Hannah Brenkert-smith - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Hannah Brenkert-smith

Ecological Indicators, 2021

Journal of Forestry, 2021

Forest disturbances caused by insects, pathogens, and fire continue to increasingly occur within ... more Forest disturbances caused by insects, pathogens, and fire continue to increasingly occur within forests across the United States and around the world. Given the dynamic nature of these forest disturbances and the role played by local residents in risk management, it is valuable to explore how the human experience, attitudes, and behaviors associated with these ecological processes may evolve over time. In this paper, we assess temporal changes in local residents’ perceptions and actions in response to the mountain pine beetle outbreak that affected large swaths of forests in north central Colorado. Through analyses of secondary and household survey data from 2007 and 2018, we note significant changes in these aspects and identify factors consistently associated with individual and community activeness. The study contributes to knowledge of dynamic socioecological considerations of forest disturbances and improves understanding of how social sciences can help to identify opportuniti...

Journal of Forestry, 2021

Three causes have been identified for the spiraling cost of wildfire suppression in the United St... more Three causes have been identified for the spiraling cost of wildfire suppression in the United States: climate change, fuel accumulation from past wildfire suppression, and development in fire-prone areas. Because little is likely to be performed to halt the effects of climate on wildfire risk, and because fuel-management budgets cannot keep pace with fuel accumulation let alone reverse it, changing the behaviors of existing and potential homeowners in fire-prone areas is the most promising approach to decreasing the cost of suppressing wildfires in the wildland-urban interface and increasing the odds of homes surviving wildfire events. Wildfire education efforts encourage homeowners to manage their property to decrease wildfire risk. Such programs may be more effective with a better understanding of the factors related to homeowners' decisions to undertake wildfire risk-reduction actions. In this study, we measured whether homeowners had implemented 12 wildfire risk-mitigation...

The most devastating wildfire in Colorado's history in terms of property loss began on Labor ... more The most devastating wildfire in Colorado's history in terms of property loss began on Labor Day, September 6, 2010. The Fourmile Canyon Fire was located just 5 miles west of downtown Boulder, CO, in a wildland-urban interface (WUI) zone with homes located on steep slopes and in dense ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forest. The fire, fueled by high winds, burned 6,181 acres (2,501 ha), mostly on private land, and destroyed 169 homes. The Fourmile Canyon Fire will likely garner much attention as landowners and land managers turn their efforts to trying to understand how such devastation can be avoided or minimized in the future.

Wildfire affects many types of communities. Improved understandings of urban conflagrations are l... more Wildfire affects many types of communities. Improved understandings of urban conflagrations are leading some fire-prone communities, such as Ashland, Oregon, to expand their attention from focusing solely on the intermix fringe to managing wildfire threats across more urbanized wildland-urban interface (WUI) communities. The core intent of this project was to build a partnership between the Wildfire Research (WiRē) Team and Ashland Fire and Rescue (AFR) by leveraging existing wildfire risk data collected in March 2018 and pairing it with newly collected social data to better understand Ashland, Oregon residents' knowledge, experiences, and perceptions about wildfire risk. This greater understanding will help AFR focus its programs and outreach and ultimately promote increased mitigation and reduced wildfire risk in Ashland. The results of the wildfire risk assessment covering 6,625 private residential properties in Ashland suggests that 62% face high, very high, or extreme risk of wildfire. Within the subset of 2,099 residences included in this study, 75% were characterized as facing high, very high, or extreme risk of wildfire. Results from the household survey of residents in the study subset indicate that survey respondents appeared to be aware of, and concerned about, the wildfire threat to their community. Despite low levels of direct experience, respondents reported taking action to reduce risk, talking with neighbors about wildfire, and having neighbors who are likewise taking action. Most respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their property is at risk of wildfire and most do not agree that firefighters should put their lives at risk to protect their home. Importantly, few agree/strongly agree that local firefighters have sufficient resources to protect homes or keep wildfires from spreading-indicating an understanding of local constraints. In a relatively urban setting, it is not surprising that residents reported high levels of property maintenance activities that not only beautify their properties but also have the additional benefits of risk reduction. These activities included reducing ground fuels by mowing and clearing roofs and gutters of leaves and pine needles. Just over a third have taken action to make their residence more fire resistant. Respondents also reported engaging in efforts to reduce exposure to seasonal smoke, including wearing a mask. The majority of respondents indicated acceptance of wildfire risk reduction activities on public lands, including removing trees and other vegetation, burning piles of vegetation, conducting prescribed fires, and managing naturally ignited fires.

In this paper, we study the existence of limit cycles in continuous and discontinuous planar piec... more In this paper, we study the existence of limit cycles in continuous and discontinuous planar piecewise linear Hamiltonian differential system with two or three zones separated by straight lines and such that the linear systems that define the piecewise one have isolated singular points, i.e. centers or saddles. In this case, we show that if the planar piecewise linear Hamiltonian differential system is either continuous or discontinuous with two zones, then it has no limit cycles. Now, if the planar piecewise linear Hamiltonian differential system is discontinuous with three zones, then it has at most one limit cycle, and there are examples with one limit cycle. More precisely, without taking into account the position of the singular points in the zones, we present examples with the unique limit cycle for all possible combinations of saddles and centers.

Residents in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) can play an important role in reducing wildfire's... more Residents in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) can play an important role in reducing wildfire's negative effects by performing wildfire risk mitigation on their property. This report offers insight into the wildfire risk mitigation activities and related considerations, such as attitudes, experiences, and concern about wildfire, for people with homes in the Pagosa Fire Protection District of Archuleta County, Colorado. Data come from a social survey and parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments administered by FireWise of Southwest Colorado. Results are presented both in graphical form and as detailed summary statistics (in appendices). As we recognize that results from similar surveys and assessments in other communities may differ, these linked datasets contribute to a broader effort to understand decisions about wildfire risk mitigation on private property. Results can facilitate long-term monitoring, management, and educational practices concerning the mitigation of wildfire risk in WUI communities.

Residents in the wildland-urban interface can play an important role in reducing wildfires' negat... more Residents in the wildland-urban interface can play an important role in reducing wildfires' negative effects by performing wildfire risk mitigation on their properties. This report offers insight into the wildfire risk mitigation activities and related considerations such as attitudes, experiences, and concern about wildfire, for residents of the Telluride Fire Protection District of San Miguel County, Colorado. Data come from a social survey and parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments administered by the West Region Wildfire Council. Results are presented both in graphical form and as detailed summary statistics (in appendices). As we recognize that results from similar surveys and assessments in other communities might differ, these linked datasets contribute to a broader effort to understand decisions about wildfire risk mitigation on private property. Results can facilitate long-term monitoring, management, and educational practices concerning the mitigation of wildfire risk in wildland-urban interface communities.

Natural Hazards, 2021

Private landowners are important actors in landscape-level wildfire risk management. Accordingly,... more Private landowners are important actors in landscape-level wildfire risk management. Accordingly, wildfire programs and policy encourage wildland–urban interface homeowners to engage with local organizations to properly mitigate wildfire risk on their parcels. We investigate whether parcel-level wildfire risk assessment data, commonly used to inform community-level planning and resource allocation, can be used to “nudge” homeowners to engage further with a regional wildfire organization. We sent 4564 households in western Colorado a letter that included varying combinations of risk information about their community, their parcels, and their neighbors’ parcels, and we measured follow-up visits to a personalized “Web site”. We find that the effect of providing parcel-specific information depends on baseline conditions: Informing homeowners about their property’s wildfire risk increases information-seeking among homeowners of the highest-risk parcels by about 5 percentage points and reduces information-seeking among homeowners of lower-risk parcels by about 6 percentage points. Parcel-specific information also increases the overall response in the lowest risk communities by more than 10 percentage points. Further, we find evidence of a 6-percentage point increase in response rate associated with receiving a social comparison treatment that signals neighboring properties as being either low or moderate risk on average. These results, especially considered against the 13 percent overall average response rate, offer causal evidence that providing parcel-specific wildfire risk information can influence behavior. As such, we demonstrate the effectiveness of simple outreach in engaging wildland–urban interface homeowners with wildfire risk professionals in ways that leverage existing data.

Natural Hazards, 2021

Private landowners are important actors in landscape-level wildfire risk management. Accordingly,... more Private landowners are important actors in landscape-level wildfire risk management. Accordingly, wildfire programs and policy encourage wildland–urban interface homeowners to engage with local organizations to properly mitigate wildfire risk on their parcels. We investigate whether parcel-level wildfire risk assessment data, commonly used to inform community-level planning and resource allocation, can be used to “nudge” homeowners to engage further with a regional wildfire organization. We sent 4564 households in western Colorado a letter that included varying combinations of risk information about their community, their parcels, and their neighbors’ parcels, and we measured follow-up visits to a personalized “Web site”. We find that the effect of providing parcel-specific information depends on baseline conditions: Informing homeowners about their property’s wildfire risk increases information-seeking among homeowners of the highest-risk parcels by about 5 percentage points and reduces information-seeking among homeowners of lower-risk parcels by about 6 percentage points. Parcel-specific information also increases the overall response in the lowest risk communities by more than 10 percentage points. Further, we find evidence of a 6-percentage point increase in response rate associated with receiving a social comparison treatment that signals neighboring properties as being either low or moderate risk on average. These results, especially considered against the 13 percent overall average response rate, offer causal evidence that providing parcel-specific wildfire risk information can influence behavior. As such, we demonstrate the effectiveness of simple outreach in engaging wildland–urban interface homeowners with wildfire risk professionals in ways that leverage existing data.

Natural Hazards, 2020

Wildfire presents a growing threat across the American West. We conducted an online choice experi... more Wildfire presents a growing threat across the American West. We conducted an online choice experiment in Western Colorado to assess how social interactions affect wildfire mitigation decisions through two distinct pathways: risk interdependency (neighbors’ conditions affect perceived wildfire risk) and social norms (neighbors’ actions affect perceptions of appropriate mitigation choices). In contrast to key observational studies, we find that participants are less likely to choose to mitigate when they have more neighbors with sparse vegetation. This effect operates through the risk interdependency pathway: sparse vegetation on neighboring properties lowers participants’ wildfire risk perceptions and appears to be viewed as a substitute for one’s own mitigation actions. In this context, where neighbors are nameless and faceless, social norms do not counteract this negative effect. To reconcile this experimental result with observational studies, we discuss how both risk interdepende...

Fire, 2020

The actions of residents in the wildland–urban interface can influence the private and social cos... more The actions of residents in the wildland–urban interface can influence the private and social costs of wildfire. Wildfire programs that encourage residents to take action are often delivered without evidence of effects on behavior. Research from the field of behavioral science shows that simple, often low-cost changes to program design and delivery can influence socially desirable behaviors. In this research report, we highlight how behavioral science and experimental design may advance efforts to increase wildfire risk mitigation on private property. We offer an example in which we tested changes in outreach messaging on property owners’ interest in wildfire risk information. In partnership with a regional wildfire organization, we mailed 4564 letters directing property owners to visit personalized wildfire risk webpages. By tracking visitation, we observed that 590 letter recipients (12%) sought information about their wildfire risk and response varied by community. This research–...

Administering a survey online has a number of practical benefits including lower costs, reduction... more Administering a survey online has a number of practical benefits including lower costs, reductions in paperuse and data entry time, and a faster data collection time period. A significant challenge, however, entails creating and recruiting a relevant sample of respondents with specific characteristics when email lists are unavailable. In this case, we seek to encourage researcher conversation about relevant and effective recruitment strategies by describing the extensive pretesting process we undertook to develop our survey sampling and recruitment strategy for a study of wildfire mitigation behaviors in Western Colorado. Pretesting response rates varied from 3% to 30%, with the inclusion of a US$2 billion in the recruitment envelope yielding the highest response rate. The actual study subsequently used this approach and resulted in a 35% response rate. Learning Outcomes By the end of this case, students should be able to Identify possible challenges to constructing a relevant population sample when conducting a survey online Articulate potential challenges of online survey participation using a mail recruitment tool Start to identify creative solutions to overcome recruitment challenges for recruiting for online survey Project Overview and Context: Defining the Problem Understanding the social dynamics of natural resource and natural hazard dilemmas often requires collecting data from the people whose beliefs, behaviors, and perspectives influence problem framing, management, and resolution. In the case of wildfire, property owners' risk reduction decisions in the areas where wildland and private properties meet, the wildland-urban interface (WUI), play an important role in wildfire outcomes. Responsiveness to a survey on a salient topic is expected to be higher than to a topic that isn't salient. However, responsiveness to recruitment for proposed research can only be based on an informed guess unless one has been engaged in ongoing research on the specific topic or in a specific geographic area. Although secondary data sources (e.g., Census data) may provide some basic information about the population affected by a particular natural resource/hazard dilemma, these data sources are often inadequate for more in-depth analyses of the social dynamics surrounding such dilemmas. Further inquiry into natural resource/hazard beliefs and behaviors typically requires collecting primary data from relevant publics. When pursuing insights into socially and geographically specific dilemmas, in-person data collection is often a preferred approach; however, the time and cost requirements of such efforts often limit sample sizes. And yet, the administration of surveys to a broader, more representative sample of the relevant public presents a number of challenges, perhaps the greatest of which is obtaining adequate response rates from a population that is relevant to the natural resource or natural hazard dilemma.

Ecological Indicators, 2021

Journal of Forestry, 2021

Forest disturbances caused by insects, pathogens, and fire continue to increasingly occur within ... more Forest disturbances caused by insects, pathogens, and fire continue to increasingly occur within forests across the United States and around the world. Given the dynamic nature of these forest disturbances and the role played by local residents in risk management, it is valuable to explore how the human experience, attitudes, and behaviors associated with these ecological processes may evolve over time. In this paper, we assess temporal changes in local residents’ perceptions and actions in response to the mountain pine beetle outbreak that affected large swaths of forests in north central Colorado. Through analyses of secondary and household survey data from 2007 and 2018, we note significant changes in these aspects and identify factors consistently associated with individual and community activeness. The study contributes to knowledge of dynamic socioecological considerations of forest disturbances and improves understanding of how social sciences can help to identify opportuniti...

Journal of Forestry, 2021

Three causes have been identified for the spiraling cost of wildfire suppression in the United St... more Three causes have been identified for the spiraling cost of wildfire suppression in the United States: climate change, fuel accumulation from past wildfire suppression, and development in fire-prone areas. Because little is likely to be performed to halt the effects of climate on wildfire risk, and because fuel-management budgets cannot keep pace with fuel accumulation let alone reverse it, changing the behaviors of existing and potential homeowners in fire-prone areas is the most promising approach to decreasing the cost of suppressing wildfires in the wildland-urban interface and increasing the odds of homes surviving wildfire events. Wildfire education efforts encourage homeowners to manage their property to decrease wildfire risk. Such programs may be more effective with a better understanding of the factors related to homeowners' decisions to undertake wildfire risk-reduction actions. In this study, we measured whether homeowners had implemented 12 wildfire risk-mitigation...

The most devastating wildfire in Colorado's history in terms of property loss began on Labor ... more The most devastating wildfire in Colorado's history in terms of property loss began on Labor Day, September 6, 2010. The Fourmile Canyon Fire was located just 5 miles west of downtown Boulder, CO, in a wildland-urban interface (WUI) zone with homes located on steep slopes and in dense ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forest. The fire, fueled by high winds, burned 6,181 acres (2,501 ha), mostly on private land, and destroyed 169 homes. The Fourmile Canyon Fire will likely garner much attention as landowners and land managers turn their efforts to trying to understand how such devastation can be avoided or minimized in the future.

Wildfire affects many types of communities. Improved understandings of urban conflagrations are l... more Wildfire affects many types of communities. Improved understandings of urban conflagrations are leading some fire-prone communities, such as Ashland, Oregon, to expand their attention from focusing solely on the intermix fringe to managing wildfire threats across more urbanized wildland-urban interface (WUI) communities. The core intent of this project was to build a partnership between the Wildfire Research (WiRē) Team and Ashland Fire and Rescue (AFR) by leveraging existing wildfire risk data collected in March 2018 and pairing it with newly collected social data to better understand Ashland, Oregon residents' knowledge, experiences, and perceptions about wildfire risk. This greater understanding will help AFR focus its programs and outreach and ultimately promote increased mitigation and reduced wildfire risk in Ashland. The results of the wildfire risk assessment covering 6,625 private residential properties in Ashland suggests that 62% face high, very high, or extreme risk of wildfire. Within the subset of 2,099 residences included in this study, 75% were characterized as facing high, very high, or extreme risk of wildfire. Results from the household survey of residents in the study subset indicate that survey respondents appeared to be aware of, and concerned about, the wildfire threat to their community. Despite low levels of direct experience, respondents reported taking action to reduce risk, talking with neighbors about wildfire, and having neighbors who are likewise taking action. Most respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their property is at risk of wildfire and most do not agree that firefighters should put their lives at risk to protect their home. Importantly, few agree/strongly agree that local firefighters have sufficient resources to protect homes or keep wildfires from spreading-indicating an understanding of local constraints. In a relatively urban setting, it is not surprising that residents reported high levels of property maintenance activities that not only beautify their properties but also have the additional benefits of risk reduction. These activities included reducing ground fuels by mowing and clearing roofs and gutters of leaves and pine needles. Just over a third have taken action to make their residence more fire resistant. Respondents also reported engaging in efforts to reduce exposure to seasonal smoke, including wearing a mask. The majority of respondents indicated acceptance of wildfire risk reduction activities on public lands, including removing trees and other vegetation, burning piles of vegetation, conducting prescribed fires, and managing naturally ignited fires.

In this paper, we study the existence of limit cycles in continuous and discontinuous planar piec... more In this paper, we study the existence of limit cycles in continuous and discontinuous planar piecewise linear Hamiltonian differential system with two or three zones separated by straight lines and such that the linear systems that define the piecewise one have isolated singular points, i.e. centers or saddles. In this case, we show that if the planar piecewise linear Hamiltonian differential system is either continuous or discontinuous with two zones, then it has no limit cycles. Now, if the planar piecewise linear Hamiltonian differential system is discontinuous with three zones, then it has at most one limit cycle, and there are examples with one limit cycle. More precisely, without taking into account the position of the singular points in the zones, we present examples with the unique limit cycle for all possible combinations of saddles and centers.

Residents in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) can play an important role in reducing wildfire's... more Residents in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) can play an important role in reducing wildfire's negative effects by performing wildfire risk mitigation on their property. This report offers insight into the wildfire risk mitigation activities and related considerations, such as attitudes, experiences, and concern about wildfire, for people with homes in the Pagosa Fire Protection District of Archuleta County, Colorado. Data come from a social survey and parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments administered by FireWise of Southwest Colorado. Results are presented both in graphical form and as detailed summary statistics (in appendices). As we recognize that results from similar surveys and assessments in other communities may differ, these linked datasets contribute to a broader effort to understand decisions about wildfire risk mitigation on private property. Results can facilitate long-term monitoring, management, and educational practices concerning the mitigation of wildfire risk in WUI communities.

Residents in the wildland-urban interface can play an important role in reducing wildfires' negat... more Residents in the wildland-urban interface can play an important role in reducing wildfires' negative effects by performing wildfire risk mitigation on their properties. This report offers insight into the wildfire risk mitigation activities and related considerations such as attitudes, experiences, and concern about wildfire, for residents of the Telluride Fire Protection District of San Miguel County, Colorado. Data come from a social survey and parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments administered by the West Region Wildfire Council. Results are presented both in graphical form and as detailed summary statistics (in appendices). As we recognize that results from similar surveys and assessments in other communities might differ, these linked datasets contribute to a broader effort to understand decisions about wildfire risk mitigation on private property. Results can facilitate long-term monitoring, management, and educational practices concerning the mitigation of wildfire risk in wildland-urban interface communities.

Natural Hazards, 2021

Private landowners are important actors in landscape-level wildfire risk management. Accordingly,... more Private landowners are important actors in landscape-level wildfire risk management. Accordingly, wildfire programs and policy encourage wildland–urban interface homeowners to engage with local organizations to properly mitigate wildfire risk on their parcels. We investigate whether parcel-level wildfire risk assessment data, commonly used to inform community-level planning and resource allocation, can be used to “nudge” homeowners to engage further with a regional wildfire organization. We sent 4564 households in western Colorado a letter that included varying combinations of risk information about their community, their parcels, and their neighbors’ parcels, and we measured follow-up visits to a personalized “Web site”. We find that the effect of providing parcel-specific information depends on baseline conditions: Informing homeowners about their property’s wildfire risk increases information-seeking among homeowners of the highest-risk parcels by about 5 percentage points and reduces information-seeking among homeowners of lower-risk parcels by about 6 percentage points. Parcel-specific information also increases the overall response in the lowest risk communities by more than 10 percentage points. Further, we find evidence of a 6-percentage point increase in response rate associated with receiving a social comparison treatment that signals neighboring properties as being either low or moderate risk on average. These results, especially considered against the 13 percent overall average response rate, offer causal evidence that providing parcel-specific wildfire risk information can influence behavior. As such, we demonstrate the effectiveness of simple outreach in engaging wildland–urban interface homeowners with wildfire risk professionals in ways that leverage existing data.

Natural Hazards, 2021

Private landowners are important actors in landscape-level wildfire risk management. Accordingly,... more Private landowners are important actors in landscape-level wildfire risk management. Accordingly, wildfire programs and policy encourage wildland–urban interface homeowners to engage with local organizations to properly mitigate wildfire risk on their parcels. We investigate whether parcel-level wildfire risk assessment data, commonly used to inform community-level planning and resource allocation, can be used to “nudge” homeowners to engage further with a regional wildfire organization. We sent 4564 households in western Colorado a letter that included varying combinations of risk information about their community, their parcels, and their neighbors’ parcels, and we measured follow-up visits to a personalized “Web site”. We find that the effect of providing parcel-specific information depends on baseline conditions: Informing homeowners about their property’s wildfire risk increases information-seeking among homeowners of the highest-risk parcels by about 5 percentage points and reduces information-seeking among homeowners of lower-risk parcels by about 6 percentage points. Parcel-specific information also increases the overall response in the lowest risk communities by more than 10 percentage points. Further, we find evidence of a 6-percentage point increase in response rate associated with receiving a social comparison treatment that signals neighboring properties as being either low or moderate risk on average. These results, especially considered against the 13 percent overall average response rate, offer causal evidence that providing parcel-specific wildfire risk information can influence behavior. As such, we demonstrate the effectiveness of simple outreach in engaging wildland–urban interface homeowners with wildfire risk professionals in ways that leverage existing data.

Natural Hazards, 2020

Wildfire presents a growing threat across the American West. We conducted an online choice experi... more Wildfire presents a growing threat across the American West. We conducted an online choice experiment in Western Colorado to assess how social interactions affect wildfire mitigation decisions through two distinct pathways: risk interdependency (neighbors’ conditions affect perceived wildfire risk) and social norms (neighbors’ actions affect perceptions of appropriate mitigation choices). In contrast to key observational studies, we find that participants are less likely to choose to mitigate when they have more neighbors with sparse vegetation. This effect operates through the risk interdependency pathway: sparse vegetation on neighboring properties lowers participants’ wildfire risk perceptions and appears to be viewed as a substitute for one’s own mitigation actions. In this context, where neighbors are nameless and faceless, social norms do not counteract this negative effect. To reconcile this experimental result with observational studies, we discuss how both risk interdepende...

Fire, 2020

The actions of residents in the wildland–urban interface can influence the private and social cos... more The actions of residents in the wildland–urban interface can influence the private and social costs of wildfire. Wildfire programs that encourage residents to take action are often delivered without evidence of effects on behavior. Research from the field of behavioral science shows that simple, often low-cost changes to program design and delivery can influence socially desirable behaviors. In this research report, we highlight how behavioral science and experimental design may advance efforts to increase wildfire risk mitigation on private property. We offer an example in which we tested changes in outreach messaging on property owners’ interest in wildfire risk information. In partnership with a regional wildfire organization, we mailed 4564 letters directing property owners to visit personalized wildfire risk webpages. By tracking visitation, we observed that 590 letter recipients (12%) sought information about their wildfire risk and response varied by community. This research–...

Administering a survey online has a number of practical benefits including lower costs, reduction... more Administering a survey online has a number of practical benefits including lower costs, reductions in paperuse and data entry time, and a faster data collection time period. A significant challenge, however, entails creating and recruiting a relevant sample of respondents with specific characteristics when email lists are unavailable. In this case, we seek to encourage researcher conversation about relevant and effective recruitment strategies by describing the extensive pretesting process we undertook to develop our survey sampling and recruitment strategy for a study of wildfire mitigation behaviors in Western Colorado. Pretesting response rates varied from 3% to 30%, with the inclusion of a US$2 billion in the recruitment envelope yielding the highest response rate. The actual study subsequently used this approach and resulted in a 35% response rate. Learning Outcomes By the end of this case, students should be able to Identify possible challenges to constructing a relevant population sample when conducting a survey online Articulate potential challenges of online survey participation using a mail recruitment tool Start to identify creative solutions to overcome recruitment challenges for recruiting for online survey Project Overview and Context: Defining the Problem Understanding the social dynamics of natural resource and natural hazard dilemmas often requires collecting data from the people whose beliefs, behaviors, and perspectives influence problem framing, management, and resolution. In the case of wildfire, property owners' risk reduction decisions in the areas where wildland and private properties meet, the wildland-urban interface (WUI), play an important role in wildfire outcomes. Responsiveness to a survey on a salient topic is expected to be higher than to a topic that isn't salient. However, responsiveness to recruitment for proposed research can only be based on an informed guess unless one has been engaged in ongoing research on the specific topic or in a specific geographic area. Although secondary data sources (e.g., Census data) may provide some basic information about the population affected by a particular natural resource/hazard dilemma, these data sources are often inadequate for more in-depth analyses of the social dynamics surrounding such dilemmas. Further inquiry into natural resource/hazard beliefs and behaviors typically requires collecting primary data from relevant publics. When pursuing insights into socially and geographically specific dilemmas, in-person data collection is often a preferred approach; however, the time and cost requirements of such efforts often limit sample sizes. And yet, the administration of surveys to a broader, more representative sample of the relevant public presents a number of challenges, perhaps the greatest of which is obtaining adequate response rates from a population that is relevant to the natural resource or natural hazard dilemma.