Abstract: |
Recent years have brought dramatic expansion of residential development into the Wildland-Urban-Interface (WUI). This rapid development places property, natural assets and human life at risk from wildfire destruction. The U.S. National Fire Plan encourages communities to formulate and implement regulatory and outreach programs for pre-fire planning to mitigate the risk to area residents. During 2003, researchers surveyed the administrators of regulatory and voluntary wildfire risk reduction programs in 25 U.S. states. These state and local programs are listed on the USDA Forest Service’s National Wildfire Programs website and are concerned with vegetation management on private lands. Empirical analyses of the administrators’ responses suggest several new insights about these sub-federal risk mitigation efforts concerning how they are organized and what they are trying to accomplish. First, certain types of program activities - public education, assistance to property owners, and conducting area-wide risk assessments – are highly related, suggesting a common “bundle” of services offered by many of these programs. Second, desirable management activities – including forging collaborative associations with other stakeholder groups and measuring progress toward program goals – are associated with more “comprehensive” programs, those conducting numerous public education activities and offering a variety of services to property owners. Third, many program managers are facing significant obstacles as they attempt to meet the goals and objectives of their programs. These tend to fall into three categories: shortcomings within the broader policy context, such as inadequate scientific knowledge about fire risk; negative attitudes among the public, including resistance from property owners toward vegetation removal; and budgetary constraints. Finally, respondents offer the activities they believe to be most effective along with “measurable changes” in risk conditions they expect to see as direct results of their efforts. This suggests potential indicators of program effectiveness that may be useful in future research, shedding light on which approaches and activities may work best in reducing risk to WUI communities from catastrophic wildfire. |
