Living with fire: How social scientists are helping wildland-urban interface communities reduce wildfire risk

View bulletin.

Key findings highlighted in this brief:

• Community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) are an effective way to reduce wildfire risk in the U.S. wildland urban interface (WUI), but most WUI communities have no such plan in place.
• Community support and involvement are necessary for CWPPs to succeed. WUI communities reflect a wide range of social characteristics, preventing an effective “one-size-fits-all” approach to CWPP creation.
• Scientists have identified four WUI community archetypes, which can be useful in working with individual communities to create effective CWPPs.