Engage!

Following the devastation of nine homes in east Boise, and the death of Boise State professor Mary Ellen Ryder citizens and local governments are beginning to look at urban fire control policies. SSPA Professor John Freemuth provided some background in an article in the September 3rd edition of the Idaho Statesman.

An excerpt from that article appears below. To read the full article, visit the Idaho Statesman’s website.

In 2004, $535 million of the federal government’s $1 billion firefighting budget was spent fighting blazes away from homes and property, according to a 2006 audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s office of inspector general.

But the review found that the spending was counterproductive.

It prevents the nation, the states, local communities and homeowners themselves from taking the actions and spending the money that will really make a difference.

“The Forest Service, the Park Service, the BLM have all learned from their policy mistakes. Congress hasn’t,” said John Freemuth, a Boise State University political scientist and senior fellow at the Andrus Center for Public Policy.

Even thinning beyond 100 feet around communities, a solution popular among both Democrats and Republicans, is less efficient than creating firewise landscaping within that boundary and fire-resistant roofs, said Kelly Hawk, BLM community protection specialist and vice chair of the Wildland Urban Interface Working Team at the National Interagency Fire Center.

Without aggressive community firewise programs, Hawk said, “we likely will not see statistically significant improvement in wildfire-related structure loss trends over time.”

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