1 / 14

High Park Fire Evacuees: Wildfire Experience, Attitudes and Mitigation Efforts

High Park Fire Evacuees: Wildfire Experience, Attitudes and Mitigation Efforts. Patty Champ U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station pchamp@fs.fed.us Hannah Brenkert -Smith University of Colorado Institute of Behavioral Science.

sun
Download Presentation

High Park Fire Evacuees: Wildfire Experience, Attitudes and Mitigation Efforts

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. High Park Fire Evacuees: Wildfire Experience, Attitudes and Mitigation Efforts Patty Champ U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station pchamp@fs.fed.us Hannah Brenkert-Smith University of Colorado Institute of Behavioral Science

  2. Why do homeowners choose (or not) to mitigate wildfire risk on their property? 2007 Survey of Homeowners who live in fire prone areas • Random sample of Boulder & Larimer County WUI households • Survey developed in collaboration with Boulder and Larimer County wildfire experts. • Funding for study from Boulder & Larimer Counties • 747 completed household surveys (728 usable)

  3. 2010 Fire season • Fourmile Canyon Fire • 6-16 Sept • 6179 acres • 169 structures • 4086 parcels • Reservoir Road Fire • 12-16 Sept • 710 acres • 350 homes evacuated • 2 structures • PeewinkMtn Fire • 17 Sept • 10 acres • 465 homes evacuated • Dome Fire • 29 October • 144 acres • 1600 homes evacuated

  4. In addition: • Wildfire education programs at state, county, and local fire department levels • Community Wildfire Protection Plans • New residents moving to WUI areas of Colorado

  5. Fall 2010 • Re-survey respondents to 2007 survey • Changes in attitudes? Changes in efforts to reduce wildfire risk? • Today…describe the responses to 2007 and 2010 surveys of the individuals who were evacuated by the High Park Fire (n=37)

  6. Fire Experience

  7. How much do you think the following factors contributes to the chances of a wildfire damaging your property in the next 5 years?

  8. How concerned are you about wildfire damaging or affecting….

  9. If there is a wildfire on your property, how likely is it that….

  10. Vegetative Fuels reduction measures Dspace30: Limb, Thin, Branch, Leaf, Mow Dspace100: Limb, Thin, Branch, Leaf, Mow

  11. Structural mitigation measures Structural: Roof, siding, stairs, deck, rock perimeter, screens, number

  12. High Park Fire evacuees report taking action to reduce wildfire risk

  13. Source of information about wildfire risk

  14. What does this all mean? • Counter to some conventional wisdom…. • The individuals affected by the High Park Fire were not ignorant about the risk. • Between 2007 and 2010 an increased awareness of the wildfire risk associated with vegetation on own and neighbors’ properties • They were taking action to mitigate the risk • Not all sources of information about wildfire risk are equal

More Related