Wildfire study shifts more responsibility to homeowners

While federal agencies are faulted in a recent study for not doing enough to reduce the fire hazard in areas where forest and chaparal wildland abuts human-inhabited communities, another study points to the greater importance of the homeowners themselves in reducing fire danger.

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2002 was supposed to cut annual fire-fighting expenses by, for example, thinning forests, eliminating ladder fuels and creating buffers, according to an Associated Press story that was circulated yesterday. However, federal agencies have fallen short of the Act's goals.

Some scientists are now saying more effort should be made to help homeowners protect their properties themselves.

"With crime, we lock our doors and we get a security system," the story quoted Tania Schoennagel, a fire ecologist at the University of Colorado. "With earthquakes, quake-proof construction is required in earthquake zones. We are not allowed to build in 100-year flood plains. But with wildfire, it's different. We don't lock our homes down to fire."

The story said research at the Forest Service's Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Montana has found that most homes that burn in wildfires are ignited by falling embers, sometimes from far away, showing that thinning forests and cutting brush on public lands is not enough.

UC Berkeley fire science professor Scott Stephens agreed that more needs to be done on private land.

"No fuel treatment on federal lands adjacent to the WUI (wildland-urban interface) will keep fire out," he was quoted. "Even if we treat those areas, you're still going to have embers and sparks flying."

Read more