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Economic analysis of fuel treatments

Informally Refereed

Abstract

The economics of wildfire is complicated because wildfire behavior depends on the spatial and temporal scale at which management decisions made, and because of uncertainties surrounding the results of management actions. Like the wildfire processes they seek to manage, interventions through fire prevention programs, suppression, and fuels management are scale dependent and temporally and spatially dynamic. The objective of this chapter is to describe the status of research into the economics of fuels management. We review studies describing the economic question of fuel treatment choices in wildfire management. We discuss the importance of framing the questions and issues surrounding wildfire management to include influences of space and time on wildfire processes. Finally, we offer a case study that provides one example of evaluating the economics of fuel treatments.

Parent Publication

Citation

Mercer, D. Evan; Prestemon, Jeffrey P. 2012. Economic analysis of fuel treatments. In: LaFayette, Russell; Brooks, Maureen T.; Potyondy, John P.; Audin, Lisa; Krieger, Suzanne L.; Trettin, Carl C. Eds. 2012. Cumulative watershed effects of fuel management in the Eastern United States. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-161. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 294-307.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/41102