Abstract: |
Wildfires continue to burn in the US despite rising concerns for the costs and losses associated with recurrent fire episodes. Prescribed fire and other fuel treatments have been proposed as potential solutions to US fire problems, though fire hazard reduction through fuels management can be controversial. Evaluating tradeoffs between wildfires and fuel treatments for a geographic area may sound straightforward, especially with a growing body of evidence showing fuel treatment effectiveness in reducing wildfire severity within a stand. However analytical problems in assessing treatment productivity are considerable, and may be compounded by deficiencies in the type of data typically collected by public agencies. Other problems are rooted by the relatively scant information available on treatments applied on a landscape scale. Further, public agency proxies for minimizing wildfire cost and net value changes may not link directly with societal values. |
