Perceived changes in social-ecological resilience in fire-prone ecosystems in Colorado

Assessing resilience of wildfire-prone social-ecological systems (SES) can provide a baseline for decision makers and inform future management actions. In this study, we measure stakeholder perceptions of how SES resilience was influenced by historic 2020-wildfire events in northern Colorado and what actions they think are needed to enhance future resilience to wildfire. We developed a contextualized set of resilience principles and indicators based on the literature and expert opinion that included ecological, ecosystem service, and social categories. We conducted 15 stakeholder interviews and 37 surveys to characterize subjective measures of SES resilience. Stakeholders perceived that the resilience of ecological indicators pre- and post-wildfires remained mostly unchanged, but that ecosystem service indicators were negatively affected and social indicators positively affected. Related to future resilience, stakeholders underscored a need for more strategic fuel treatments, especially prescribed fire, and more collaboration and engagement across landowner types. Our findings highlight that wildfire events can have negative and positive effects on components of SES resilience, underscoring the need to disaggregate resilience components. Additionally, we find that stakeholder perceptions of resilience are in line with the literature on objective measures of post-wildfire resilience, suggesting that expert opinion can be used as a reliable method to measure resilience indicators in some contexts

Biology · Ecosystem · Environmental resource management · Fire regime · Geography · Psychological resilience · Environmental Science · Fire effects on ecosystems · Psychology · Ecology