Drivers of wildfire suppression costs : literature review and annotated bibliography
Loading...
Files
Date
2015
Authors
Ellison, Autumn
Moseley, Cassandra
Bixler, R. Patrick (Richard Patrick)
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon
Abstract
Over the past century, wildland fire management has been core to the mission of federal land management agencies. In recent decades, however, federal spending on wildfire suppression has increased dramatically; suppression spending that on average accounted for less than 20 percent of the USFS’s discretionary funds prior to 2000 had grown to 43 percent of discretionary funds by 2008 (USDA 2009), and 51 percent in 2014 (USDA 2014). Rising suppression costs have created budgetary shortfalls and conflict as money “borrowed” from other budgets often cannot be paid back in full, and resources for other program areas and missions are subsumed by suppression expenditures. Significant policy making over the past 15 years has been designed, at least in part, to address these issues and temper wildfire costs. Effective political efforts and strategies to control public spending on suppression rely on a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the drivers of suppression costs and recent trends.
Description
40 pages