assim-ilation, although some persists in the oraltradition and practices of contemporary na-tive communities (Kimmerer and Lake2001). It is well documented that the fre-quency and extent of both human-ignitedand naturally ignited fires were greatly re-duced after European colonization and that“…the current American landscape reflectsthe historical legacy of one worldview super-imposed on another—the colonial overlay-ing the traditional….” Nowhere is this his-tory more apparent than in attitudes towardfire made manifest on the landscape (Kim-merer and Lake 2001, p. 36).

According to Guyette et al. (2006),throughout North American history, firefrequency and human population densitywere positively correlated at early periods oflower levels of human habitation (presettle-ment and early settlement periods), but be-came negatively correlated at later times ofhigher population density. Europeans ar-rived in North America with the convictionthat fire was destructive and hazardous tohumans based on their past experiences,which was in stark contrast with the beliefsof indigenous peoples, who embraced thebenefits of burning and were skilled in ap-plying fire to the landscape. Although somepurposive fires were used by the settlers forclearing and maintaining grazing lands, firehistory studies suggest that use of fire in thesouthern United States advanced throughseveral stages. After European settlement,low-intensity brush fires occurred mainly foragriculture purposes through the end of the18th century, but in the 19th and early 20thcenturies human-caused fires were morelikely to be stand replacement fires for indus-trial purposes (Fowler and Konopik 2007).

Fire suppression, as a new factor of in-fluence on the landscape, began soon aftercolonization, with human-ignited fire all butdisappearing from even the West by 1899,where fire-prone ecosystems dominate thelandscape, culminating in the fire suppres-sion mentality of the 20th century (Masonet al. 2012, Christianson 2015). Driven bythis turnover in land management and com-pounded by the effects of climate change,wildfire activity in the western United States

increased suddenly in the mid-1980s, withhigher large wildfire frequency, longer inci-dent durations, and longer fire seasons (e.g.,Westerling et al. 2006). Currently, acrossthe country, the use of prescribed fires ofmixed intensity and frequency is the goal ofecosystem restoration policies (Fowler andKonopik 2007, Ryan et al. 2013) but is fac-ing intense social and regulatory barriers inmany states.

Given these profound challenges forcontemporary fire and fuels management,fire scientists and managers are increasinglyturning to traditional knowledge of fire tohelp inform current management strategies(Kimmerer and Lake 2001, Mason et al.2012, Huffman 2013), recognizing that thesame traditional strategies that were used toincrease biodiversity and productivity forsubsistence while minimizing risk in the pastcould also be used to enhance and maintainbiodiversity for the goals of ecosystem healthand human safety. Ray et al. (2012) identi-fied numerous other potential advantages toincorporating both traditional knowledgeand science in fire management, includingthe addition of fine-scale, local details andhistorical context, detection of changes yetundocumented in scientific studies, indica-tion of which regional studies apply to agiven locale, reduction of conflict over re-source management, and consideration oflegal precedents for including traditionalknowledge and values in fire management.Although the incorporation of traditionalfire knowledge is not a cure-all for the prob-lems resulting from a century of fire suppres-sion compounded by the effects of climatechange, traditional knowledge should be anintegral part of strategies for restoring eco-system integrity and informing human ad-aptation to changing fire regimes.

In this article, we discuss current effortsto integrate traditional and scientific fireknowledge in fire and fuels management inthe United States and consider some of thechallenges associated with this process. Wepropose that Participatory Geographic In-formation Systems (PGIS) offers a platformfor addressing some of these challenges, andwe provide summaries of four preliminarycase studies to illustrate different potentialapplications of a PGIS tool in this context.

Knowledge Integration in USFire and Fuels Management

To manage the scope, complexity, anduncertainty of rapidly changing environ-mental issues, it is imperative to take intoaccount different types and sources ofknowledge. In forest management and in-ventory, arguments have been advanced forthe importance of considering indigenousknowledge in protecting traditional uses ofnative material by native people (cf., Emeryet al. 2014, Hummel and Lake 2015). Rec-ognizing that modern problems cannot al-ways be solved with singular, science-cen-tered solutions, successful managementincreasingly depends on pluralistic coursesof action that include partnerships betweenmanagers and locally knowledgeable groups,such as indigenous people (Moller et al.2004, Diaz et al. 2016). In environmentalmanagement, this combining of differentknowledge systems is most commonly re-ferred to as knowledge integration (Bohen-sky and Maru 2011) or blending (Hummeland Lake 2015). Despite profound theoret-ical, political, and practical challenges, thereis widespread and growing interest in, as wellas legislative and policy support for, knowl-edge integration that includes traditionalknowledge and science. This attention is

Management and Policy Implications

Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) can offer a powerful approach for enhancing currentdecisionmaking by allowing for the integration of traditional and scientific knowledge systems with spatialenvironmental data in an interactive participatory process. Integrated data sets can allow traditional andscientific knowledge experts to share, explore, manage, analyze, and interpret multidimensional data ina common spatial context to develop more informed management decisions. Such combined data setscould provide a more comprehensive assessment of fire-related ecological change than is currently usedin decisionmaking and enhance inclusion of effects on local resource utility values and areas of culturalsignificance. The use of a PGIS interface creates opportunities for traditional knowledge holders to shareinformation and potential prescriptions while maintaining confidentiality. Knowledge integration effortsusing PGIS as an organizational tool would help to bridge the communication gap that commonly existsbetween scientists, managers, and traditional knowledge holders as ecosystems continue to be alteredthrough processes of land management and climate change.

44 Journal of Forestry • January 2017

rapidly growing, fueled by motivations toenhance biocultural diversity, promote so-cial justice for indigenous peoples, supple-ment scientific studies, and provide new pre-scriptions for environmental management(Bohensky and Maru 2011). Although thesemotivations are neither mutually exclusivenor entirely harmonious, all acknowledgethat we need new ways to address longstand-ing as well as emerging complex social-eco-logical challenges.

In the United States, fire and fuels man-agement has incorporated traditional knowl-edge on a very limited basis, despite consid-erable traditional knowledge about historicfire regimes (Lake 2007, Carroll et al. 2010).A growing number of federal, state, andtribal governments and academic institu-tions have held workshops to discuss the po-tential benefits and challenges of knowledgeintegration for fire management (Alvaradoet al. 2011, Mason et al. 2012), whereas oth-ers are conducting research about the bene-fits and feasibility of such efforts (Ray et al.2012). However, little fire knowledge inte-gration work has actually been performedand assessed.

There are some exceptions to the cur-rent sparseness of on-the-ground implemen-tation in the United States. Active efforts areunderway to preserve, rejuvenate, and/orshare traditional fire knowledge, with the in-tent of expanding the application of tradi-tional practices in landscapes where tradi-tional fire management was once the norm(Huffman 2013, Voggesser et al. 2013).Several landscapes in the US Fire LearningNetwork (USFLN) have begun to rejuve-nate their traditional fire knowledge sys-tems. The USFLN, a cooperative programof the US Department of Agriculture(USDA) Forest Service, the four fire agen-cies of the Department of the Interior, andThe Nature Conservancy, supports multi-stakeholder, multiscalar efforts to restorefire-adapted social-ecological systems (But-ler and Goldstein 2010). Over the past de-cade, 13 Native American tribes have en-gaged as partners in the USFLN, with therejuvenation of traditional fire knowledge adirect or indirect result of the restoration oflandscapes formerly dominated by tradi-tional fire regimes. Participating groups aremembers of the Apache, Caddo, Crow, Es-selen, Ho-Chunk, Karuk, Klamath, Paiute,Pueblo, Shoshone, Warm Springs, Washoe,and Yakima Tribes (Huffman 2013,USFLN 2014). Other interagency-tribalpartnerships are also expanding. Although

the rejuvenation of traditional fire knowl-edge is not the explicit intent, these partner-ships are important to increase investmentand sense of ownership, enhance social cap-ital and cooperation, and disrupt the powerdynamics that in the past led to the exclusionof indigenous groups from fire managementdecisions that have affected and continue toaffect them. These include tribal engage-ment in Landscape Conservation Coopera-tives, collaborative networks designed to co-ordinate conservation science and betteraddress local and regional concerns, andother region-specific partnerships to helpmitigate the effects of climate change andwildfire (for a review, see Voggesser et al.2013).

With respect to applied traditional fireknowledge integration research in theUnited States, perhaps the most notable andrelevant work includes ongoing efforts at theUSDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Re-search Station in collaboration with the De-partment of Natural Resources of the KarukTribe in California. The Karuk Tribe re-ported development of an Eco-Cultural Re-sources Management Plan that incorporatestribal perspectives, including extensive tradi-tional knowledge of prescribed fire and thelandscape’s dependence on seasonal fire-in-duced change (Lake 2007, Lake et al. 2010,Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Re-sources 2014).

Based on extensive review of 21st cen-tury social science research about indigenouswildfire management in the United Statesand elsewhere, Christianson (2015) con-cluded that these efforts may be limited notbecause of a lack of interest but by obstaclesto conducting research with indigenouscommunities, including ethical require-ments, added time needed to build relation-ships, and differences in worldviews. Manyothers have argued that traditional and sci-entific knowledge systems are radicallyasymmetrical, and, in the extreme, incom-mensurable, in addition to numerous otherplace-specific environmental, social, and po-litical issues (e.g., Nadasdy 1999, Dickison2009). Oftentimes, inadequate means to or-ganize and communicate traditional knowl-edge with scientists and managers can limitits consideration in management decisions.Scientists most commonly communicateknowledge with scientific papers that man-agers rely on heavily to justify decisions,whereas the more traditional indigenousmethod of knowledge transfer might be withstories (Watson et al. 2012). Such challenges

require novel approaches to cross-culturalcommunication and collaboration.

Fire Knowledge Integration viaPGIS

We propose that PGIS offers a means ofproviding an organizational platform for theassemblage and communication of tradi-tional knowledge vital to fire and fuels man-agement, while preserving linkages to itsbroader cultural contexts. PGIS provides aframework for assembling and integratingsuch knowledge by providing a commonmap-based mechanism for the involvementof traditional knowledge holders in the de-scription of and decisionmaking about pro-cesses related to space. PGIS avoids expertdecisionmaking that can later be challengedsimply for not being able to incorporategood understanding of local knowledgeabout local history and relationships withplaces.

From an information technologies per-spective, PGIS provides a means to store,manage, and use contributed geospatial datathrough digital media, compare the patternsof these data to other GIS data sets, andenable data sharing among stakeholders(Carver et al. 2001, Elwood 2006). Whencoupled with textual data (e.g., participants’written comments), PGIS can allow the des-ignation of landscape properties on the basisof the meanings people ascribe to locationsand thus lead to a better understanding ofspatial relationships between elements ofhumanized ecosystems (Carver et al. 2001).From the perspective of participatory actionresearch (e.g., Chevalier and Buckles 2013),PGIS acts counter to the approach of com-mand and control of environmental man-agement issues by including traditionalknowledge holders in the planning process,with the goals of including their perspectiveson the problem and promoting sharedknowledge, understanding, and trust be-tween all parties to avoid conflict and/or fa-cilitate conflict resolution.

A few studies have demonstrated thatthere are many benefits to integrating tradi-tional and scientific knowledge in a GIS spa-tial framework, which include incorporatinginputs and policies at various levels of spatialaggregation, promoting spatial and tempo-ral thinking about issues and concerns, andcreating opportunities for learning and shar-ing of responsibilities (e.g., Bethel et al.2011). However, we are unaware of exam-ples of applied spatial knowledge integrationresearch from traditional and scientific

Journal of Forestry • January 2017 45

knowledge sources to inform decisionmak-ing in fire and fuels management.

We suggest that fire knowledge integra-tion efforts might focus on collaborative GISmethods for integrating traditional and sci-entific knowledge systems with spatial envi-ronmental data in an interactive partici-patory process. Ultimately, this would allowtraditional and scientific knowledge expertsto share, explore, manage, analyze, and in-terpret multidimensional data in a commonspatial context to develop more informedfire management decisions. Fire planningdecision-support tools that incorporate tra-ditional and scientific bodies of knowledgecould provide a more comprehensive meansof assessing ecological change that can ben-efit both ecosystem sustainability and hu-man community adaptability by includinggreater local and historical context. Such re-search would represent an innovative effortto merge diverse spatial, biophysical, andtraditional knowledge systems about fireinto a format suitable for informing currentfire decision-support processes at a resolu-tion suitable for localized decisionmaking. Itwould also engage users directly in the pro-cess of analyzing current conditions and an-ticipated effects of fire-related managementefforts. Such combined data sets could pro-vide a more comprehensive assessment offire-related ecological change than is cur-rently used in decisionmaking and that in-

cludes effects on local resource utility valuesand areas of cultural significance.

By seeking collaborative partnershipsfor assessing impacts and uses, public andtribal officials as well as scientists engaged inthe fire management analyses may also gainsupport from commercial and other usersbecause the latter are brought in as partnersto contribute to the sustainability of the eco-system on which they depend. Such researchwould continue to increase the dialogue anddiscussion among multiple groups, localecosystem users and scientists/governmentofficials, fostering mutual respect andknowledge transfer that will be sustained be-yond the term of a given study. If such a goalis achieved, local residents may continue toprovide researchers with insight, informedsuggestions, and critique, thus aiding themapping process and interpretation ofmapped images and ultimately helping toinform the fire decisionmaking process forthe foreseeable future. Such efforts wouldaddress the general lack of understandingabout the information value that traditionalfire knowledge offers to contemporary man-agement and start to bridge the communica-tion gap that typically exists between publicland managers and traditional knowledgeholders as ecosystems continue to be alteredthrough processes such as fire managementand climate change. Much as Diaz et al.(2016) suggest that better education of local

people about ecological conditions will fos-ter understanding of fire management strat-egies, this article posits that better educationof fire managers about local cultural knowl-edge of the ecosystem will foster generationof more effective and efficient adaptive firemanagement strategies.

Applying a PGIS Tool: MappingMeanings

One PGIS tool, called Mapping Mean-ings (Map-Me1), developed cooperativelyby the Aldo Leopold Wilderness ResearchInstitute and the Universities of Leeds andLancaster in the United Kingdom, has pre-viously been applied for examining and re-solving contentious issues surrounding fireand fuels management to support restora-tion of fire on tribal lands (Carver et al.2009, Watson et al. 2009). Map-Me allowsparticipants to answer standard demo-graphic and thematic questions and thenproceed to a number of geospatial questionsusing a “spraycan” tool on a Google Mapslayer (Figure 1). The spraycan tool enablesparticipants to locate phenomena on a mapin a fuzzy manner (Huck et al. 2014). Theycan also use this technology to “spray” moreor less intensely to indicate levels of impor-tance or depth of feelings on an issue. And ina text box, they can explain this intensitythrough their own stories about specificplaces, specific experiences, or important

Figure 1. Map-Me user interface. Terrain model from Google Imagery and Terrametrics (Copyright 2014 TerraMetrics, Inc. www.terrametrics.com).

46 Journal of Forestry • January 2017

symbolic or emotional meanings attached tospecific areas. The mapping data collectedusing Map-Me can be compared across sub-groups of subjects, and they can be statisti-cally compared with other data sets and GISlayers, such as land cover, land use, fire re-gime history, and others, to look for patternsand correlates suggesting reasons for and therationale behind participants’ responses andtheir relationships with the landscape.

Building on existing research partner-ships, we initiated four case studies to ex-plore the potential of using this PGIS tool asa platform for integrating traditional andscientific knowledge to inform fire and fuelsmanagement in the Intermountain West ofNorth America (Figure 2). We conducted aseries of outreach initiatives with tribal col-laborators to (1) discuss the problems andpotentials of integrating traditional andscientific knowledge in fire and fuels man-agement, (2) gain understanding about themost pressing research and stewardship/man-agement needs related to fire and fuels man-agement in the place(s) they are knowledge-able about, (3) introduce them to PGIS andMap-Me as a means of assembling tradi-tional and scientific fire knowledge to in-form management strategies, and (4) collab-oratively develop a series of new questionsand propositions to guide future initiativesto incorporate traditional knowledge in fireand fuels management.

Our introductions to Map-Me forstudy collaborators ranged from informaldiscussions to full-day workshops on PGISfundamentals and applications, with a focuson relevant previous case studies as examples(e.g., Carver et al. 2009, Watson et al.2009). Workshops also involved demonstra-tions of Map-Me, brainstorming sessionsabout local environmental management is-sues that might be explored using it, and

hands-on training, with small groups eachworking to generate new Map-Me modulesthat could be used to explore their respectiveintegration questions. In this way, partnersand collaborators became familiar with theMap-Me tool and realized its potential foraddressing their needs.

Once we had gained understanding ofthe fire and fuels management issues at handand collaborators had gained familiaritywith Map-Me, we engaged in in-depth con-versations with collaborators to identify howMap-Me might best be used. We then workedin some cases to implement collaboration proj-ects based on this problem definition or tocommunicate participants’ ideas in the form ofnew questions and propositions to help guidefuture initiatives in these places.

Flathead Indian Reservation, MontanaThe Forestry Department of the Con-

federated Salish and Kootenai Tribes(CSKT) is developing a section of the Flat-head Indian Reservation Forest Manage-ment Plan that prescribes adaptive planningto mitigate the negative effects of climatechange on tribal forestlands, particularlywith respect to changing fire regimes. Dis-cussion led directly to definition and recentcompletion of a project to determine cli-mate change impacts to tribal resources inthe Jocko Landscape Unit as outlined in themanagement plan (Matt et al. 2016). TheMap-Me tool was used by the CSKT For-estry Department to identify areas tribal re-source managers and reservation residentsbelieved had changed, their perceptionsabout how these places have changed overtime, the causes of those changes, and de-sired future conditions. Map-Me output wascompiled to illustrate different perceptionsof the landscape (Figure 3a–d). Tribal andnontribal residents identified different areas

that had become overgrown and/or have de-veloped hazardous fuels accumulations, andthey held different perceptions of where pre-scribed fire might be implemented to achievefuture condition targets (Figures 4A–D).

With respect to areas that were identi-fied as overgrown, tribal members identifiedthe tribal primitive area on the eastern sideof the Jocko landscape unit as well as theMiddle Jocko Valley, whereas nontribalmembers focused on the Middle Jocko Val-ley (Figure 4A and B). With respect to whereprescribed fire was suggested on the land-scape, tribal members identified the tribalprimitive area, whereas nontribal membersidentified the valley floor (Figure 4C andD). Interestingly, tribal members focused onthe implementation of prescribed fire onlyin the tribal primitive area, even though theyidentified both the river valley and tribalprimitive area as being overgrown (Figure4A and C). Whereas tribal and nontribal res-idents differed in their perceptions of wherethe most change has occurred and whereprescribed fire should be a method used toaccomplish future goals, both groups sug-gested that traditional burning practicesshould be reintroduced into the landscape.

In cooperation with the CSKT ForestryDepartment, we determined that there areopportunities for further use of a PGIS ap-proach to knowledge integration. Proposi-tions include the following: Will a PGIS ap-plication be a useful means to organize andcompare features of traditional fire knowl-edge about the landscape with local firemanagement plans implemented by tribaland federal land management agencies sincethe middle of the 20th century, providingfurther insights into how these knowledgesystems and approaches have complementedand/or contrasted over time? and From anhistorical perspective, can demography-based disagreements over fire and fuels man-agement be linked to the evolution ofgeospatial properties of the local landscape(e.g., land cover, land use, and fire regimehistories), providing a multidimensional,complex, and spatially aware interpretationof public responses. Challenges to address-ing these propositions include the fact thatthe Flathead Indian Reservation has severalunique landscape units with spatially ex-plicit meanings, some intrareservation cul-tural history differences (across confederatedtribes), and the continuing need for outsidetechnical consultation on PGIS module de-velopment and GIS analysis. Exploration of

Figure 2. Locations of tribal collaborators in the Intermountain West of the United States.

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these complexities are underway as thesepropositions are being tested now.

Santa Clara Pueblo, New MexicoIn recent years, the Jemez Mountains in

northwestern New Mexico have been hit bya series of natural disasters that have seri-ously affected the ecosystems and socioeco-nomic dynamics of local settlements, con-sisting mainly of Pueblo communities,worsening their already difficult situationsin relation to employment and economic de-velopment. From 2011 (Las Conchas Fire,150,000 acres) to 2013 (Thompson RidgeFire, 24,000 acres; Diego Fire, 3,500 acres),nearly 180,000 acres of forestland in the Je-mez Mountains have been severely burnedby wildfires, in addition to a series ofdrought and flooding events that have sweptaway the organic soils, making the process offorest and watershed recovery even morechallenging. Much of Santa Clara Pueblo’sprotected cultural area has been burned,along with archeological and historical cul-tural sites related to the Pueblo on adjacentpublic lands. Further, Santa Clara Creekand watershed have suffered from extremeerosion.

The people of Santa Clara Pueblo hold

a rich store of traditional knowledge aboutits ecosystem that can make significant con-tributions to landscape and streambed resto-ration efforts (Stumpff 2015). For instance,Stumpff (2015) described the upper reachesof Santa Clara Creek as a shrine, the middlesection holds knowledge of ancestral dwell-ings and ways of existence, and the lowersection provides a homeland for sustainableagriculture. Restoration in each sectionshould be done within both an ecosystemand a cultural context. In order for thecommunity and lands to recover from theserecent fires, there is a tremendous need toincorporate traditional knowledge and cul-tural concerns at all levels of planning, futurefire response, and postfire restoration. How-ever, there are many barriers to such incor-poration. These include limited coordina-tion between state, federal, tribal, and localgovernments that prevents traditionalknowledge from being incorporated in re-covery initiatives; and a tendency toward“one-size-fits-all” prescriptions and practicesthat exclude traditional knowledge and of-ten present environmentally and culturallyinappropriate approaches to postfire floodcontrol (Stumpff 2015).

In consultation with natural resourcemanagers at Santa Clara Pueblo, we haveposed the question: How can traditionalknowledge be integrated with best postfirerestoration science practices to contribute tothe recovery of Santa Clara Pueblo? We de-veloped several propositions, including thefollowing: PGIS will improve coordinationbetween governments by fostering the as-sembly of traditional and scientific knowl-edge systems for postfire rehabilitation; tra-ditionally constructed water catchmentsystems will provide a more effective, envi-ronmentally sound, and culturally appropri-ate means of postfire flood control than uni-form prescriptions, with PGIS helping todetermine where such catchments should belocated and construction materials; andPGIS will enable traditional knowledge toinform rehabilitation efforts by helpingto identify plant species that are best suitedto current climatic conditions on a localscale. These propositions, although aimed toincrease efficiency in protecting cultural as-pects of the landscape, may be perceived asin conflict with one-size-fits-all efficiency ef-forts using culturally insensitive technologi-cal solutions. Building trust among partiesto explore alternative solutions that couldprove more resistant to future impacts andincrease efficiency over the long run will bechallenging.

Jemez Pueblo Lands, New MexicoThe catastrophic wildfires that have

devastated Santa Clara Pueblo and wild-lands now are highly likely to impact JemezPueblo, located only 67 miles west of SantaClara Pueblo, across Valles Caldera NaturalPreserve. Public bodies that manage land inthis immediate region include Puebloangovernments, the National Park Service, theUSDA Forest Service, and the Valles Cal-dera Trust. In a meeting including represen-tatives from Jemez Pueblo and Valles Cal-dera Trust, we asked: How can traditionalknowledge be integrated with contemporaryhazardous fuels reduction practices to con-tribute to the protection of Jemez Pueblo?We proposed the following: (1) a PGISframework will enhance collaboration be-tween the Jemez community and manage-ment agencies, enabling the adoption ofmore locally and culturally appropriate fireand fuels management actions; geovisualiza-tion of the cultural impacts of fire can in-form managers of areas of cultural sensitivityand concern that require special treatment;and traditional phenological knowledgeabout the timing and effects of prescribed

Figure 3. Visualization of Map-Me output. a. Jocko Landscape Unit superimposed on anelevation model, depicting altitude in meters. b. Spray pattern from a single participant inresponse to “Please indicate an area that you believe has changed over the years.” c. Spraypatterns from all respondents (n � 28). d. Heat map of all spray patterns, depicting therelative frequency that each cell on the map was marked by respondents.

48 Journal of Forestry • January 2017

fires of the past will improve efforts to reducehazardous fuels by identifying the most suit-able locations and environmental conditionsunder which to implement low-intensityburns. Agency efforts to incorporate tradi-tional knowledge to increase resistance to fu-ture fire impacts on cultural landscapes arepoorly informed. Once the knowledge ismore readily available, building trustthrough commitment to incorporate thatknowledge into practical guidelines will bethe challenge. Funding for and implementa-tion of scientific studies that document re-sistance effectiveness are also needed and arecrucial to this knowledge integration effort.

Colville Indian Reservation, WashingtonIn 2012, the Northeast Washington

Forest Vision 2020 project (NortheastWashington Forest Vision 2020 2011) wasselected for funding under the USDA ForestService High Priority Restoration Program.In 2013, Forest Vision 2020 was assimilatedinto the Northeast Washington Collabora-tive Forest Landscape Restoration Program(CFLRP) to ensure continued funding. The

Forest Vision 2020 proposal makes a com-pelling case for restoring the landscape tomore traditional fire regimes by increasingthe forest’s resilience to natural disturbance,breaking up the homogeneity of the land-scape mosaic, thinning overcrowded, sup-pressed stands, and enhancing the devel-opment of fire-resistant late/old foreststructure. Questions that the monitoringplan seeks to address include: How have thepast and present fuels treatments imple-mented by Colville National Forest influ-enced cultural plants of interest or other cul-tural uses to the Confederated ColvilleTribes (CCT) and what is the likelihood andlikely effects of a large fire event travelingfrom Forest Service lands onto the ColvilleReservation and Colville tribal allotmentswithin the CFLRP boundary? How canColville National Forest use fuel treatmentsto maintain and enhance cultural plants andother values of interest to the CCT whilereducing the likelihood of a large fire eventdamaging the CCT’s identified values atrisk? In discussions with representatives

from the CCT and Colville National Forest,we proposed the following: PGIS can be ameans of organizing CCT members’ geo-graphic knowledge of past, present, and de-sired future distributions of cultural uses onthe Colville National Forest and their per-ceptions of conservation risk related to pre-scribed burning, mechanical treatments,and wildfire on Colville lands; and PGIS canprovide a mechanism for periodically com-paring this knowledge with the effects of fu-els treatments over time as part of the mon-itoring strategy. Data collection for this casestudy has been implemented, and challengesemerged related to needs to adjust the PGIStool to accommodate inclinations of partic-ipants to impart large volumes of informa-tion over a lengthy data collection interview,pushing the limits on data storage and accesstime allocations in online applications. Thistype of knowledge is not easily or automati-cally reduced to nominal or binomial dataforms, so PGIS devices and data collectionmethods must be adapted to cultural incli-nations for sharing information in a storymanner.

ConclusionIn a time of rapid environmental and

social change, barriers to fire and fuel man-agement activities will continue to threatenthe integrity and resilience of social-ecolog-ical systems. As in other kinds of natural re-source management, cross-cultural problemsolving about fire is complex, but it is possi-ble. Our ability to adapt will require recip-rocal knowledge exchange, collaboration,and proactive approaches toward bringingtogether insights from multiple knowledgesources and worldviews.

We sought to build on the gatheringmomentum in favor of knowledge integra-tion for fire and fuels management in theUnited States. Using PGIS as an organiza-tional framework and an integrative tool, wehave laid foundations for several new, activecollaborations in the Intermountain West.We hope to continue to increase dialogueand discussion among traditional knowl-edge holders, fire and fuels managers, scien-tists, and governing agencies, fostering mu-tual respect and knowledge sharing that willbe sustained into the future through in-creased collaboration.

Challenges associated with the previ-ously relatively untested technological ca-pacity of PGIS to capture voluminous tradi-tional or place-specific knowledge emergedand have been addressed. There remains aneed for development of frameworks for ap-

Figure 4. Tribal (n � 15) and nontribal (n � 10) respondents’ perceptions of areas ofovergrowth and where prescribed fire should be implemented (note: 3 respondents did notspecify their tribal membership). A. Areas linked to comments about vegetation overgrowthby tribal respondents. B. Areas linked to comments about vegetation overgrowth bynontribal respondents. C. Areas linked to comments about implementing prescribed fire bytribal respondents. D. Areas linked to comments about implementing prescribed fireby nontribal respondents. Heat maps depict the relative frequency with which each cell onthe map was marked by respondents.

Journal of Forestry • January 2017 49

plication of acquired integrated knowledge,and there is a need to counter motivations toachieve efficiency in postfire restorationthrough culturally insensitive technologicalsolutions. In all cases, when one is workingwith tribes and potentially sensitive infor-mation, there is a need for specific guaran-tees to protect gathered place or culture-spe-cific knowledge but still allow integrationwith other sources of knowledge for infor-mation sharing. This challenge can be over-come through demonstration of commit-ment to better decisionmaking and buildingtrust but can also be addressed throughmemorandums of understanding, letteragreements, and specific wording in studyplans and contracts.

Endnote1. For more information, see map-me.org.

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