Fuel Reduction Programs Research Articles

Homeowners willingness to pay to reduce wildfire risk in wildland urban interface areas: Implications for targeting financial incentives

This study estimated homeowner's willingness to pay for public and private fuel reduction programs in wildland urban interface areas using a choice experiment implemented in California. A multinomial logit (MNL) model was estimated and indicated that homeowners living in subjectively perceived high-risk areas would pay for new wildfire risk mitigation programs. This suggests the importance of risk perceptions in adoption of risk mitigation behavior. Prior research has indicated that demographic factors influence risk perceptions. Therefore, the heterogeneity of homeowner preferences regarding wildfire risk perceptions and mitigation behavior, not explicitly revealed in the basic MNL model, was investigated using Latent Class (LC) and Random Parameter Latent Class (RPLC) models. Results from the LC model indicated that homeowners with lower income/education levels are more likely to ignore risk factors in making wildfire mitigation decisions, and generally prefer the status quo to paying the costs of new wildfire risk mitigation programs. Similar results were found in the RPLC model, except for gender is no longer significant. These results suggest that many low income/education level homeowners in the study area will require accessible and persuasive information on wildfire risk as well as significant financial incentives to undertake private wildfire risk mitigation efforts on their property and to support broader public efforts to protect communities. In contrast, many higher income/education households are more sensitive to risk factors when making wildfire mitigation decisions and would pay a substantial amount for public and private programs, making the existing cost share approach for these types of households workable.

Assessing expected economic losses from wildfires in eucalypt plantations of western Brazil

The increasing demand for pulpwood promotes the rapid expansion of eucalypt plantations over fire-prone savannas in western Brazil. Currently, large wildfires pose a real threat to these commercial plantations, disrupting the supply chain. Forest managers lack site-specific quantitative assessments to inform large scale harvesting plans and cost-effective risk reduction programs. In this study, we combined wildfire likelihood estimates with potential fire effects to assess stand-level expected economic losses in eucalypt plantations across a savanna enclave in western Brazil. Here, we used the minimum travel time fire spread algorithm to predict the annual burn probability (aBP). The economic loss was estimated combining pixel-level aBP with the associated forest value according to the raw material market value, the management cost cash flow, and the harvesting rotation period. Young eucalypt stands (< 2 yr) attained the highest wildfire likelihood values, whereas intermediate-age to mature plantations (> 4 yr) showed the largest economic losses (> 400 US$ ha−1 yr−1). Our findings suggest that local forest managers should expect a 1.75% of annual losses in terms of raw material provision, equivalent to some 20 million US$ yr−1. Fuel reduction programs focusing on aBP hotspots plus ignition prevention along the forest interfaces would reduce risk to eucalypt plantations. In addition, environmental policies related to ignition mitigation and correct usage of fire across grasslands might be developed to attenuate the risk. This study implements a methodological framework that would allow comparing alternative wildfire risk management strategies in South American tropical savanna where revenue from forest systems is a fundamental source of income for local economies.

Landowner Concern about Wildfires and Implementation of Fuel Reduction Treatments

AbstractFuel reduction treatments implemented by nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners affect wildfire hazard potential on both their tracts and surrounding lands. However, it is not clear how concerned they are about wildfire damages and what actions they are willing to take to lower wildfire hazard. This study determined the landowner concern level about wildfire damages and identified factors affecting their concern and fuel treatment implementation using seemingly unrelated and binary probit models, respectively. Approximately, 68% of landowners were concerned about property damage due to wildfires, and 45% implemented some fuel reduction treatments. The most common and least costly fuel treatment was prescribed burning ($18/acre) followed by chemical ($59/acre) and mechanical ($127/acre) treatments. Raising awareness about potential monetary losses due to wildfires, assisting landowners in preparing written forest management plans, and prioritizing areas with predominant pine cover will encourage landowner participation in hazardous fuel reduction programs and facilitate more effective wildfire mitigation.

Western gray squirrel resource selection related to fire fuel management

ABSTRACTOne of 3 populations of the state‐threatened western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus) in Washington occurs in the northern Cascade Range (i.e., North Cascades), where long‐term fire suppression has increased the risk of catastrophic wildfire. Land management agencies throughout this region have implemented fire fuel reduction programs that alter squirrel habitat and may affect their populations. From April 2008 to September 2011, we investigated resource selection of 38 radio‐collared western gray squirrels at 2 study sites in the North Cascades following fire fuel management activities including mechanical thinning and prescribed burning. We developed conditional logistic models to examine resource selection at 3 spatial scales: nest trees, nest sites, and core areas within home ranges. The odds of a squirrel selecting a tree for nesting increased with dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium spp.) presence, greater number of surrounding trees with interlocking branches, and tree size. Squirrels selected nest sites that had greater canopy cover, tree connectivity, and presence of dwarf mistletoe than available, unused sites. Core‐use areas within home ranges had greater canopy cover, a greater number of tree species, and trees with higher live crowns compared to low‐use areas. Our results indicate that fire fuel treatments may negatively affect western gray squirrel habitat across multiple spatial scales. Most variables that were positively related to habitat selection are specifically targeted for reduction in fire fuel management plans and were lower in sampled treated areas compared to untreated areas within the study sites. Key considerations in designing fuel reduction programs that benefit both squirrel habitat conservation and fire fuel management include maintaining forest patches with suitable canopy cover and connectivity, retaining large trees of a mix of species, and allowing for mistletoe infection at a reduced rate. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

UC Cooperative Extension works with fire safe councils to reduce wildfires

In Plumas, Butte and Yuba counties, UC Cooperative Extension advisors have collaborated with fire safe councils to mitigate the risk of wildfire in local communities. They have determined the educational needs within the communities, obtained grant funding and worked collaboratively with the councils to deliver education and applied research programs that have helped homeowners and landowners take action to reduce their vulnerability to the risk of wildfires. Home structures have been modified to improve their fire resistance, fuel reduction programs have been adopted by local communities and maintained, communities have been mapped for evacuation plans and fuel breaks have been constructed on private and public forestland. Several wildfires, including the Marysville fire in 2006 and the Yuba fire in 2009, were slowed or stopped because of measures taken, showing the value of investment in pre-fire planning and actions.

Limits to understory plant restoration following fuel-reduction treatments in a piñon-juniper woodland.

National fuel-reduction programs aim to reduce the risk of wildland fires to human communities and to restore forest and rangeland ecosystems to resemble their historical structure, function, and diversity. There are a number of factors, such as seed bank dynamics, post-treatment climate, and herbivory, which determine whether this latter goal may be achieved. Here, we examine the short-term (2 years) vegetation response to fuel-reduction treatments (mechanical mastication, broadcast burn, and pile burn) and seeding of native grasses on understory vegetation in an upland piñon-juniper woodland in southeast Utah. We also examine how wildlife herbivory affects the success of fuel-reduction treatments. Herbaceous cover increased in response to fuel-reduction treatments in all seeded treatments, with the broadcast burn and mastication having greater increases (234 and 160 %, respectively) in herbaceous cover than the pile burn (32 %). In the absence of seeding, herbaceous cover only increased in the broadcast burn (32 %). Notably, fuel-reduction treatments, but not seeding, strongly affected herbaceous plant composition. All fuel-reduction treatments increased the relative density of invasive species, especially in the broadcast burn, which shifted the plant community composition from one dominated by perennial graminoids to one dominated by annual forbs. Herbivory by wildlife reduced understory plant cover by over 40 % and altered plant community composition. If the primary management goal is to enhance understory cover while promoting native species abundance, our study suggests that mastication may be the most effective treatment strategy in these upland piñon-juniper woodlands. Seed applications and wildlife exclosures further enhanced herbaceous cover following fuel-reduction treatments.

Forest Service Use of Nonmarket Valuation in Fire Economics: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract The need for monetary benefits of protecting spotted owl old-growth forest habitat from fire in the early 1990s was the catalyst for application of nonmarket valuation techniques to fire management within the US Forest Service. Two large-scale general public surveys successfully established that the contingent valuation method (CVM) could be used to estimate both state-level and national-level benefits for fire prevention and fire suppression in endangered species critical habitat. By the late 1990s large-scale wildland–urban interface fires resulted in the need to measure what the general public would pay for prescribed burning and mechanical fuel reduction programs. To reduce the expense of conducting original surveys, we use past results to offer benefit transfer of the existing results as a plausible interim technique to provide nonmarket benefits the general public receives from fire prevention and suppression. We also offer some insights as to the next frontiers in CVM application to wildland fire.

Long-term understory recovery after mechanical fuel reduction in Mediterranean cork oak forests

In the Euro-Mediterranean region, mechanical fuel reduction is increasingly used in response to the mounting occurrence of catastrophic wildfires, yet their long-term ecological effects are poorly understood. Although Mediterranean vegetation is resilient to a range of disturbances, it is possible that widespread fuel management at short intervals may threaten forest structural complexity and the persistence of some plant species and functional types, with overall negative consequences for biodiversity. We used a chronosequence approach to infer woody vegetation changes in the first 70 years after understory clearing in upland cork oak (Quercus suber) forests, and to assess how these are affected by treatment frequency. Across the chronosequence there was a shift between plant communities with contrasting composition, structure and functional organization. Understory cover increased quickly after disturbance and a community dominated by pioneer seeder and dry-fruited shrubs (Cistus ladanifer, C. populifolius, Genista triacanthos, and Lavandula stoechas) developed during about 15 years, but this was slowly replaced by a community dominated by resprouters and fleshy-fruited species (Arbutus unedo, Erica arborea) >40 years after disturbance. During the first 15 years there were rapid increases in woody species richness, vertical structural diversity, cover by Q. suber juveniles and saplings, and shrub cover at <1.5m strata, which levelled off or slightly declined thereafter. In contrast, tree species richness, tree density and density of arboreal A. unedo and E. arborea, vertical structural evenness, and cover at >1.5m strata increased slowly for >50 years. Treatment frequency showed strongly negative relationships with species richness, structural diversity and evenness, and horizontal and vertical understory cover, particularly that of slowly recovering species. These findings suggest that fuel reduction programs involving widespread and recurrent understory clearing may lead to the elimination at the landscape scale of stands with complex multi-layered understory occupied by large resprouters and fleshy-fruited species, which take a long time to recover after disturbance. Fuel management programs thus need to balance the dual goals of fire hazard reduction and biodiversity conservation, recognizing the value of stands untreated for >50 years to retain ecological heterogeneity in Mediterranean forest landscapes.

Willingness to pay function for two fuel treatments to reduce wildfire acreage burned: A scope test and comparison of White and Hispanic households

This research uses the Contingent Valuation Method to test whether willingness to pay increases for larger reductions in acres of forests burned by wildfires across the states of California, Florida and Montana. This is known as a test of scope, a measure of internal validity of the contingent valuation method (CVM). The scope test is conducted separately for White households and Hispanic households to determine if cultural differences influences whether the scope test is passed. The public program to reduce acres burned involved prescribed burning and a mechanical fuel reduction program. The results of CVM logit regressions show that the acreage reduction variable is statistically significant at the 1% level for the two proposed fuel reduction programs, and the two types of households. The positive sign of this variable means that the more acreage reduction proposed in the survey the more likely people would pay for the fuel reduction program. Because of the significance of the acreage reduction variable in the willingness to pay function, this function can be used to evaluate the incremental benefits of different forest fire management plans that reduce acres burned by wildfires. These benefits would be part of the justification for prescribed burning and mechanical fire fuel reduction programs to protect forests from wildfires.

TIMBER MARKETS AND FUEL TREATMENTS IN THE WESTERN U.S.

We developed a model of interrelated timber markets in the U.S. West to assess the impacts of large-scale fuel reduction programs on these markets, and concomitant effects of the market on the fuel reduction programs. The linear programming spatial equilibrium model allows inter- state and international trade with western Canada and the rest of the world, while accounting for price effects of intro- ducing softwood logs to the market. The model maximizes area treated, given fire regime-condition class priorities, max- imum increases in softwood processing capacity, maximum rates of annual treatments, prohibitions on exports of U.S. and Canadian softwood logs from public lands and a fixed annual treatment budget. Results show that the loss to U.S. private timber producers is less than the gains for timber consumers (mills). Effects on Canadian private producers and Canadian timber consumers depend on wildland-urban interface con- straints and condition class treatment priorities. States re- ceiving the greatest amount of treatments include California, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico, due to their concen- tration of stands with relatively low treatment costs.

The effects of mechanical fuel reduction treatments on the activity of bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) infesting ponderosa pine

Selective logging, fire suppression, forest succession and climatic changes have resulted in high fire hazards over large areas of the western USA. Federal and state hazardous fuel reduction programs have increased accordingly to reduce the risk, extent and severity of these events, particularly in the wildland–urban interface. In this study, we examined the effects of mechanical fuel reduction treatments on the activity of bark beetles in ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa Dougl ex. Laws., forests located in Arizona and California, USA. Treatments were applied in both late spring (April–May) and late summer (August–September) and included: (1) thinned biomass chipped and randomly dispersed within each 0.4 ha plot; (2) thinned biomass chipped, randomly dispersed within each plot and raked 2 m from the base of residual trees; (3) thinned biomass lopped-and-scattered (thinned trees cut into 1–2 m lengths) within each plot; (4) an untreated control. The mean percentage of residual trees attacked by bark beetles ranged from 2.0% (untreated control) to 30.2% (plots thinned in spring with all biomass chipped). A three-fold increase in the percentage of trees attacked by bark beetles was observed in chipped versus lopped-and-scattered plots. Bark beetle colonization of residual trees was higher during spring treatments, which corresponded with peak adult beetle flight periods as measured by funnel trap captures. Raking chips away from the base of residual trees did not significantly affect attack rates. Several bark beetle species were present including the roundheaded pine beetle, Dendroctonus adjunctus Blandford (AZ), western pine beetle, D. brevicomis LeConte (AZ and CA), mountain pine beetle, D. ponderosae Hopkins (CA), red turpentine beetle, D. valens LeConte (AZ and CA), Arizona fivespined ips, Ips lecontei Swaine (AZ), California fivespined ips, I. paraconfusus Lanier (CA) and pine engraver, I. pini (Say) (AZ). Dendroctonus valens was the most common bark beetle infesting residual trees. A significant correlation was found between the number of trees chipped per plot and the percentage of residual trees with D. valens attacks. A significantly higher percentage of residual trees was attacked by D. brevicomis in plots that were chipped in spring compared to the untreated control. In lopped-and-scattered treatments, engraver beetles produced substantial broods in logging debris, but few attacks were observed on standing trees. At present, no significant difference in tree mortality exists among treatments. A few trees appeared to have died solely from D. valens attacks, as no other scolytids were observed in the upper bole. In a laboratory study conducted to provide an explanation for the bark beetle responses observed in this study, monoterpene elution rates from chip piles declined sharply over time, but were relatively constant in lopped-and-piled treatments. The quantities of β-pinene, 3-carene, α-pinene and myrcene eluting from chips exceeded those from lopped-and-piled slash during each of 15 sample periods. These laboratory results may, in part, explain the bark beetle response observed in chipping treatments. The implications of these results to sustainable forest management are discussed.

Fire Management Impacts on Invasive Plants in the Western United States

Fire management practices affect alien plant invasions in diverse ways. I considered the impact of six fire management practices on alien invasions: fire suppression, forest fuel reduction, prescription burning in crown-fire ecosystems, fuel breaks, targeting of noxious aliens, and postfire rehabilitation. Most western United States forests have had fire successfully excluded for unnaturally long periods of time, and this appears to have favored the exclusion of alien plant species. Forest fuel reduction programs have the potential for greatly enhancing forest vulnerability to alien invasions. In part this is due to the focus on reestablishing pre-Euro-American fire regimes on a landscape that differs from pre-Euro-American landscapes in the abundance of aggressive non-native species. We may be forced to choose between restoring "natural"fire regimes or altering fire regimes to favor communities of native species. Intensive grazing in many western forests may exacerbate the alien problem after fire and temporally decoupling grazing and fire restoration may reduce the alien threat. Many shrubland ecosystems such as the Intermountain West sagebrush steppe or California chaparral have a natural, high-intensity crown fire regime that is less amenable to forest restoration tactics. Historical use of prescribed fire for type conversion of shrublands to more useful grazing lands has played some role in the massive annual grass invasion that threatens these shrublands. Fuel breaks pose a special invasive plant risk because they promote alien invasion along corridors into wildland areas. Use of prescription burning to eliminate noxious aliens has had questionable success, particularly when applied to disturbance-dependent annuals, and success is most likely when coupled with ecosystem restoration that alters the competitive balance between aliens and natives. Artificial seeding of alien species as a form of postfire stabilization appears to cause more problems than it solves and may even enhance alien invasion.

Integrating fuel reduction management with local bioenergy operations and businesses—A community responsibility

In approximately 20,000 US wildfire “at-risk” communities, private citizen awareness and involvement is essential for the effective integration of sustainable fuel reduction programs with the establishment of local biomass/woody materials businesses and bioenergy facilities. The factors that influence local community bioenergy and wood products economic development are mostly social, political, and financial not biological, ecological, or technological. It is the private sector that is the driving force for creating and influencing sustainable forest resources and broadening access to public lands. The many years of no-wood harvesting policies in the United States have caused excessive overgrowth and eliminated local forest products markets. Now with the severe overgrowth, drought and beetle-infested conditions in many Southwestern forests, actions are necessary to reduce fire hazards, improve public safety, and promote forest health. It is the local communities that must take an active role in creating bioenergy facilities and wood products markets to use these fuel reduction supplies. A case in point is Prescott, Arizona, which is enclosed in the south and west by the Bradshaw Mountains and Sierra Prieta range. In 1990, under companion resolution of the Mayor of the City of Prescott and the Yavapai County Supervisors, the Prescott Area Wildland/Urban Interface Commission (PAWUIC) was formed to address the continuing growth of urban population into the wildland areas surrounding the Prescott basin. This organization of private volunteers and cooperating government agencies has the objectives to provide community fire safety education, wildland/urban fire hazard removal, and to promote the local markets for materials harvested from the wildland areas.

Applying landscape principles to fire hazard reduction

Fire spreads in a specifically spatial manner, which suggests the applicability of percolation models to the risk reduction problem. It is shown that under fairly general conditions a threshold exists below which a landscape becomes essentially fireproof. Arranging treated acres into a grid, analogous to bulkheads on a ship, drastically reduces the acreage that must be treated to achieve a fireproof condition. Such compartmentation of the landscape yields a much higher leverage (ratio of acres saved to acres treated). Certain landscape features create updrafts that spread fire particularly far. Treating fuels in such areas yields high leverage. Fire shadow effects were replicated by the simulation and showed a possible mechanism for amplifying treatment effectiveness. Either fuel reduction programs or commercial forestry can be used to achieve hazard reduction without excessive costs if spatial aspects of fire spread are taken into account.

Wildfire Management in the United States: The Evolution of a Policy Failure

AbstractWildland fires constitute a major crisis in American environmental policy, a crisis created by a longstanding policy failure. This article explores the political processes that generated and reinforced this policy failure over time. The concepts of bounded rationality, punctuated equilibria, and self‐ reinforcing mechanisms are applied to study the evolution of American wildfire policy between 1905 and the present. This study finds that a self‐defeating wildfire suppression policy was established in the period 1905 through 1911, and subsequently reinforced for more than five decades. This policy did not include a complementary program to counteract the gradual accumulation of flammable organic materials (fuels) that occurred in many ecosystems when fires were suppressed. The resulting fuel accumulations have greatly increased the risk of damaging, high‐intensity wildfires in a range of American wildlands. A combination of fire suppression and fuel reduction programs will be needed to manage this risk in the future.

A willingness-to-pay function for protecting acres of spotted owl habitat from fire

A contingent valuation survey was used to estimate the economic value to California and New England residents of implementing a fire management plan to reduce acres of old growth forests that burn in California and Oregon. Using a random effects probit model to account for the panel nature of the data, the average willingness to pay to reduce catastrophic fire on 2570 acres was $56 per household. Since acreage of habitat protected is a statistically significant variable in the willingness-to-pay function, this function can be used by managers to evaluate the incremental benefits of different fire management plans that reduce additional acres burned. These benefits can serve as justification for funding of prescribed fire and fuel reduction programs to protect critical habitat of the Northern and California Spotted Owl.