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7 The Impact of Mitigation and Preparedness
Pages 85-102

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From page 85...
... The app makes smoke and health resources easily available and is designed to create a personal connection between environ mental changes and health, and to emphasize the importance of changing behaviors during smoke events. (Rappold)
From page 86...
... "These events are having significant health impacts for our communities," said Nicole Errett, lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Washington School of Public Health. "Our communities in Washington are grappling with what they should do." The University of Washington has been partnering with organizations in Okanogan County, which is the largest county in Washington, including Clean Air Methow, the Okanogan River Airshed Partnership, and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, as well as local health departments and others, to figure out what communities can do to address wildfire smoke risk.1 Okanogan County is a very rural part of the state, with only 7.8 people per square mile compared with Washington State's average of 101.2.
From page 87...
... FIGURE 7-1  In the summers of 2017 and 2018 on 15–20 percent of the days, there was moderate-to-hazardous air quality in Washington State according to the Washington Air Quality Advisory. 87 SOURCES: Presented by Nicole Errett.
From page 88...
... As part of Clean Air Methow, the community developed priorities for dealing with wildfire smoke: • Target sensitive populations and those who care for them, includ ing schools, senior centers/homes, and health care providers • Promote the importance of clean indoor air • Make finding cleaner outdoor and indoor air easier • Address mental health and well-being impacts of prolonged smoke episodes • Coordinate and enable key partners to build disaster preparedness and response systems • Improve risk communication from fire management agencies • Build self-sufficiency through emphasis on how to protect health The University of Washington's partnership with organizations in Okanogan County is designed to understand community needs and build resilience. The partners have engaged in a variety of activities: • They have surveyed community members outside grocery stores about how they were receiving smoke information and how they would like to receive smoke information.
From page 89...
... In October 2018 the University of Washington hosted the Wildfire Smoke Risk Communication Stakeholder Synthesis Symposium, which brought together 76 regional stakeholders, including practitioners and academics, to talk about the evidence needed to build resilience to wildfire smoke (Errett et al., 2019)
From page 90...
... Dealing with wildfires requires "an entire combination of things," Shew said. It also requires a collaborative effort across local, state, and federal lands, which is always a challenge, but "fires pay no attention to those dotted lines on a map." One important point is that fires have a tendency to repeat themselves, Shew observed.
From page 91...
... Shew helps with this program as a Wildfire Field Rep for NFPA. For its part, NFPA teaches a 2-day class called Assessing Structure Ignition Potential from Wildfire; it communicates risk to residents with a ­ focus on fire science.
From page 92...
... It is social change. It is changing how people think and how people will act." "Fires pay no attention to those dotted lines on a map." -- David Shew IMPROVING SOCIETY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH FIRE Around the small town of Hayfork in northwestern California, the fire return interval is just 5 to 15 years, observed Michelle Medley-Daniel, deputy director of The Watershed Center and director of the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network.
From page 93...
... "It is hard if you are not a federal fire manager in our country to have access to training and become qualified to use and engage with fire. TREX helps provide that access to other people." The Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network also provides experiential learning, develops materials that describe models people have developed and demonstrated for living with fire, engages with federal land managers and fire managers, publishes a blog written by community leaders, and fosters connections between researchers and practitioners.
From page 94...
... Member organizations have held evacuation drills, living-withfire events, and harvesting demonstrations. They have promulgated the Fire Adapted Communities Self-Assessment Tool to help communities think about the work they need to do and where to prioritize their time and resources.
From page 95...
... For example, the state is a part of a regional effort seeking to restore about 1 million acres of longleaf pine, which is an ecosystem that depends on regular fire, and regular fire is necessary for the continued existence of a variety of pollinators, plants, and ecosystem services. The pollution from these prescribed burns can have impacts that include asthma, heart conditions, and other symptoms, Thie observed.
From page 96...
... � Low AirQuality Info Access M ap created t>y Kat Seim on 07/29/2016 FIGURE 7-2  A map of smoke vulnerability in North Carolina combines information on exposure, sensitivity, and how often people access air quality information. SOURCES: Presented by Ana Rappold.
From page 97...
... In response to a question from a viewer of the webcast, Thie noted that one part of the community's feedback was to broaden the description of the map from wildfire smoke to smoke in general because of sensitivity ­ toward the term wildfire, which might have implications for insurance coverage, emergency response, or perceptions of the county. People saw the most important issue "as smoke exposure, as opposed to talking about the wildfire itself." "In the field of environmental health there's a paucity of data on what is effective in intervening and protecting people's health." -- Lauren Thie LEVERAGING CITIZEN SCIENCE FOR RESEARCH AND ENVIRONMENTAL PUBLIC HEALTH In response to the health effects of wildfire smoke exposure, EPA developed a project called Smoke Sense that takes a citizen science approach to the issue.
From page 98...
... Smoke Sense is facilitated through the use of a free app that can be downloaded to iOS and Android mobile devices. The app makes smoke and health resources easily available when and where people need them, making it easier for participants to make a personal connection between changes in their environment and changes in their health and to raise personal awareness about the salience of changing behavior during smoke events.
From page 99...
... e Rappold concluded with two broad insights regarding ways to make health risk messages more effective. The first is to emphasize personal relevance, with a particular focus on health factors and outcomes that may be salient to individuals in the focal audience.
From page 100...
... " Federal agencies have been working to develop communications on that topic, "but there's no quick solutions," she concluded. "A successful health risk communication strategy is an essential part of helping people adopt new behaviors, which can be very difficult and takes time." -- Ana Rappold DISCUSSION In response to a question from Kizer, Shew pointed out that large fires have happened throughout the United States.
From page 101...
... "Because wildfires have been historically a very low risk for them, the cost of wildfire insurance has been artificially kept low for a long time, because they subsidized it with the cost of other insurance. That is all going to change very rapidly." Even as insurance rates rise, these companies will learn how to look at individual structures on a more detailed level and to create incentives for homeowners to protect their properties.
From page 102...
... 102 IMPLICATIONS OF THE CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES responded that the wildfire researchers have been behind other types of disaster science. But as more people are affected, studying wildfires will become easier.


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