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- Info
Wildfire: Managing the hazard in urbanizing areas
| Author: |
Gardner, Phillip D.; Cortner, Hanna; Bridges, Jo Anne |
| Date: |
1985 |
| Periodical: |
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation |
| Abstract: |
Demographic trends over the past two decades indicate growth in rural communities and a preference for rural living. As a result, a new natural hazard, the urban-wildland fire, has become a land use problem of considerable proportion.Urban-wildland fires can cause extensive property damage and threaten human lives. They can also have severe impacts on soils and water quality. Severe fires strip vegetation from the land and invite soil erosion. Eroded soil eventually causes water quality problems in streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. In areas with particularly steep slopes rain on fire-damaged land creates another natural hazard-the mudflow. While these hazards have long been recognized in southern California, wildland-urban fires also occur or pose threats in pinyon-juniper ecosystems (10), southern pine forests, and grassland areas of the Great Plains. The interaction between extensively managed land resources and built-up urban uses will continue to increase, as will the number of fires. A number of policy responses have been suggested to reduce the impacts of wildland fires on the physical environment and human activities. How acceptable these policy alternatives are to the general public is another question. |
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