Economic efficiency and risk character of fire management programs, northern Rocky Mountains

Economic efficiency and risk have long been considered during the selection of fire management programs and the design of fire management polices. The risk considerations was largely subjective, however, and efficiency has only recently been calculated for selected portions of the fire management program. The highly stochastic behavior of the fire system and the high degree of interaction among its components make it difficult to model analytically. Without fairly advance quantitative models, estimating the risk and efficiency consequences of fire management alternative was impossible.