Wildfire risk planning and mitigation in northwestern California

In the coastal redwood and mixed conifer forests of northwestern California, fuel and weather conditions have produced more large wildfires every decade since fire suppression became effective in the 1930s. Current forest characteristics differ from pre-settlement conditions due to changes in land management practices. Timber management keeps forests between 0 to 100 years of age in harvested areas, producing fuel composition substantially modified from that found in late seral stands. Critical changes were also produced by seventy years of fire suppression following passage of the Weeks Act in 1911 and the Clarke - McNary Act in 1924. These federal programs funded the development of cooperative State / Federal fire suppression. Government invests millions of dollars locally each year in wildfire suppression and wildfire risk reduction, yet fires are more intense and burn larger areas today than in the pre-settlement era when native Americans periodically burned to clear brush. More people live in the woods today, expanding wildland-urban interface areas. A community-based approach, such as Fire Safe Councils, can reduce firerisk through education, sponsoring fuels modification projects, preparing emergency / disaster plans, promoting cooperation between fire agencies, and prompting improvement in fire services. This approach holds promise but may not substantially reduce the incidence of fire ignitions, large fires, or extreme fire behavior. Fire Safe Councils can complement fire agency planning efforts to reduce fire risk. Conflicting environmental laws, differing agency and landowner objectives, and the costs of treatment challenge risk reduction efforts. The community-based planning approach should reduce the loss of human life and improvements, but restoring forest ecosystems to pre-settlement conditions remains unlikely. Fire agencies should work with communities to reevaluate prescribed fire, fuels reduction, and wildland fire suppression policy towards reducing fire risk.