Human ignitions on private lands drive USFS cross-boundary wildfire transmission and community impacts in the western US

Wildfires in the western United States (US) are increasingly expensive, destructive, and deadly. Reducing wildfire losses is particularly challenging when fires frequently start on one land tenure and damage natural or developed assets on other ownerships. Managing wildfire risk in multijurisdiction...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 2624 - 14
Main Authors: Downing, William M., Dunn, Christopher J., Thompson, Matthew P., Caggiano, Michael D., Short, Karen C.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 15.02.2022
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
631/158/2465
704/4111
Environmental risk
Forest & brush fires
Humanities and Social Sciences
Land management
Land tenure
Legislation
multidisciplinary
Private lands
Public lands
Risk management
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Wildfires
Western states
United States > US
ISSN:2045-2322, 2045-2322
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Wildfires in the western United States (US) are increasingly expensive, destructive, and deadly. Reducing wildfire losses is particularly challenging when fires frequently start on one land tenure and damage natural or developed assets on other ownerships. Managing wildfire risk in multijurisdictional landscapes has recently become a centerpiece of wildfire strategic planning, legislation, and risk research. However, important empirical knowledge gaps remain regarding cross-boundary fire activity in the western US. Here, we use lands administered by the US Forest Service as a study system to assess the causes, ignition locations, structure loss, and social and biophysical factors associated with cross-boundary fire activity over the past three decades. Results show that cross-boundary fires were primarily caused by humans on private lands. Cross-boundary ignitions, area burned, and structure losses were concentrated in California. Public lands managed by the US Forest Service were not the primary source of fires that destroyed the most structures. Cross-boundary fire activity peaked in moderately populated landscapes with dense road and jurisdictional boundary networks. Fire transmission is increasing, and evidence suggests it will continue to do so in the future. Effective cross-boundary fire risk management will require cross-scale risk co-governance. Focusing on minimizing damages to high-value assets may be more effective than excluding fire from multijurisdictional landscapes.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-06002-3