The Aspen Institute

On June 6-8, 2022, the Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program and The Nature Conservancy convened the fifth in a series on U.S. wildfire resilience in Seeley Lake, Montana and virtually via Zoom. With over 100 years of fire suppression, climate change exacerbating ecological conditions, and ever more people living within the wildfire urban interface (WUI), wildfires have become increasingly frequent and severe. The Aspen-TNC series of wildfire resilience workshops is intended to incubate ideas and solutions to inform a policy roadmap around wildfire resilience and to spark a paradigm shift in addressing this issue. Specifically, this particular workshop was aimed at exploring how vulnerable communities can better prepare for, and respond to, wildfires, and considered strategies to ensure resources and capacity are appropriately directed to address existing challenges within these communities. This summary captures some of the key topics of discussion.