Wildfire risk to people and homes is increasing. While climate change and decades of fuel buildup have exacerbated wildfires, ongoing home development in wildfire-prone lands is also increasing wildfire risks to communities. Building a home with wildfire in mind can increase a home’s survivability. Using wildfire-resistant building materials in the construction of a home can reduce vulnerabilities and opportunities for ignition. Additionally, managing the vegetation immediately surrounding the home, known as the home ignition zone, reduces the potential for a home to ignite during a wildfire. In areas with high wildfire hazard, land-use planning can reduce wildfire risks to homes and communities by requiring new developments to comply with wildfire-resistant design and construction techniques. Wildland fire occurs naturally in almost all vegetated ecosystems across North America, to varying degrees of frequency and intensity, and generally is considered beneficial to most ecosystems. Before European settlement, fire was used by Native Americans as a tool to support sustainable forests, agricultural lands, and wildfire hunting habitats. Frequent wildland fires kept forest landscapes open and healthy from the longleaf pine forests of the South to the ponderosa pine woodlands of the West. Historically, wildland fires in many landscapes were cool and low to the ground, rarely entering treetop canopies and burning entire forests.

Keywords: Wildfires, America, forests

Source: https://wildfirerisk.org/reduce-risk/land-use-planning/Links to an external site.

By: Mandy Mckenzie