Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Cost-Effective Fire Management For Southern California's Chaparral Wilderness: An Analytical Procedure, Chris A. Childers, Douglas D. Piirto

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Fire management has always meant fire suppression to the managers of the chaparral covered southern California National Forests. Today, Forest Service fire management programs must be cost effective, while wilderness fire management objectives are aimed at recreating natural fire regimes. A cost-effectiveness analysis has been developed to compare fire management options for meeting these objectives in California's chaparral wilderness. This paper describes the analytical procedure using examples from a study currently being conducted for the Los Padres National Forest, and discusses some preliminary results.