Social acceptability of fuel management in the Australian Capital Territory and surrounding region

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda R. Mylek ◽  
Jacki Schirmer
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Social Acceptability ◽  
Fuel Management ◽  
Australian Capital Territory ◽  
Australian Capital ◽  
Wildland Fire Risk

Managing fuel to reduce wildland fire risk often creates substantial public debate. Although the acceptability of various fuel management strategies has been explored in some regions, particularly North America, the social acceptability of fuel management is less well understood in other countries. This paper begins to address this knowledge gap by exploring acceptability by residents living in and near the Australian Capital Territory, Australia of three fuel management strategies (prescribed burning, livestock grazing and mechanical thinning) used to reduce wildland fire risk to life and property. All three were considered acceptable by most survey respondents. Acceptability did not vary substantially between strategies or by the location in which the strategy was undertaken. Acceptability of fuel management was associated with trust in fire management agencies, having knowledge of fuel management, feeling vulnerable to wildland fire and respondent characteristics such as previous effects of wildland fires, location of residence, gender, age, income and employment status.

scholarly journals Integrating Fire Behavior Models and Geospatial Analysis for Wildland Fire Risk Assessment and Fuel Management Planning

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan A. Ager ◽  
Nicole M. Vaillant ◽  
Mark A. Finney
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Fuel Management ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Fire Risk Assessment ◽  
Behavior Models ◽  
Wildland Fire Risk

Wildland fire risk assessment and fuel management planning on federal lands in the US are complex problems that require state-of-the-art fire behavior modeling and intensive geospatial analyses. Fuel management is a particularly complicated process where the benefits and potential impacts of fuel treatments must be demonstrated in the context of land management goals and public expectations. A number of fire behavior metrics, including fire spread, intensity, likelihood, and ecological risk must be analyzed for multiple treatment alternatives. The effect of treatments on wildfire impacts must be considered at multiple scales. The process is complicated by the lack of data integration among fire behavior models, and weak linkages to geographic information systems, corporate data, and desktop office software. This paper describes our efforts to build a streamlined fuel management planning and risk assessment framework, and an integrated system of tools for designing and testing fuel treatment programs on fire-prone wildlands.

Changing fuel management strategies - The challenge of meeting new information and analysis needs

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan G. Conard ◽  
Timothy Hartzell ◽  
Michael W. Hilbruner ◽  
G. Thomas Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Fuel Management ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Ecological Principles ◽  
In Fire

This paper was presented at the conference ‘Integrating spatial technologies and ecological principles for a new age in fire management’, Boise, Idaho, USA, June 1999 ‘The earth, born in fire, baptized by lightning since before life"s beginning, has been and is a fire planet.’ E.V. Komarek Attitudes and policies concerning wildland fire, fire use, and fire management have changed greatly since early European settlers arrived in North America. Active suppression of wildfires accelerated early in the 20th Century, and areas burned dropped dramatically. In recent years, burned areas and cost of fires have begun to increase, in part due to fuel buildups resulting from fire suppression. The importance of fire as an ecosystem process is also being increasingly recognized. These factors are leading to changes in Federal agency fire and fuels management policies, including increased emphasis on use of prescribed fire and other treatments to reduce fuel loads and fire hazard. Changing fire management strategies have highlighted the need for better information and improved risk analysis techniques for setting regional and national priorities, and for monitoring and evaluating the ecological, economic, and social effects and tradeoffs of fuel management treatments and wildfires. The US Department of Interior and USDA Forest Service began the Joint Fire Science Program in 1998 to provide a sound scientific basis for implementing and evaluating fuel management activities. Development of remote sensing and GIS tools will play a key role in enabling land managers to evaluate hazards, monitor changes, and reduce risks to the environment and the public from wildland fires.

scholarly journals Assessing Wildland Fire Risk Transmission to Communities in Northern Spain

Forests ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fermín Alcasena ◽  
Michele Salis ◽  
Alan Ager ◽  
Rafael Castell ◽  
Cristina Vega-García
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Wildland Fire Risk

scholarly journals Managing the Wildland–Urban Interface in the Northeast: Perceptions of Fire Risk and Hazard Reduction Strategies

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Blanchard ◽  
Robert L. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Pine Barrens ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Hazard Reduction ◽  
Mechanical Removal ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Wildland Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Hazard Reduction

Abstract Much of the recent work in reducing wildland fire danger has occurred in the western and southeastern United States. However, high-risk areas do exist at the wildland–urban interface areas in the Northeast and very little work has been done to understand the fire management issues in this region. Therefore, this study used a survey of residents and landowners within the Plymouth Pine Barrens of southeastern Massachusetts to assess community members' perceptions of wildland fire risk and hazard reduction strategies. The research results indicate that residents have a low perception of wildland fire risk but support the use of fire hazard reduction strategies, including prescribed fire, mechanical removal of trees and brush, and construction of firebreaks. Previous experience with wildland fire was a major factor influencing respondents' perception of fire risk. Furthermore, participants' knowledge about specific fuel treatments positively influenced their support for those treatments. Overall, respondents believe that actions should be taken to reduce fire hazard within the study area and would like to be involved in the development of fire hazard reduction plans.

Cost effectiveness of fire management strategies in southern Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 427 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. D. Penman ◽  
B. A. Cirulis
Keyword(s):  
Risk Analysis ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Bayesian Decision ◽  
Fire Simulation ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Increased Risk

Fire-management agencies invest significant resources to reduce the impacts of future fires. There has been increasing public scrutiny over how agencies allocate fire-management budgets and, in response, agencies are looking to use quantitative risk-based approaches to make decisions about expenditure in a more transparent manner. Advances in fire-simulation software and computing capacity of fire-agency staff have meant that fire simulators have been increasingly used for quantitative fire-risk analysis. Here we analyse the cost trade-offs of future fire management in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and surrounding areas by combining fire simulation with Bayesian Decision Networks. We compare potential future-management approaches considering prescribed burning, suppression and fire exclusion. These data combined costs of treatment and impacts on assets to undertake a quantitative risk analysis. The proposed approach for fuel treatment in ACT and New South Wales (NSW) provided the greatest reduction in risk and the most cost-effective approach to managing fuels in this landscape. Past management decisions have reduced risk in the landscape and the legacy of these treatments will last for at least 3 years. However, an absence of burning will result in an increased risk from fire in this landscape.

Community wildfire protection planning: is the Healthy Forests Restoration Act's vagueness genius?

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela J. Jakes ◽  
Kristen C. Nelson ◽  
Sherry A. Enzler ◽  
Sam Burns ◽  
Antony S. Cheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Varied Form ◽  
Forested Ecosystems ◽  
Healthy Forests Restoration Act ◽  
Wildland Fire Risk

The Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HFRA) encourages communities to develop community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) to reduce their wildland fire risk and promote healthier forested ecosystems. Communities who have developed CWPPs have done so using many different processes, resulting in plans with varied form and content. We analysed data from 13 case-study communities to illustrate how the characteristics of HFRA have encouraged communities to develop CWPPs that reflect their local social and ecological contexts. A framework for analysing policy implementation suggests that some elements of HFRA could have made CWPP development and implementation problematic, but these potential shortcomings in the statute have provided communities the freedom to develop CWPPs that are relevant to their conditions and allowed for the development of capacities that communities are using to move forward in several areas.

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