…”Only about 2 percent of these (naturally-ignited) fires are allowed to burn now, and the main reason is there are homes in the way,” says Ray Rasker, executive director of Headwaters Economics. “So we can’t even implement the policies we have, our fuel build-up situation is getting worse, and we’re getting more and more homes in harm’s way.…
The federal and state agencies that will pick up the bulk of the firefighting tab aren’t the ones allowing development — nor can they dictate to municipalities how they should go about their business.
“There isn’t a Forest Service or BLM person who publicly wants to talk about that,” says Headwaters Economics’ Rasker. “There’s something sacrosanct about private land that you can’t talk about.” And county commissioners? “The last thing they want to do is talk about their fair share of the cost.
“If more of the cost (of fire suppression) were borne by those who make the decisions to build, we’d see a very different pattern of development around the West.”…
A 2009 study found the state has nearly 200,000 residences in its wildland-urban interface — defined by the study’s author, Montana-based Headwaters Economics, as private forestlands within 500 meters of public forestlands. Washington’s level of development in wildland-urban areas, according to the study, is the second-highest (21 percent) among the 11 Western states.
“The threat is real,” says The Nature Conservancy’s Reese Lolley. “You go up (State Route) 410 and see houses up on the hillside and you think, ‘Really? Really?’”
Defending homes in the wildland-urban interface is by far the priciest part of fighting large wildfires, accounting for 50 percent to 95 percent of total suppression costs, according to a 2006 federal audit. The mere presence of those homes also drives wildland firefighting policy, turning many a naturally-caused fire that might otherwise be allowed to run its course — often to the long-term benefit of the forest — into one that must be suppressed to protect the houses.