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RESEARCH ARTICLE: Using GIS to Inform a Debate: Land Ownership Patterns and Prioritizing Wildfire Management Options in the Backcountry or near Communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2007

Michael J. Medler
Michael J. Medler
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Studies, Huxley College, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington
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Abstract

To prevent wildfires from damaging communities in the American West, many federal wildfire hazard reduction projects in the United States target fuel reduction on federal lands. Current federal policies stress efforts in the 77 million hectares of federally owned land considered to be in need of fuel reduction treatment. There is considerable debate, however, about whether this is more effective than fuel reduction efforts focused directly on the wildland-urban interface around communities. The project reported here uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to help provide spatial context and illustrate the approximate relative scales of the options involved. GIS was used to determine ownership patterns of lands in 500 meter buffers around all areas designated by the US Census as populated places in the 11 western states and to determine the amount of federal land most in need of treatment within these buffers. Within these 500 meter buffers, 68% of the lands are privately owned. Only 17.7% of the lands within the buffers are federal lands, while only 15%, or 310,771 hectares, of the buffers are both federally owned and considered to be most in need of treatment. A conclusion is drawn that targeting federal lands for fuel reduction may not sufficiently protect certain communities from wildland fire.

Environmental Practice 9:112–118 (2007)

Type
FEATURES & REVIEWS
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2007 , pp. 112 - 118
Copyright
© 2007 National Association of Environmental Professionals

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