Absentee Ownership in the Fire-Prone Northern California Foothills

Abstract

Absentee–owned parcels make up one-third to one-half of private properties in wildland–urban interface areas of the United States. The prevalence of absenteeism in fire-prone areas is of concern to resource management agencies, community fire-safe councils, and homeowners who share boundaries with these parcels. In the foothills of Butte County, California, absentee-owned parcels make up over half of privately owned noncorporate parcels. The concern by fire-safe councils in this fire-prone wildland–urban interface is that absentee owners will not participate actively in fuel reduction. We used geographic information systems to illustrate the extent and geographic distribution of absentee parcels in the foothills and in one community, Concow. The article provides some initial findings about the impressive acreage and complex spatial distribution of absentee-owned parcels in relation to owner-occupied parcels. The article also raises some methodological issues about the definition of absenteeism.