As attendees collectively reviewed what has been accomplished to date by strategy, and the opportunities and challenges they are encountering, important progress was already evident. Increasing incidence and severity of wildfire is a daunting, accelerating, urgent challenge, but grantees’ ingenuity is serving as a powerful springboard for action. New knowledge has been generated from a wide diversity of grantees representing research, NGO, tribal, fire service, state and federal agency and other communities, and is informing and filling critical gaps. Cross-sectoral coalitions also have formed and are poised to seize windows of opportunity for positive change. New models and platforms are illuminating stewardship priorities for healthy watersheds and identifying “mitigations that matter” for resilient communities. Place-based pilot projects with a facilitated community of practice have been launched to test this prioritized stewardship and mitigation across Western North America. Innovative ideas for improving wildfire detection and tracking have been accelerated and are being developed, tested, and refined. Across ecosystems, communities, and early fire detection, frameworks and indicators have been developed to better measure what can therefore be better managed.
While the Wildfire Resilience Initiative is still nascent, some of this rapid progress can be credited to the grantees supported by the foundation’s earlier exploratory wildfire portfolio—as early as 2019—that focused more narrowly on supporting science and technology to improve integrated early-fire detection, risk assessment, and effective response. That preliminary exploration (2019-2022) evolved into one of the initiative’s six strategies (early-fire interventions), and lessons gleaned from that work informed much of the broader theory of change that underpins the current initiative. To read earlier recommendations and follow that progression, see the April 2019 Fire Immediate Response System Workshop Report, the subsequent March 2021 Keck Institute for Space Studies “Wicked Wildfire Problem” Workshop Recommendations, and the March 2022 Grantee Progress and Priorities Report.
Gordon and Betty Moore intended for their foundation “to tackle large, important issues at a scale where it can achieve significant and measurable impacts.” Our grantees’ collective commitment to tackling the wildfire issue is making a meaningful, measurable difference and helping transform the role it plays across Western North America—from what is perceived as an unwanted, destructive force, to an integral element in nature that delivers ecological and cultural benefits.
The full report highlights the early progress our grantees have made within each strategy, one year into the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Wildfire Resilience Initiative. We also highlight the challenges and opportunities that have emerged so far.
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