By Brendon Bosworth
…The inability of land managers to allow wildfires to burn out naturally in Colorado is not surprising. Amongst the states in the Rocky Mountain West, Colorado has the largest portion of developed forested private land bordering public wildlands – 21 percent – according to independent nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics. New Mexico ranks second to Colorado in terms of wildland-urban interface development, with 17 percent of its interface area occupied by housing. Nine percent of Montana’s wildland-urban interface is developed, while Wyoming is least developed at just four percent…
…In a detailed analysis of daily fire suppression costs for 18 large fires in Montana during 2006 and 2007, Rasker found that when it was 1 degree warmer on average during summer the cost of protecting homes from fire doubled…
…In a 2009 report, Rasker identifies 10 possible solutions to curb the federal costs of fighting fires on the wildland-urban interface in the West. These include limiting development with local zoning ordinances and cutting federal firefighting budgets in order to shift more of the cost of wildland firefighting to local governments.
“We’re not telling people that they shouldn’t live where they want,” said Rasker. “What we’re saying is that the cost accountability simply isn’t there right now.”
