Place Mapping and the Role of Spatial Scale in Understanding Landowner Views of Fire and Fuels Management

Place mapping is emerging as a way to understand the spatial components of people's relationships with particular locations and how these relate to support for management proposals. But despite the spatial focus of place mapping, scale is rarely explicitly examined in such exercises. This is particularly problematic since scalar definitions and configurations have implications for research results. In this study, we examine the relationship between place meanings and views on fire and fuels management through in-depth interviews and computer-based mapping with forest landowners. While landowners readily described and mapped special places, these places did not influence views on fire and fuels management, views that were situated almost entirely at larger scales and explained by broader worldviews and political ideologies. Because research results may be an artifact of measurement, place-mapping efforts need to carefully consider scale to ensure that public views are appropriately characterized for decision makers.