Managing Wildfire Risk in Fire-Prone Landscapes: How Are Private Landowners Contributing?
The fire-prone landscapes of the West
include both public and private lands.
Wildfire burns indiscriminately across
property boundaries, which means that the
way potential fuels are managed on one
piece of property can affect wildfire risk
on neighboring lands.
Paige Fischer and Susan Charnley,
social scientists with the Pacific Northwest
Research Station, surveyed private
landowners in eastern Oregon to learn
how they perceive fire risk on their land
and what they do, if anything, to reduce
that risk. The scientists found that owners
who live on a forested parcel are much
more likely to reduce fuels than are those
who live elsewhere. Private forest owners
are aware of fire risk and knowledgeable
about methods for reducing fuels, but
are constrained by the costs and technical
challenges of protecting large acreages of
forested land. Despite the collective benefits
of working cooperatively, most of these
owners reduce hazardous fuels on their
land independently, primarily because of
their distrust about working with others,
and because of social norms associated
with private property ownership.
These results provide guidance for developing
more effective fuel reduction programs
that accommodate the needs and
preferences of private forest landowners.
The findings also indicate the potential
benefits of bringing landowners into collective
units to work cooperatively, raising
awareness about landscape-scale fire
risk, and promoting strategies for an “alllands”
approach to reducing wildfire risk
Publication Date: 2013
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