The Effect of the Wildland-Urban Interface on Prescribed Burning Costs in the Pacific Northwestern United States

Author: Berry Alison H.   Hesseln Hayley  

Publisher: Society of American Foresters

ISSN: 0022-1201

Source: Journal of Forestry, Vol.102, Iss.6, 2004-09, pp. : 33-37

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Abstract

The fire suppression policy on public lands during the last century in the United States has resulted in increased fuel loadings, necessitating the use of prescribed fire and mechanical treatments to decrease hazardous fuels and risks of catastrophic wildfire. While these practices are widespread, there is great variability in project costs, making planning difficult. Although previous studies have examined the factors that influence management costs, they have grappled with the lack of consistent and reliable data. We used the FASTRACS (Fuel Analysis, Smoke Tracking, and Report Access Computer System) database from the Pacific Northwest Region of the USDA Forest Service to identify important influences on fuels management costs. Projects conducted in the wildland-urban interface consistently exhibited higher treatment costs for both prescribed fire and mechanical fuels treatments.