38 These tools and data are the jumping-off point for starting a fire planning conversation using PODs. Next, planners need to enhance the data with local knowledge. From Mental Notes to Maps In developing PODs for a specific area, fire managers start by holding collaborative workshops with community leaders. They collaborate in person and online via GIS maps and other digital tools. In addition to data points such as risk assessment, control locations, and firefighting difficulty, the GIS maps show roads and trails, watershed boundaries, structure locations, and satellite imagery of the impacts of past fires. Firefighters and land managers bring invaluable local knowledge and expertise to the table, much of it unwritten. The PODs workshops are a way of institutionalizing knowledge from fire experts so it can be easily shared and used by anyone who might need it. “We blend the analytics with the local knowledge to make sure we’re not biased towards local knowledge and we’re not missing something in the analytics,” Dunn said. “You bring them together and you get the best outcome.” This collaboration is critical because fires don’t recognize property lines or administrative boundaries. For example, the best place to stop a fire might be a road that runs through private property, so performing fuel reduction there might be crucial to future success. To create the best conditions for firefighters and the best outcomes for the public, people need to work together in shared stewardship of the land. Dunn has found maps to be the clearest way to develop this common understanding of risks, management opportunities, and desired outcomes. Moving from Maps to Action After initial workshops are completed, control points are verified in the field, POD boundaries are adjusted as needed, and any new information can be added to the shared map. Then PODs become operational—a springboard for action such as planning prescribed burns, allocating funding to harden boundaries, and communicating with any affected landowners. Ashland, Oregon, is one community working with Chris Dunn and the Forest Service to implement PODs. The valley community is surrounded by wildfire risk on all sides and narrowly escaped destruction during the Almeda Drive Fire in 2020. It’s also leading the way in data-driven fire mitigation and planning. Dunn has worked with Ashland leaders to hold three PODs planning workshops, looking at the broader landscape of two million acres and refining a smaller area closest to the town. They prioritized protecting the municipal watershed and the town itself, paying special attention to the condition of boundaries most critical PODs are developed by land managers through a series of collaborative workshops integrating local knowledge and fire analytics with the purpose of informing wildfire response and planning.
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