A new study backs up the idea that learning to manage wildfires, while still allowing them to play their natural roll in the ecosystem is more beneficial than preventing them altogether.
The finding suggest government-sponsored firefighting and land use policies encourage development on hazardous landscapes, increasing human loss over time, The University of California, Berkeley reported.
"We don't try to 'fight' earthquakes - we anticipate them in the way we plan communities, build buildings and prepare for emergencies. We don't think that way about fire, but our review indicates that we should," said lead author Max Moritz, Cooperative Extension specialist in fire at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources. "Human losses will only be mitigated when land-use planning takes fire hazards into account in the same manner as other natural hazards, like floods, hurricanes and earthquakes."
The researchers' analysis looked at different kinds of natural fires in various ecosystems to determine how public fire response can differ in these scenarios. They also analyzed the critical interface zones between built communities and natural landscape. The team found "infinite variations" in how these factors worked together.
"It quickly became clear that generic one-size-fits-all solutions to wildfire problems do not exist," Moritz said. "Fuel reduction may be a useful strategy for specific places, like California's dry conifer forests, but when we zoomed out and looked at fire-prone regions throughout the Western United States, Australia and the Mediterranean Basin, we realized that over vast parts of the world, a much more nuanced strategy of planning for coexistence with fire is needed."
The researchers recommended turning to location-specific approaches in fire prone areas such as: adopting new land-use regulations and zoning guidelines to restrict development in dangerous areas; updating building codes with fire resistance in mind/ implementing vegetation management strategies around buildings; reviewing evacuation strategies and warning systems; developing household and community plans for how to survive in a stay-and-defend situation' developing better maps of "fire hazards, ecosystem services and climate change," to better assess risk.
The researchers noted wildfires are a natural part of many ecosystems and have benefits such as vegetation regeneration (which promotes plant diversity) and sustains other ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling.
"A different view of wildfire is urgently needed," Moritz said. "We must accept wildfire as a crucial and inevitable natural process on many landscapes. There is no alternative. The path we are on will lead to a deepening of our fire-related problems worldwide, which will only become worse as the climate changes."
The findings were published Nov. 6 in the journal Nature.
