Leadership in Forest Management
Leadership. It's a simple word that can be as complex as an August lightning bust. It's principles are beaten into individuals and organizations, but they're only as useful as the person who cares enough to think about how to apply them. Leadership is a skill whose importance cannot be stressed enough, and unfortunately the ball is dropped every summer at every level. An inability to lead at the highest level, however, has a cascading effect on the whole chain.
There's a divide in the world today: between forest managers, the media, and the public. Every year you hear about megafires, the summer siege, hell fire, and the like. There are hero firefighters, which must mean that fire is the enemy. This is clearly not the case, though the longer this charade continues, the more true it will become.
So what does this have to do with leadership? What does it have to do with forest management? What does it have to do with firefighting in general? In short: everything. What we do every summer relies heavily on public opinion unfortunately. The public and media in the west, for the most part, see fire as a destructive, unnecessary force. They see devastation, loss of life, poor air quality, and closures to recreation areas. They see Bambi and all the little forest animals running for their lives. What they DON'T see is the regeneration and rejuvenation of the landscapes. They don't see fire as a necessary part of the forest process. This is where our forest leadership needs to begin.
A solid relationship with the public needs to be priority number one. That doesn't mean telling them what they want to hear. That doesn't mean basing decisions on public opinion. What it means is talking to the media and public like adults, laying out the science, basing all decisions on a combination of the best science and current intel and conditions. They should be sharing the short term risks versus long term certainties, sympathizing with short term inconveniences while acknowledging the long term benefits to both public and landscape. They need to stress the importance of personal accountability and defensible space, and how poorly managed personal property contributes to community risk. This will result in improved public support and trust. It will allow more freedom with fuels treatment programs, managed fires in the summer, and the ability for fire managers to choose best course of action knowing the forest leadership has that support from the public. It opens up a world where firefighters aren't put at more severe risk for political reasons. A world where best course of action is replaced with justifiable course of action. Where forest leaders can better work with fire managers who get input from ground resources.
This is not a quick solution, however. Relationships take time, and the fire environment will undoubtedly include setbacks and perceived broken trust. That's why the leadership component is vital. No average politician or GS-fantastic can achieve what is necessary without striving to be the best LEADER possible. Firefighters at every level have had leadership pounded down their throats from year one on. If wide scale change is ever going to happen with how we manage fire on the landscape, our leadership at the highest levels of forest management need to understand and apply these principles too.