National Association of Conservation Districts

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)

The Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) is the area where houses meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland vegetation. This makes the WUI a focal area for natural resources challenges that include wildland fires, habitat fragmentation, invasive species and biodiversity decline.

America’s conservation districts, working with an array of partners, are being called upon to help address these challenges. The success stories linked to this page show how districts in every region of the country are taking the initiative to address local resource issues in the interface. Often, this work is done in collaboration with other local partners, and often in collaboration with state and federal agencies.

The majority of America’s conservation districts include urban areas. Of the 1,900 conservation districts responding to a NACD’s survey, 1,450 districts said so. The actual number is higher. That’s not to say that every district with an urban area has wildland-urban interface issues, but many districts do find themselves in that situation. There’s a lot of work to be done, and districts are providing services ranging from outreach and education, technical assistance and actual hands-on work, often with the help of volunteers.

How big is the challenge? Consider these statistics from the Department of Forest Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the USDA Forest Service:

• The WUI covers nearly 10 percent of land area and 37 percent of all housing units in the U.S.
• All 48 states contain WUI, but the eastern U.S. has the greatest extent of WUI. Wildland fire issues are greatest in the West and Southwest, while invasive species issues and habitat fragmentation issues are distributed across the country.
• California has the highest number of homes in the WUI, North Carolina the most WUI land area, Connecticut the highest proportion of land in the WUI and New Hampshire the highest proportion of homes in the WUI.