Advances in Fire Practice FALL 2009 (original) (raw)

2015

Abstract

US forests have been experiencing an escalating number of catastrophic-scale forest wildfires during the past 20 years. US Forest Service and other local, State, Federal, and Tribal government wildfire suppression costs have also escalated dramatically, to nearly 2billion/year.PreliminaryresearchindicatesthatUSFSsuppressioncostsmayrepresentonly2−102 billion/year. Preliminary research indicates that USFS suppression costs may represent only 2-10 % of the total “cost-plus-loss ” damages to burned forests, however; recent public losses attributable to major forest wildfires may total 2billion/year.PreliminaryresearchindicatesthatUSFSsuppressioncostsmayrepresentonly2−1020 billion to $100 billion/year (or possibly more). The “U.S. Wildfire Cost-Plus-Loss Economics Project ” was founded by the four authors and other interested citizen volunteers in early 2008 to better document and publicize these losses. A comprehensive peer-reviewed wildfire cost-plus-loss ledger has been developed by the authors, and funding is currently being sought to test its functionality for the 2009 fire season. This article is intended to bring the project to public attention, d...

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