JFSP_research_product_search

Project ID:

24-S-01-1

Year:

2024

Date Started:

12/18/2023

Date Completed:

Title:

Effectiveness of Fire Prevention Programs on Human-Caused Wildfire Ignitions on Tribal Lands

Project Proposal Abstract:

Fire serves an important ecological and cultural function for Tribal communities in the United States (U.S.). However, due to a history of widespread fire suppression, large and intense wildfires, which are often human ignited, can be destructive to human life and structures, as well as degrade ecosystem services. In response to the increasing frequency of human-caused fires, a wildfire prevention program was initiated across 40 tribal units in Indian Country. This program focuses on preventing unwanted human-caused fires on Tribal lands through education, enforcement, engineering, and administrative actions. While the fire prevention programs have been practiced for a long time, investigation of their effectiveness in reducing human-caused wildfires have been limited. Our proposed study will utilize a novel dataset on Tribal fire mitigation and prevention strategies over a fifteen-year period to assess possible benefits of fire mitigation strategies towards reducing number of human-caused wildfires in the Indian Country.

The goal of this project is to understand the economic effectiveness of wildfire prevention programs at reducing human-caused wildfires on the Indian Country in the United States. We aim to identify temporal and spatial effects of individual fire prevention programs on human ignitions over tribal lands by using a time series dataset.

The findings from this project will be useful in updating parameters in the WPSAPS (Wildfire Prevention Spatial Analysis and Planning Strategies) software, a web-based wildfire prevention program assessment application used by tribal stakeholders and interagency fire managers. Specifically, the findings from our model can be converted into new parameter estimates that can be used to update WPSAPS and estimate the long-run economic net benefits of wildfire prevention efforts on Tribal and other lands.

Principal Investigator:

Sonia Bruck

Agency/Organization:

Forest Service

Branch or Dept:

SRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Research Triangle Park

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Collaborator/Contributor	Jeffrey P. Prestemon	Forest Service	SRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Research Triangle Park
Collaborator/Contributor	Srijana Baral	Colorado State University	Department of Forest, Rangeland & Watershed Stewardship