Research Database
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4
Clearning the smoke from wildfire policy: An economic perspective
Year: 2016
Wildfires are heating up once again in the American West. In 2015, wildfires burned more than 10 million acres in the United States at a cost of $2.1 billion in federal expenditures. As the fires burned, the U.S. Forest Service announced that, for the first time, more than half of its budget would be devoted to wildfire. And the situation is likely to get worse. Within a decade, the agency estimates that it will spend more than two-thirds of its budget battling fires. In this PERC Policy Series essay, Dean Lueck and Jonathan Yoder use economics to examine wildfire management and the current…
Publication Type: Report
Insights from wildfire science: a resource for fire policy discussions
Year: 2016
Record blazes swept across parts of the US in 2015, burning more than 10 million acres. The four biggest fire seasons since 1960 have all occurred in the last 10 years, leading to fears of a ‘new normal’ for wildfire. Fire fighters and forest managers are overwhelmed, and it is clear that the policy and management approaches of the past will not suffice under this new era of western wildfires. In recent decades, state and federal policymakers, tribes, and others are confronting longer fire seasons (Jolly et al. 2015), more large fires (Dennison et al. 2014), a tripling of homes burned, and a…
Publication Type: Report
Risk management: Core principles and practices, and their relevance to wildland fire.
Year: 2016
The Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture faces a future of increasing complexity and risk, pressing financial issues, and the inescapable possibility of loss of human life. These issues are perhaps most acute for wildland fire management, the highest risk activity in which the Forest Service engages. Risk management (RM) has long been put forth as an appropriate approach for addressing fire, and agency-wide adoption of RM principles and practices will be critical to bring about necessary change and improve future decisions. To facilitate more comprehensive adoption of formal RM…
Publication Type: Report
A spatial database for restoration management capability on national forests in the Pacific Northwest USA
Year: 2016
Description: Understanding the capacity to reduce wildfire risk and restore dry forests on Western national forests is a key part of prioritizing new accelerated restoration programs initiated by the Forest Service. Although a number of social and biophysical factors influence the ability to implement restoration programs, one key driver is the suite of forest plan land designations and associated management directions. These land use designations and conservation reserves, which are intended to provide an array of ecosystem services (recreation, wildlife, water, timber, research, etc.), were…
Publication Type: Report