Using a network governance framework to assess the wood energy industry in times of catastrophic wildfire in Northern California

Abstract

The proliferation of destructive wildfires in the western USA has made apparent the need to reevaluate forest management and related agency and business practices. This has resulted in a variety of policies and practices to enhance the utilization of woody biomass generated from associated fuel reduction efforts. The USDA Forest Service, for instance, is increasingly forming partnerships with local collaborative groups to encourage entrepreneurial investments to facilitate those fuel reduction efforts. These alliances among communities, non-profit organizations, and businesses illustrate elements of network governance in the way they coordinate actions and mobilize and exchange resources to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Few empirical studies, with regard to forest energy, have examined how these networks of loosely affiliated actors coordinate and mobilize resources to influence related state and federal policy, or the barriers to effective enterprise development. We draw upon network governance literature to examine four dimensions of these alliances: heterogeneity, integration, network structure, and operating function. This framework is applied to forest biomass utilization policy decisions in Northern California, a area experiencing repeated record-breaking wildfire events. Finally, we explore ways in which these governance attributes could impact the broader forest biomass industry and provide implications for future research.