Abstract
The costs of wildland fire suppression have been rising for the past twenty years. The cause is attributable to multiple factors, and one hypothesis is that development in the wildland urban interface (WUI) significantly increases costs. Government reports indicate the link between rising suppression costs and WUI development, but there is little empirical evidence. Rising suppression costs stress federal agency budgets and can lead to reallocation of money from other management activities. Federal fire policy mandates cost containment strategies, but those strategies have proved ineffective in the WUI. Federal agencies bear the brunt of wildland fire suppression costs with little or no ability to share costs with local governments. A "jurisdictional externality," exists in that federal agencies are charged with protecting homes from wildland fires, while local governments decide where development can occur. This research analyzes fire suppression expenditures from 2002-2011 in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming using an econometric model. The model incorporates spatially explicit census data, fire perimeter Geographic Information System (GIS) data, and the Federal Register definition of WUI. It contributes to the body of literature of fire suppression expenditures and fiscal impact analysis.