What Drives Wildfire Costs – Internal or External Pressure?
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Date
2011-03-30
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Master of Natural Resources Professional Papers (North Carolina State University. College of Natural Resources)
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North Carolina State University. College of Natural Resources
Abstract
What Drives Wildfire Costs –
Internal or External Pressure?
Jason A. Briefel
Abstract
Over the past two decades, wildfires in the United States have become increasingly large, severe
and costly to suppress. A century of successful wildfire suppression by the U.S. Forest Service
and other land management agencies has fueled the growth of the wildland-urban interface, the
area where human settlement intermingles with forest. Consequently, members of the public and
political representatives, sources of external influence studied here, have grown to expect and
demand suppression responses from fire managers. These external influences have been cited as
a factor leading to higher wildfire suppression costs. This research was guided by the hypothesis
that costlier fires are subject to more prevalent external influences. In an attempt to reduce
wildfire suppression expenditures and to restore healthy forest ecosystems, federal wildfire
policy has shifted away from focusing fire management on full suppression and now promotes a
more flexible fire management approach. The transition to employing a more flexible fire
management approach, which is intended to reduce wildfire suppression costs, faces challenges
presented by internal factors studied in this research, the attitudes and beliefs of fire managers, as
well as agency policies. This research project explores how internal and external influences
affected wildfire cost and the application of more flexible fire management on wildfire events
through two paired case studies of wildfires that occurred in the 2006-2007 fire seasons.
Description
Keywords
wildfire, wildfire suppression, wildland-urban interface
