Tara K. McGee

¿It's just a natural way of life¿¿ an investigation of wildfire preparedness in rural Australia

Abstract This study explores the preparedness of residents livingin a rural community in Victoria, Australia, for wildfires, and the factors influencing their preparedness. Overall, participants were well aware of wildfire risks and appeared well prepared for the event of a fire. However, residents involved in agriculture and with a long-standing association with the area appeared better prepared than were those on small properties and newcomers. Their social networks, previous experiences with wildfires and grassfires, and involvement with the local fire brigade influenced preparedness of long-term residents. Characteristics of agricultural communities, including a culture of self-reliance, experience with fires as part of farming, and social cohesion, appeared to contribute to wildfire preparedness within this community. Included are recommendations encouraging preparedness for wildfires.

Public engagement in neighbourhood level wildfire mitigation and preparedness: Case studies from Canada, the US and Australia

This study examined neighbourhood level wildfire mitigation programs being implemented in neighbourhoods in Canada (FireSmart-ForestWise), Australia (Community Fireguard) and the US (Firewise Communities). Semi-structured interviews were completed with 19 residents participating in the programs. A wide range of activities were completed as part of the three programs. Despite differences between the three programs, participants appeared to participate in the programs for three main reasons: Fire experience, agency involvement, and personal and family protection. A fire therefore provides a window of opportunity to engage residents in neighbourhood level wildfire mitigation programs. The neighbourhood level wildfire mitigation programs helped to reduce the wildfire risk, but also enhanced both community resilience and relationships between residents and government agencies.

Private Responses and Individual Action Community Responses to Chronic Environmental Lead Contamination

In 1992, chronic environmental lead contamination became an issue in the mining community of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. This article is based on a study completed between 1992 and 1996, which explored the nature of community responses, including coping responses, effects on health and well-being, and factors mediating the community response process. Community responses were characterized by private rather than public responses, and individual rather than collective actions. Stigma, relationships between mining companies and the community, and social undermining helped to shape the private nature of responses. The individual nature of responses was found to be significantly affected by cognitive responses, including perceived relevance, acceptance, social beliefs about the lead contamination, and attribution of responsibility; cultural factors; and interventions. The results indicate that to assist communities faced with such hazards, intervention programs must move beyond an individual focus and address social responses as well as the contamination itself.

Power, Knowledge, and Public Engagement: Constructing ‘Citizenship’ in Alberta's Industrial Heartland

Foucaults concept of governmentality has provided the basis for recent analysis of governance that explains the connections between power and knowledge in the formation of subjects in advanced liberal societies. In this paper, we apply this concept to help to understand the persistent conflict and power struggles that are characteristic of contemporary public engagement in environmental planning, using the case study of a regional land use plan known as Albertas Industrial Heartland. Drawing on document and media analysis and key stakeholder interviews carried out between 2002 and 2003, we describe how several ‘technologies of citizenship’ were deployed and ultimately resisted in a public engagement program that attempted to prescribe the terms of reference for public participation. The findings support a view that sees public engagement less as a tool for promoting democratic consensus and more as means to legitimate particular forms of governance that privilege narrowly defined economic goals at the expense of citizen rights and values.

Sex differences in values and knowledge of wildlife in victoria, Australia

This paper presents the findings from one aspect of a study which was prompted by a limited understanding of peoples values and knowledge ofwildlife in Victoria, Australia. This paper specifically focuses on the values and knowledge of wildlife held by males and females, and compares these with how Victorian wildlife managers perceive these groups. The different values and knowledge held by males and females were also explored in different types of Victorian communities, including urban, rural and urban‐rural fringe locations. In‐depth interviews (n=15) were used to explore wildlife managers’ perceptions of the differences between male and female values of wildlife, while postal questionnaires (n = 639) were used to explore the actual differences between male and female values and knowledge of wildlife in seven different geographic locations. Most wildlife managers believed that males and females would value wildlife differently, however, several did not believe that there would be any notable differences. Questionnaire data showed that males and females in Victoria do hold different values of wildlife and have different levels of factual knowledge of wildlife. Differences were shown to be more pronounced in certain types of communities, highlighting the complexity of this demographic influence.

Conceptual frameworks for SIA revisited: a cumulative effects study on lead contamination and economic change

This article trials three conceptual frameworks on an Australian case study of a small remote city suffering lead contamination, with cumulative effects from concurrent economic change due to downsizing in the mining industry. It interprets the usefulness of these frameworks, and explores two questions: can they apply to circumstances other than project assessment, and what are their relative merits as guides to SIA? All the frameworks reviewed can be used in non-project and cumulative SIA, although, if they had been used to predict the impacts in our case study, we may easily have been misled as to the resilience of the community. Choosing among these frameworks becomes a matter personal preference: each has different merits.

Implementation of wildfire risk management by local governments in Alberta, Canada

This study examined the implementation of wildfire mitigation by local governments in Alberta, Canada. Written surveys and telephone interviews with participants in 18 municipalities were combined with additional in-person interviews within two of these municipalities. Many participating local governments were completing emergency preparedness plans, infrastructure measures, education, wildfire hazard assessments on public and private land, and vegetation management. Few were implementing land-use planning and structural mitigation measures on local government buildings. Factors that influenced implementation of wildfire mitigation measures included issue advocates, communication with internal and external stakeholders, financial and human resources, support from higher levels of government, and biophysical and demographic characteristics. Recommendations for encouraging the implementation of wildfire mitigation by local governments are provided.

Comparison of homeowner response to wildfire risk among towns with and without wildfire management

Few studies have examined the relationship between wildfire management by government agencies and homeowner wildfire risk mitigation. The goal of this paper is to compare perception of the wildfire risk, attribution of responsibility for mitigation, awareness of wildfire and mitigation, and adoption of wildfire mitigation activities among homeowners in towns where wildfire management activities have been completed by government (management group) and towns where no activities have been completed (no management group). Data were collected by mail survey of homeowners in six communities in Alberta, Canada during 2007. Results showed the people in the management group expressed higher levels of perceived risk and greater awareness of wildfire and mitigation than those in the no management group, but they did not attribute greater responsibility for mitigation to the homeowner nor complete more mitigation activities on their properties.

Potential responses by on-campus university students to a university emergency alert

University campuses across Canada and elsewhere are developing and implementing emergency alert systems to warn campus community members about a variety of threats. In this study, focus group discussions were used to examine how undergraduate students living on campus may respond to an emergency alert. A focus group activity used tornado, fire and threatening message alert messages to provide a context for the focus group discussions. After reading the warning message, most students understood the warning message but there was uncertainty about the non-specified threat and how and where to evacuate. Many would believe a message sent by the university as long as it was sent via a phone number that they associated with the university. Personalization of risk varied, and students reported that they would confirm a warning message with a variety of sources including student colleagues, faculty and teaching staff, television and internet sources. Taking protective action by sheltering in place was deemed to be feasible, however evacuation off campus was found to be problematic. We found that the nature of short message service text messages, the characteristics of universities, and the students’ home being in an on-campus residence influenced how the students may respond to an emergency alert message.

Community support for wildfire mitigation at Peavine Métis Settlement, Alberta, Canada

This paper presents the findings of a study that explored public support for wildfire mitigation programmes implemented in Peavine Métis Settlement, an Indigenous community located in Alberta, Canada. Data were collected in a community-based study using interviews, focus groups and participant observation over a 4-year period. Results showed that support for the wildfire mitigation programme was influenced by local leadership, economics, community capacity and land and home ownership. The communal nature of land and home ownership on the settlement influenced support for wildfire mitigation that was conducted by the settlement at both the residential and community levels. Employment opportunities available in the community for settlement members for wildfire mitigation activities also increased support for the local wildfire mitigation programme. A local Aboriginal leader skilled in wildfire mitigation and existing community capacity was also seen as vital to settlement member support for the programme.