Wildfires change how people perceive beloved places: Study

The devastation wrought by wildfires, such as the recent blazes in Los Angeles, may extend beyond physical and financial loss by disrupting people's sense of attachment to their communities, a new study has found.

“Wildfires, like the ones currently affecting LA, profoundly reshape people’s connections to their environment,” co-author Anne Mook, a social scientist at Colorado State University, said in a statement.

Mook drew this conclusion from research she and a colleague conducted following the Cameron Peak Fire that ravaged a portion of northern Colorado in 2020 and became the largest wildfire in the state's history.

She and Pilar Morales-Giner, of Spain's University of Granada, conducted 34 interviews with residents, local leaders and activists, to discern their perceptions of ecological and population shifts, as well as the meanings they assigned to their sense of place. They published their findings this month in the Environment and Behavior journal.

“We found that wildfires impact place attachment in two major ways: emotional loss and practical challenges," Mook stated.

During the interviews, the researchers found that many residents described feelings of what is known as "solastalgia," or distress caused by environmental change.

Contrary to nostalgia, which involves melancholy or homesickness when an individual is separated from their home, solastalgia involves global-scale environmental disruptions to "sense of place" and identity, as a previous study described it.

“One participant said, ‘Driving through the burned areas is heartbreaking; it just hurts so much to see it like that,’” Mook said.

Among the negative impacts of solastalgia, the researchers found, was isolation, effects on mental health, loss of community members and the growth of intergenerational differences.

As far as practical difficulties were concerned, Morales-Giner identified a strong connection between wildfires and the functional side of attachment to a place. As such, she stressed the critical nature of building community awareness when it comes to water scarcity, wildfire risks and related access challenges.

"These are all crucial to help communities mitigate and adapt to disasters,” Morales-Giner added.

Effective responses to environmental threats, the researchers explained, requires "acknowledging their connection to changing local realities." But recognizing that link can spur residents into engaging in meaningful adaptation and mitigation efforts, according to the study.

As disruptions cause people to change their perceptions about their environment, they also may be able to view their communities not just as safe havens, but also as sites of resilience, the authors explained.

"It’s really about reimagining some of those connections to the places that we call home,” Mook said. “If we better understand place attachment and address climate change and improve forest management, we can hopefully help communities adapt to wildfires.”