Understanding the wildfire adaptation communications landscape in the western United States: examining actors, media type, and geographies

Understanding the wildfire adaptation communications landscape in the western United States: examining actors, media type, and geographies | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Understanding the wildfire adaptation communications landscape in the western United States: examining actors, media type, and geographies Sonya Sachdeva, Michelle L. Johnson, Jeff Sachs, Kathryn Hixson This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9295411/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Adaptations to living with fire are multifold, and U.S. wildfire policy has increasingly shifted toward proactive management. The U.S. Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy (WCS) provides coordination and funding for landscape-scale adaptation, yet little is known about how wildfire adaptation is communicated in public online discourse. We analyze press releases, news media, and social media texts from September 2022 to February 2024 to characterize the salience and framing of wildfire adaptation concepts, identify which organizational types are most associated with major themes, and examine geographic variation across ten initial WCS landscapes. Using paragraph-level topic modeling and thematic clustering, we find that wildfire adaptation communication is dominated by prescribed fire, but that most adaptation concepts represented in the Fire Adapted Communities wheel appear across channels. Prescribed fire discourse is internally differentiated (operations, weather windows, and risk/safeguards), and thematic emphasis varies by platform and communicator type. We also observe meaningful state-level variation in adaptation themes within Twitter/X data, consistent with differences in fire history, governance context, and public attention. Together, these findings map a distributed wildfire adaptation communication ecosystem and highlight where key adaptation elements (e.g., codes, ordinances, and continuity planning) remain comparatively absent from public-facing discourse. Wildfire adaptation communication natural language processing climate change Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files AdaptationManuscriptSupplementaryMaterials.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers invited by journal 20 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 02 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 02 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 01 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9295411","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":626767037,"identity":"d265b337-0f73-4ac2-b5a9-ab966091a5ae","order_by":0,"name":"Sonya Sachdeva","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Northwestern University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sonya","middleName":"","lastName":"Sachdeva","suffix":""},{"id":626767038,"identity":"336b7150-5043-4907-a0c9-bfc7f4c22884","order_by":1,"name":"Michelle L. 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