Wildfire has brought about ecological, economic, and social consequences that engender human responses in many parts of the world. How to respond to wildfire risk is a common challenge across the globe particularly in areas where lands are controlled by many small private owners because effective wildfire prevention and protection require coordinated efforts of neighboring stakeholders. We explore (i) wildfire response strategies adopted by family forestland owners in the southern United States, one of the most important and productive forest regions in the world, through a landowner survey; and (ii) linkages between the responses of these landowners and their characteristics via multinomial logistic regression. We find that landowners used diverse strategies to respond to wildfire risk, with the most popular responses being "doing nothing" and combined adaptation and mitigation, followed by adaptation or mitigation alone. Landowners who had lost properties to wildfire, lived on their forestlands, had a forest management plan, and were better educated were more likely to proactively respond to wildfire risk. Our results indicate the possibility to enhance the effectiveness of collective action of wildfire risk response by private forestland owners and to coordinate wildfire response with forest conservation and certification efforts. These findings shed new light on engaging private landowners in wildfire management in the study region and beyond.

The economic and ecological damages caused by wildfires are alarming. Because such damages are expected to increase with changes in wildfire regimes, this calls for more effective wildfire mitigation and adaptation strategies. Wildfire adaptation options for forestland owners include purchasing wildfire insurance, which provides compensation to those insured if a wildfire damages their properties. We attempt to (i) identify factors that influence the decision of family forestland owners in the southern United States to purchase wildfire insurance for their forestlands via logistic regression using landowner survey data and (ii) examine the propensity of these landowners to purchase wildfire insurance under climate change. We find that landowners are much more likely to purchase wildfire insurance if they are female or well educated or if their land is not classed as heirs' property, has been hit by a hurricane, or has not been burned by wildfire previously. Because climate change is likely to alter future wildfire and hurricane activity in the region, more forestland owners are predicted to purchase wildfire insurance, although the magnitude of such an increase appears moderate under current market institutions. These results would be helpful for developing new wildfire insurance programs and increasing the participation of forestland owners in the wildfire insurance market.Résumé : Les dommages écologiques et économiques causés par les feux de forêt sont inquiétants et on s'attend à ce que ces dommages augmentent avec les changements dans les régimes des feux, demandant l'adoption de stratégies plus efficaces d'atténuation et d'adaptation à l'égard des feux de forêt. Parmi les mesures d'adaptation aux feux de forêt dans le cas des propriétaires de terrains forestiers, il y a l'achat d'une assurance contre les feux de forêt qui procure une compensation à ceux qui sont assurés si un feu de forêt cause des dommages à leurs propriétés. Nous avons essayé : (i) d'identifier les facteurs qui influencent la décision des propriétaires de terres forestières familiales du sud des États-Unis d'acheter une assurance contre les feux de forêt pour leurs boisés en utilisant la régression logistique avec des données d'enquêtes auprès des propriétaires, et (ii) d'étudier la propension de ces propriétaires à acheter une assurance contre les feux de forêt dans le contexte des changements climatiques. Nous avons trouvé que les propriétaires sont nettement plus susceptibles d'acheter une assurance contre les feux de forêt s'il s'agit d'une femme ou d'une personne instruite, ou si leurs terrains ne font pas partie des biens destinés aux héritiers, ont été frappés par un ouragan ou n'ont pas déjà été brûlés par un feu de forêt. Étant donné que les changements climatiques sont susceptibles de modifier l'activité future des feux de forêt et des ouragans dans la région, on prédit que davantage de propriétaires de terrains forestiers achèteront une assurance contre les feux de forêt bien que l'ampleur d'une telle augmentation semble modéré...

ImportanceCancer screening deficits during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic were found to persist into 2021. Cancer-related deaths over the next decade are projected to increase if these deficits are not addressed.ObjectiveTo assess whether participation in a nationwide quality improvement (QI) collaborative, Return-to-Screening, was associated with restoration of cancer screening.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsAccredited cancer programs electively enrolled in this QI study. Project-specific targets were established on the basis of differences in mean monthly screening test volumes (MTVs) between representative prepandemic (September 2019 and January 2020) and pandemic (September 2020 and January 2021) periods to restore prepandemic volumes and achieve a minimum of 10% increase in MTV. Local QI teams implemented evidence-based screening interventions from June to November 2021 (intervention period), iteratively adjusting interventions according to their MTVs and target. Interrupted time series analyses was used to identify the intervention effect. Data analysis was performed from January to April 2022.ExposuresCollaborative QI support included provision of a Return-to-Screening plan-do-study-act protocol, evidence-based screening interventions, QI education, programmatic coordination, and calculation of screening deficits and targets.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe primary outcome was the proportion of QI projects reaching target MTV and counterfactual differences in the aggregate number of screening tests across time periods.ResultsOf 859 cancer screening QI projects (452 for breast cancer, 134 for colorectal cancer, 244 for lung cancer, and 29 for cervical cancer) conducted by 786 accredited cancer programs, 676 projects (79%) reached their target MTV. There were no hospital characteristics associated with increased likelihood of reaching target MTV except for disease site (lung vs breast, odds ratio, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.7 to 4.7). During the preintervention period (April to May 2021), there was a decrease in the mean MTV (slope, −13.1 tests per month; 95% CI, −23.1 to −3.2 tests per month). Interventions were associated with a significant immediate (slope, 101.0 tests per month; 95% CI, 49.1 to 153.0 tests per month) and sustained (slope, 36.3 tests per month; 95% CI, 5.3 to 67.3 tests per month) increase in MTVs relative to the preintervention trends. Additional screening tests were performed during the intervention period compared with the prepandemic period (170 748 tests), the pandemic period (210 450 tests), and the preintervention period (722 427 tests).Conclusions and RelevanceIn this QI study, participation in a national Return-to-Screening collaborative with a multifaceted QI intervention was associated with improvements in cancer screening. Future collaborative QI endeavors leveraging accreditation infrastructure may help address other gaps in cancer care.

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We surveyed nonindustrial private (family) forestland owners in five states in the southern United States to identify their perception, awareness, and adoption of wildfire prevention and mitigation programs. Wildfire is perceived as an imminent threat by the majority of the survey respondents, and over two-thirds of them have taken some preventive measure. Program awareness, wildfire experience and risk perception, information sources, wildfire preventive activities, and preferences for government interventions differ across racial groups; experience with wildfire, knowledge and activities of fire protection, information sources, and desire for government intervention and technical assistance are also significantly different between male and female landowners. Additionally, program awareness by landowners does not necessarily translate into action in preventing and mitigating wildfire, suggesting that additional assistance and stimuli would be needed to encourage private landowners to be more proactive against wildfire.