Skip to main content
Author(s):
Brian Danley, Jesse Caputo, Brett J. Butler
Year Published:
Compiler(s):
Editor(s):

Cataloging Information

Hot Topic(s):
Topic(s):
Fire Effects
Risk
Wildland Urban Interface
Ecosystem(s):

NRFSN number: 24672
FEIS number:
FRAMES RCS number: 64414
TTRS number:
Record updated:

While there is a large literature on how individual homeowners perceive location-specific wildfire hazard, there is only one study specific to U.S. family forest owners. Using respondents from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service's National Woodland Owner Survey of family forest ownerships in the United States, we investigate the relationship between landowners’ wildfire concerns and biophysical wildfire hazard across the contiguous United States. As a measure of long-term conditions for high intensity wildfire, we use the USDA Forest Service's Wildfire Hazard Potential Index as our key variable of interest. We test six ways of aggregating Wildfire Hazard Potential using 1-, 10-, and 100-mile (1.6, 16, and 160 km) radii buffers with linear and logistic specifications for hazard potential. Results show the log of Wildfire Hazard Potential is the best fit for modeling wildfire hazard concerns. Respondents in the western United States have a higher baseline level of concern but are not necessarily more sensitive to the hazard spectrum compared to respondents in the north. Respondents in the southern United States have a lower sensitivity to the hazard spectrum compared to respondents in the north and west. Using predicted probabilities at the means, we also compute regional prevalence ratios to compare the impact of biophysical wildfire hazard to the relative impact of other important variables. Various property and owner characteristics not related to biophysical hazard potential, such as emotion, receiving information about wildfire, and the presence of a house on the property are determinants of wildfire concern in some, but not all regions of the United States.

Citation

Danley, Brian; Caputo, Jesse; Butler, Brett J. 2022. A burning concern: family forest owner wildfire concerns across regions, scales, and owner characteristics. Risk Analysis 42(5):1056-1072. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13816https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13816

Access this Document

Treesearch

publication access with no paywall

Check to see if this document is available for free in the USDA Forest Service Treesearch collection of publications. The collection includes peer reviewed publications in scientific journals, books, conference proceedings, and reports produced by Forest Service employees, as well as science synthesis publications and other products from Forest Service Research Stations.