Examining alternative fuel management strategies and the relative contribution of National Forest System land to wildfire risk to adjacent homes – A pilot assessment on the Sierra National Forest, California, USA
| Autor: | Joe H. Scott, Matthew P. Thompson, Julie W. Gilbertson-Day |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
Risk analysis
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences business.industry media_common.quotation_subject Environmental resource management Land management Forestry 010501 environmental sciences Management Monitoring Policy and Law Alternative fuels 01 natural sciences Defensible space Hazardous waste Service (economics) Environmental science Wildland–urban interface National forest business 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Nature and Landscape Conservation media_common |
| Zdroj: | Forest Ecology and Management. 362:29-37 |
| ISSN: | 0378-1127 |
| Popis: | Determining the degree of risk that wildfires pose to homes, where across the landscape the risk originates, and who can best mitigate risk are integral elements of effective co-management of wildfire risk. Developing assessments and tools to help provide this information is a high priority for federal land management agencies such as the US Forest Service (USFS) that have limited resources to invest in hazardous fuel reduction and other mitigation activities. In this manuscript we investigate the degree to which fuel management practices on USFS land can reduce wildfire exposure to human communities. We leverage wildfire simulation with spatial risk analysis techniques and examine a range of hypothetical fuel treatment scenarios on a landscape encompassing the Sierra National Forest in California, USA. Results suggest that treating USFS land does little to reduce overall wildland urban interface (WUI) exposure across the landscape. A treatment scenario that focused on treating defensible space near homes was by far the most efficient at reducing WUI exposure, including exposure transmitted from USFS lands. Findings highlight potential tradeoffs and raise questions as to what other land management objectives fuel treatments on federal lands might be able to more cost-effectively achieve relative to WUI protection. Site-specific risk-based analyses can help elucidate these tradeoffs and opportunities. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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