Understanding rural adaptation to smoke from wildfires and forest management: Insights for aligning approaches with community contexts

Background: Rural communities are increasingly impacted by smoke produced by wildfires and forest management activties. Understanding local influences on smoke adaptation and mitigation is critical to social adaptation as fire risk continues to rise. Aims: We sought to determine the role of local social context in smoke adaptation and gauge interest in adaptation strategies that might reduce exposure. Methods: We conducted 46 semi-structured interviews with 56 residents and professionals in Parks, Arizona, USA, a rural community adjacent to public lands regularly affected by smoke. Key results: Rural residents think of smoke as an acceptable risk. Efforts to adapt to potential health impacts are minimal, though inaction is driven by diverse reasoning and tradeoffs. Local social context - particularly elements related to government distrust, forest management, and independence - heavily influences interest in uptake of different adaptation strategies as well as affecting access to, and interpretation of, information about smoke risks. Conclusions: Rural approaches to, and understandings of, smoke adaptation vary spatially and temporally. Public interest in broader forest management efforts can be leveraged to engage residents in conversations about proactive smoke adaptation. Implications: Smoke adaptation strategies in rural communities must meld evidence of their effectiveness with community preferences grounded in local context to overcome inaction.