• Rocky Mountain Research Station
• 240 West Prospect
• Fort Collins, CO 80526
• (970) 498-1100

Public Perspectives on Wildfire Risk in the Southwest

A major focus of the study consists of examining general public, community, and individual homeowner attitudes and knowledge concerning the risks of wildfire. To this end, an edited volume, Wildfire Risk: Human Perceptions and Management Implications, will be published by Resources for the Future (RFF Press) in FY 2007. Edited by station scientists and cooperators, the volume presents cutting-edge research in the following areas:

• Examining cultural influences on reaction to wildfire risk;
• Determining scale effects for addressing wildfire risk;
• Measuring the economic value of various treatment options for risk reduction behaviors;
• Understanding homeowner attitudes about responsibility and its effect on human behavior.
• Determining the influence that values play on the individual's willingness to undertake certain actions to mitigate the risk from wildfires;
• Understanding the role of communities and institutions in determining which collective actions should be undertaken in which communities;
• Modeling spatial impacts of fuels treatment programs on human activities;
• Integrating GIS mapping of human population influences into the decision making models.

Additional quantitative information on response to wildfire risk is being gathered by means of a questionnaire survey administered to a randomly selected regional sample. OMB approval for the survey was received in July, 2006. The questionnaire covers topics such as 1) attitudes and preferences toward wildfire and fire management alternatives for public lands, 2) risk reduction behaviors that homeowners and individuals have undertaken to minimize wildfire risk, 3) sources of information regarding wildfires and wildfire risk reduction, and 4) socio-economic information.

This body of data is being used by Forest Service managers, as well as other land managers and researchers, to understand and work with individuals and communities concerning both wildfire and prescribed fire risks. Understanding public desires and concerns relating to fire management is crucial to successful project implementation. Additional information on the project can be found at www.irsolutions.net/beta/ and in Environmental Hazards 6 (2005): 115-122, "The importance of traditional fire use and management practices for contemporary land managers in the American Southwest."