ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors offer their assessment of how government agencies and other key groups responded. They also offer a set of planning recommendations that will better prepare the country for future droughts. The case of spring fire danger assessment and, indeed, of overall drought impact assessment, suggests a bias toward optimism, even in the face of complex environmental processes with potentially large negative consequences. Nevertheless, the link made between drought and global warming in 1988 could have a lasting influence on US policy relating to climate change. Scientific uncertainty and confusion were magnified by the manner in which information was conveyed, as when local and regional drought assessments received national, and even international, dissemination by news media. The drought highlighted the difficulties of managing natural resources in a fluctuating climate, but it also pointed to some potential solutions and needed improvements. The authors identify some of the problem areas and recommends solutions.
