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Trade-Offs of Vegetation Management Strategies

This multi-faceted study, titled “Trade-Offs Of Alternative Vegetation Management Strategies,” is funded under Topic A of the 2001 grants under the National Fire Plan. We are also researching impacts to local economies under another grant in Topic A, and the economics of biomass removals funded by a 2001 grant from the Joint Fire Science Program.

Collaborators

• Anthony Westerling, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Phillip Omi, Colorado State University
• Douglas Rideout, Colorado State University
• Robin Reich, Colorado State University
• Marcia Gumpertz, North Carolina State University
• Marc Genton, North Carolina State University
• Robert Huggett, North Carolina State University

Objectives

What are the relative costs and benefits of using various fuel reduction and fire suppression measures? Analytical tools for evaluating these trade-offs are not currently available at a regional scale, but scientists have developed statistical models to evaluate these trade-offs. Linking cost and benefit information to alternative vegetation management strategies will improve efficiency of potential fire management programs and policies.

Products

• Prestemon, J.P.; Butry, D.T.; Abt, K.L.; Holmes, T.P.; Mercer, D.E. and J.M. Pye. 2003. Western fire ignition and area time series cross-sectional models. Presentation at the 2nd International Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management Congress, Orlando, FL, Nov. 16-20.
• Westerling, A.L.; Gebert, K.; Jones, G.; Abt, K.; Prestemon, J. and Gershunov, A. 2003. Long lead statistical forecasts of wildland fire suppression costs. Presentation at the 2nd International Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management Congress, Orlando, FL, Nov. 16-20.
• Mercer, D.E.; Prestemon, J.P.; Butry, D.T. and J.M. Pye. 2003. Optimizing prescribed burning policies to minimize the economic impacts of wildfire in Florida. Presentation at the 2nd International Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management Congress, Orlando, FL, Nov. 16-20.
• Pye, J.M.; Prestemon, J.P.; Butry, D.T. and Abt, K.L. 2003. Prescribed burning and wildfire risk in the 1998 fire season in Florida. Pages 15-26 In: P.N. Omi and L.A. Joyce (eds.). Fire, fuel treatments, and ecological restoration: conference proceedings. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Proceedings RMRS-P-29.
• Huggett, R.J. 2003. An optimal subsidy program for encouraging vegetation management by private landowners to minimize costs from wildfire. Proceedings of the 2002 Southern Forest Economics Workshop. Virginia Beach, VA.
• Prestemon, J.P.; Pye, J.M.; Butry, D.T.; Holmes, T.P. and Mercer, D.E. 2002. Understanding broadscale wildfire risks in a human-dominated landscape. Forest Science 48(4):685-693.
• Westerling, A.J.; Gershunov, A.; Cayan, D.R. and Barnett, T.P. 2002. Long lead statistical forecasts of area burned in western U.S. wildfires by ecosystem province. International Journal of Wildland Fire 11:257-266.
• Westerling, A.L., T J. Brown, A. Gershunov, D.R. Cayan, and M.D. Dettinger. 2002. Climate and wildfire in the Western United States. Bulletin American Meteorological Society 84 (5):595-604.
• Presentations at the 2002 Society of American Foresters National Convention, Winston-Salem, NC:
  • Mercer, D.E.. and others. Understanding Broad Scale Wildfire Risks in a Human-Dominated Landscape
  • Prestemon, J.P. and others. The Economic Effects of the Bitterroot Timber Salvage
• Prestemon, J.P.; Mercer, D.E.; Pye, J.M.; Butry, D.T.; Holmes, T.P. and Abt, K.L. 2001. Economically optimal wildfire intervention regimes. American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL, 2001. http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/detailview.pl?paperid=2872.
• Prestemon, J.P.; Pye, J.M. and Holmes, T.P. 2001. Timber economics of natural catastrophes. Pages 132-141 In: Pelkki,M.H.. Proceedings of the 2000 Southern Forest Economics Workshop. The School of Forest Resources, University of Arkansas, Monticello, Arkansas.
• Westerling, A.L.; Gershunov, A. and Cayan, D.R. 2001. Statistical forecasts of Western wildfire season severity. Proceedings of the 4th Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology. Reno, NV, 2002.

Contact

Jeff Prestemon

Forest Economics    and Policy

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