Wildfire: Managing the hazard in urbanizing areas

FLOODS, winds, and earthquakes are the natural hazards that most often concern natural resource managers. While they-occur naturally, damage inflicted by these hazards is influenced by community development patterns ( 7 ). Flooding in an unpopulated rural area can result in little damage. In contrast, small amounts of rain in an urbanizing area can be disruptive and produce extensive damage. Demographic trends over the past two decades indicate growth in rural communities and a preference for rural living. As a result, a new natural hazard, the urban-wildland fire, has become a land use problem of considerable proportion. Urban-wildland fires can cause extensive property damage and threaten human lives. They can also have severe impacts on soils and water quality. Severe fires strip vegetation from the land and invite soil erosion. Eroded soil eventually causes water quality problems in streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. In areas with particularly steep slopes rain on fire-damaged land creates another natural hazard—the mudflow. While these hazards have long been recognized in southern California, wildland-urban fires also occur or pose threats …