Examining the knowing–doing gap in the conservation of a fire-dependent ecosystem

Abstract Scientifically informed conservation goals do not always align with what is accomplished in practice, leading to the so-called “knowing–doing gap”. One reason why the knowing–doing gap exists may be that scientific recommendations often do not account for the “real-world” social context of conservation. The social context may be particularly important for ecosystem restoration involving prescribed burning. In the longleaf pine ecosystem, scientists and conservationists have called for large-scale restoration using prescribed burning; however, recent levels of burning may be insufficient to accomplish restoration. We studied the knowing–doing gap in the longleaf pine ecosystem by investigating where recent burns had been conducted. We used spatio-temporal logistic regression to relate recent burning in the Onslow Bight, North Carolina, to site and landscape attributes that burn practitioners there had previously said were important. Our results show that prescribed burns were preferentially placed on high-quality sites rather than on degraded sites, suggesting a knowing–doing gap in longleaf pine conservation in which burning is not used for restoration. In addition, sites that had not been burned for at least 4 years showed an increased probability of burning as distance from development increased, suggesting that sites with high fuel loads near development were not likely to be burned. Finding ways to encourage burning on degraded sites near development, such as rewarding practitioners for successfully conducting difficult burns, would help narrow the knowing–doing gap in conservation of this and other fire-dependent ecosystems.