By almost any measure, the past decade has been severe in terms of wildland fire in the United States. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) maintains a list of 'Historically Significant Wildfires' in the U.S. - fires that are significant in terms of acres burned, value of the resources destroyed, or lives or property lost. Of the 34 significant fires listed by NIFC, half have occurred since 1990. Many of these fires burned in the wildland-urban interface - the area where homes and other structures or human development intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels. As many structural firefighters can attest, fire protection no longer focuses exclusively on building materials and design, but must include vegetation near the structure and across the landscape. Similarly, wildland firefighters are finding that they now spend a significant portion of their resources protecting homes rather than forests and other natural assets. As observed by a ranger on the Custer National Forest in the state of Montana, 'We're not fighting fires in the woods anymore but saving houses.'