Assessing Perceptions of Forest Thinning and Prescribed Fire Scenarios for the Lake Tahoe Basin, California and Nevada.

摘要

Acceptance for forest fuels reductions, specifically thinning and burning strategies, in the Lake Tahoe Basin (LTB) were examined through analyses of survey data. Respondents viewed simulations of an existing forest, what it could look like after a specific treatment with predicted negative impacts and positive benefits listed, and then the treated forest in 20 years. Community concerns and trust of land management agencies were also assessed.;Individual respondents indicated that they had greater levels of understanding than the community regarding several issues such as knowledge about prescribed fire issues/procedures and what should be done for effective forest management. Interestingly, there were several statistical differences in response and gender, with females responding differently than males.;Regarding concern about fire and the risk of fire in the LTB, 70 percent stated that they strongly agree that they are concerned.;There was little support for light thin treatments, somewhat more for medium treatments, and more so for heavier thinning treatments. Respondents supported light prescribed burns and typical prescribed burns. Mixed-lethal and lethal fires were not favored by respondents. Mechanical thinning, or mastication, was fairly strongly supported by respondents as was the thin/pile/burn scenario.;Contingency tables (crosstabs) and group comparisons were run in parallel, with a parametric analysis run as a one-way ANOVA, followed by means comparisons based on a least-significant difference (LSD). The analogous nonparametric analysis was done using a series of Kruskal Wallis tests.