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)