Risk and crisis communication in wildland fire fighting: Developing a social science research group for wildland fire

Panelists discussed the development and use of a research strategy to cultivate communities of practice for the mitigation of risks associated with the catastrophic effects of wildfires on communities. Two primary goals of the authors were to: (a) contribute theoretically to the understanding and application of communities of practice, specifically around risk management and (b) contribute to understanding in the form of lessons learned from the United States Forest Service.