Wildfires are more apt to start in -and spread from- private lands, than public lands, according to a new Oregon State University study.
OSU researchers reviewed over 22,000 fires across 11 states, between 1992 and 2019. Their findings challenge a recurring narrative, of wildfires sparking on remote public land, then spreading toward communities.
OSU College of Forestry professor, Chris Dunn, said they also looked at 91 fires that each destroyed more than 50 buildings.
“We wanted to understand: were those fires coming off U.S. Forest Service land, or were they coming off of other jurisdictions?" explained Dunn. "And even in that sense, we found that only 25% of the fires impacting communities at that level were coming off of public lands. The majority of those were human caused.”
Dunn says it’s important private land owners do their part to help offset large wildfires, through fire resistant materials and landscaping.
“The reality of what we see with the ignition sources coming off of private land by people, particularly those impacting the communities…is that they have to take some ownership over this. And really operate in that shared responsibility to address the wildfire risk across all of our landscapes.”
The study was partially funded by the Forest Service and appears in this week’s issue of Nature Scientific Reports.
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