— Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire (CPAW) is helping communities reduce wildfire risks and costs. Four new communities join 26 others this coming year.
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Homes & Risk
Wildfires are expensive and dangerous, and defending existing private homes near federal lands already consumes a large portion of wildfire expenses. New building near fire-prone lands will significantly increase future costs and risks.
Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs
— A new home built to wildfire-resistant codes can be constructed for roughly the same cost as a typical home.
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San Luis Valley Wildfire Risk
— Explore interactive maps of watersheds, wildfire, and the wildland-urban interface in Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
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Kelly Pohl
Wildfire, Watersheds, and the Wildland-Urban Interface in the San Luis Valley
— Partners in Colorado’s San Luis Valley are working to better understand the impacts of wildfire to communities, watersheds, and quality of life.
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Austin Wildfire and Vulnerable Populations Tool
— Identify neighborhoods where overlapping wildfire threats and socioeconomic vulnerabilities may make people disproportionately susceptible to wildfire.
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New Montana Homes Increase Wildfire Risks
— The number of western Montana homes in areas with high wildfire hazard has doubled, outpacing development rates in areas with low wildfire hazard.
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Full Community Costs of Wildfire
— Almost half of the full community costs of wildfire are paid for at the local level, including homeowners, businesses, and government agencies.
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Communities Threatened by Wildfire, 2000-2017
— The interactive map identifies frequently threatened towns and cities, including the different sizes and distances of wildfires from nearby communities.
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Communities Threatened by Wildfires, 2000-2017
— Explore all communities threatened by wildfires from 2000 to 2017.
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Wildland-Urban Interface: The Problem, Trends, & Solutions (slides)
— Slide show: The wildland-urban interface is growing and wildfires are causing cause more damage. Land use planning is an important solution.
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Communities Threatened by Wildfire, 2000-2017: Sortable Table
— The sortable table identifies frequently threatened towns and cities, including the different sizes and distances of wildfires from nearby communities.
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Assessing Wildfire and Populations at Risk
— A new tool helps the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico assess wildfire and populations at risk.
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Resilient Taos County: Living with Wildfire
— This story map provides Taos County residents with information about the ecological role of fire, the region’s wildfire risk, forest restoration projects, and emergency preparedness.
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Kimiko Barrett, Ph.D.
Tennessee Wildfires: Now Is the Time to Plan
— The wildfires that burned the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park devastated nearby communities and underscore the need to reduce the risks and costs of future catastrophic events.
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Kimiko Barrett, Ph.D.
Identifying Communities at Risk to Wildfire
— Mapping and understanding communities at risk from wildfires just became easier with a new interactive tool generated by Headwaters Economics.
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Summary: Wildfire Costs, New Development, and Rising Temperatures
— This summary highlights the major research Headwaters Economics has conducted concerning controlling fire suppression costs, state case studies, and the growth of homes in the WUI.
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Land Use Planning to Reduce Wildfire Risk
— Case studies show how five urban areas in the West are using innovative land use planning tools to adapt to the increasing risks from wildfires.
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Home Construction in the High Divide
— The High Divide region, recognized as one of the most intact biological areas in the lower 48 states, is attracting many new residents and home construction is changing the landscape.
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Wildfire Increasingly an Urban Issue
— Wildfires increasingly are threatening urban areas—often repeatedly—putting more homes, lives, infrastructure, and other resources at risk.
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Study Finds No Evidence Firewise Lowers Suppression Costs
— Study finds no evidence of a relationship between wildfire suppression costs and Firewise participation, suggesting policies should focus on other solutions to lower future expenditures, such as preventing development in high risk areas.
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Local Responses to Wildfire Risks Are Limited
— This study reviews how western communities are addressing wildfire risk, how they have responded to recent major fires, and useful lessons and public policy insights for the future.
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The Rising Cost of Wildfire Protection
— This report describes how the protection of homes in the Wildland-Urban Interface has added to wildfire costs and concludes with a discussion of solutions that may help control escalating risks and expenses.
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As Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Develops, Firefighting Costs Will Soar
— Fighting wildfires costs have averaged more than $3 billion per year, and home protection contributes substantially to this amount. The majority of the WUI in the West is currently undeveloped, but building on these lands will significantly drive up costs.
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Oregon Home Building, Higher Temperatures Drive Price Tag Ever Higher
— This Headwaters Economics study analyzes the impact of housing and climate on the costs of fighting forest fires in National Forests of Oregon.
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Northern California, Homes, and Cost of Wildfires
— This Headwaters Economics study analyzes the impact of housing and climate on the costs of fighting forest fires in the twelve national forests of the Sierra Nevada.
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Missoula County Homes at Risk in Flood and Wildfire Areas
— These two slideshows and related information use Missoula County and Western Montana to show how many homes have been built in flood and wildfire hazard areas, which are vulnerable to larger and more frequent floods and fires.
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High Divide Home Construction: 1900 – 2023
— Explore maps showing homes built in the High Divide from 1900 - 2013 plus a 2023 forecast.
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Montana Wildfire Cost Study- Technical Report
— This report examines how residential development adds to the costs of fighting wildfires, using Montana as a case study.
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