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Media Coverage

Recent press coverage of research by Headwaters Economics.

 Visualizing Climate-Vulnerable Communities

Published by Investigate West on February 24, 2021

These demographic maps are identifying environmental unfairness, engaging communities, and beginning to spur the redesign of government programs to target limited government resources where they can have the greatest impact.

Related research
  • Wildfire Risk Report for every U.S. community
  • Neighborhoods at Risk
  • Wildfire Risk to Communities: A tool to understand, explore, and reduce risk
Billings Gazette

 2020 wildfire season caused most structure loss in Montana since 2012

Published by Billings Gazette on February 21, 2021

In a November 2020 article published on the Headwaters Economics website outlining the increased destructiveness of wildfires, Barrett wrote “Reporting the number of structures and lives lost to wildfire contextualizes the profound impacts felt by communities.”

Related research
  • Wildfires destroy thousands of structures each year
  • Montana wildfire risk is widespread and growing
E&E News

 New tool analyzes wildfire risk for cities, counties, states

Published by E&E News on February 11, 2021

A new nationwide tool allows users to examine how vulnerable their communities are to wildfires.

Headwaters Economics, an independent research group in Bozeman, Mont., created the tool with the Forest Service. The report uses data from the Forest Service’s Wildfire Risk to Communities program, the Census Bureau and the U.S. Geological Survey. All are continually updated.

Related research
  • Wildfire Risk Report for every U.S. community

 Fed’s New Climate Change Committee Could Help Western Communities Gauge Risk

Published by Wyoming Public Media on January 29, 2021

Rasker said Federal Reserve research is highly revered, so any conclusions it makes could help Western communities understand just how much is at stake when it comes to climate change. He said Western states need to consider things like insurance and their communities’ ability to get bonds.

“Whether it’s a preventative project, like something to deal with flooding, or whether it’s parks and open space, or building a new school, is climate change going to affect the bonding capacity of municipalities?” Rasker asked. “I think it will.”

High Country News

 How the Zoom boom is changing the West

Published by High Country News on January 1, 2021

Zoom towns are scattered across the United States, but the most popular ones seem to be small- to mid-sized, amenity-rich communities, with plenty of public land nearby, from Bend, Oregon, to Flagstaff, Arizona, along with a whole bunch of best-place-to-live-list towns. In most cases, their real estate markets were already overheated. But they exploded in the wake of the pandemic’s first wave, driving home prices to astronomical levels and putting homeownership even further out of reach for the typical working-class person.

Related research
  • Housing in recreation-dependent counties is less affordable
The New York Times

 Wealthier, Whiter Areas Are More Likely to Get Help After Fires, Data Show

Published by The New York Times on December 16, 2020

For decades, Dr. Barrett said, most of the people moving into fire-prone areas were white and well-off. But rising home costs in cities and suburbs are increasingly pushing lower-income and minority families into those areas, she said, and all levels of government need to change their fire policies to reflect that growing economic and racial diversity.

Related research
  • Wildfire and Vulnerable Populations: Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee
Daily Yonder

 Report: Rural Counties’ Being Reclassified as Urban Can Mask Their Successes

Published by Daily Yonder on December 11, 2020

Research by Headwaters Economics shows we’ve been measuring rural growth wrong. As rural counties add population, they can grow out of their rural category and take their economic growth with them. “Rural America is reported as declining in part because we no longer count as Rural those counties that grew into a Metro classification. We are measuring those counties that stay Rural which, by definition, have not grown,” stated the report.

Related research
  • Is rural America really doing so badly?
Marketplace

 How We Survive: Staving off drought and living with fire

Published by Marketplace on December 5, 2020

2020 was the worst year ever for wildfires in the United States. In California alone, more than 4 million acres burned, dozens died and thousands of structures were destroyed. And it’s increasingly clear that we’re going to have to figure out how to live with it. Kimiko Barrett is a research and policy analyst for Headwaters Economics, a think tank based in Bozeman, Montana. She said we need to rethink how we build houses, where we build them and even what they look like. 

NPR

 Rebuilding After A Wildfire? Most States Don’t Require Fire-Resistant Materials

Published by NPR on November 25, 2020

A study by Headwaters Economics found fire-resistant homes can be cheaper than traditional homes, thanks in large part to using more affordable fiber-cement siding.

Related research
  • Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs
NPR

 Millions Of Homes Are At Risk Of Wildfires, But It’s Rarely Disclosed

Published by NPR on October 21, 2020

Voluntary measures by the homeowner just aren’t going to work,” says Barrett, the policy analyst at Headwaters Economics. “One homeowner is going to do everything right, and their neighbor is going to decide not to do anything. And therefore, they’re still at risk.

 Meet the wildfire superspreaders

Published by National Geographic on October 13, 2020

According to research by the Montana-based land-management firm Headwaters Economics and IBHS, the cost of using fire-resistant building materials is only slightly more expensive—and sometimes less expensive—than using standard materials.

Related research
  • Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs

 Rural Vacation Towns Made It Through the Summer. Now What?

Published by Stateline on October 7, 2020

One indicator of outdoor recreation activity, National Park Service visitation numbers, are all over the map, said Megan Lawson, who studies rural economies for Headwaters Economics, a nonpartisan research nonprofit based in Bozeman, Montana.

“Several of them actually had higher visitation in August than they did in the previous year,” Lawson said, “which I think is doubly remarkable because they’ve eliminated most of their international visitors.”

Related research
  • Economic Impact of National Parks

 Urban wildfire: When homes are the fuel for a runaway blaze, how do you rebuild a safer community?

Published by Seattle Times on October 4, 2020

In such firestorms, many buildings are doomed by embers, which may be lofted for hundreds of yards then fall like snowflakes. These burning bits of debris find ways to penetrate interiors, which are typically filled with furniture, rugs, paneling and other volatile materials.

“Embers will exploit any vulnerability in a home — and once they get inside and ignite, it is very unlikely to survive,” said Kelly Pohl, a researcher at Headwaters Economics.

Related research
  • Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs
Forbes

 Revisiting Our 2020 Data Trends Predictions. How The Pandemic Changed Our Outlook For The Year

Published by Forbes on September 24, 2020

“All of this adds up to a situation where communities of color stand to be represented even less in the 2020 Census than they have been historically. This would be a monumental step backwards.”

Related research
  • Census response rates in communities of color
Marketplace

 Solving the wildfire paradox

Published by Marketplace on September 22, 2020

Here to talk about WUIs, building materials, fire prevention and more is Kimiko Barrett. She’s a wildfire researcher at the nonprofit Headwaters Economics. She’ll help us do the numbers on communities at risk and guide us through the “wildfire paradox” that protects homes … until it doesn’t.

NPR

 Climate Change Is Not The Only Reason For Record Wildfires

Published by National Public Radio on September 16, 2020

“When you look at when a wildfire does occur, it’s the federal government that comes in and pays for that suppression cost. So there’s this inverse fiscal incentive on what is happening at that local scale versus who’s actually paying for the wildfire costs.”

NPR

 West Coast Fires: Climate, Forest Management, Lax Rules, Plenty Of Blame To Go Around

Published by National Public Radio on September 15, 2020

“For a century and more now we’ve been intentionally excluding wildfires from the landscape in the effort to protect homes and communities,” Barrett says. “And in doing so we are aggravating the problem into the future.”

The Economist

 Wildfires will be more common in a warming world

Published by The Economist on September 11, 2020

Homeowners and contractors often assume that fire-resistant buildings are more expensive, although Headwaters Economics reckons that, for newly built houses, the costs can be comparable. And fire-safe homes often come with secondary advantages, such as greater energy efficiency, which make them cheaper over time. 

Related research
  • Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs
The New York Times

 These Changes Are Needed Amid Worsening Wildfires, Experts Say

Published by The New York Times on September 10, 2020

“Until it happens in your own backyard, you feel it’s very tangential,” said Kimiko Barrett, a wildfire researcher at Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research group. “You don’t think of wildfire risk as something that will happen to you, until it does.”

 States Are Doing What Big Government Won’t to Stop Climate Change, and Want Stimulus Funds to Help

Published by Inside Climate News on September 9, 2020

Planning is still underway to decarbonize Montana’s electricity sector by 2035 and to decarbonize Montana’s economy by 2050, he said.

“A lot of this needs to be done in recognition of the fact that [the energy transition] is already happening,” said Haggerty, noting that the task force is diverse, including everyone from conservationists to energy officials.

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