Fire and the Wildland-Urban Interface

Introduction

The term Wildland Urban Interface refers to areas where forested lands meet or overlap among urban development. The Sierra Club supports reducing wildfire risk through the creation of a defensible zone directly adjacent to communities and up to half a mile into the forest.

Forest Restoration is not Community Protection

Unfortunately, many proposed federal thinning projects include forest restoration experiments miles into the wildland forest. So-called Wildland Urban Interface projects that implement highly intensive fire reduction thinning beyond a half mile into the forest, overlook the needs of sensitive species that occupy the area within or on the boundaries of the Wildlands Urban Interface.  The Sierra Club believes community protection is possible without compromising the ecological integrity of forest wildlands and the aesthetic qualities which make forest communities a desirable place to live.

For more information please download:

The Wildland-Urban Interface: Protecting Communities from Forest Fires (200 KB pdf)

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