Description

This study provides a framework for assessing the social and environmental benefits and public education outcomes associated with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management's Community Assistance and Hazardous Fuel Programs in California. Evaluations of fire hazard mitigation programs tend to focus primarily on the number of acres treated and treatment costs associated with mitigation without adequately assessing the benefits of these treatments. While some evaluations account for the value of protected structures or the avoided costs of suppression, few account for the ecosystem service value of protected natural capital. Examples include the water purification and flood abatement functions of wetlands, the hydrologic regulation functions of forests, and the recreational value of various natural landscapes. The total economic value approach to environmental assessment used in this study includes both the market-based and nonmarket values that are at risk from wildfire, particularly ecosystem goods and services. Using a decision support methodology, the data allows the BLM to more effectively quantify and account for the social and environmental benefits derived from fire mitigation treatments. Suggestions are provided for how this approach could effectively be scaled up and used at a national, regional, or Statewide level to analyze the efficacy of all BLM programs. Although this approach is currently compatible with BLM current reporting system, the assessment provides recommendations on how to augment the evaluation system so that future program elements or 'system' elements that enable (or prevent) communities to take part in raising awareness and taking action for themselves are evaluated at the broader BLM program level for the Community Assistance and Hazardous Fuel Programs in California.