USDA Southern Research Station: A study by USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists and research partners suggests that wildfire prevention education in Florida pays for itself several times over by saving millions of dollars in fire-fighting costs and reducing damages from human-caused fires. Researchers published their findings in a recent issue of the journal Forest Science.“This is the first study to document the effectiveness of wildfire prevention education targeted at human-caused fires such as debris-burning escapes, campfire escapes, children playing with fire, and cigarettes,” said Jeff Prestemon, SRS research forester and lead author of the paper. “We found that Florida’s investments pay for themselves multiple times over in terms of suppression spending avoided and fire damages avoided.”
…Researchers analyzed data from actual wildfire prevention efforts and fires between 2002 and 2007. They found that the benefits exceeded costs in Florida’s fire management regions by 10- to 99-fold, depending on assumptions about how wildfire prevention education spending is allocated to these regions. Overall, results show that statewide benefits of wildfire prevention education efforts significantly outweigh their costs, where every dollar of additional spending in wildfire education prevention efforts could reduce wildfire damages and firefighting costs by up to $35. To put this into perspective: a doubling of wildfire prevention efforts in Florida compared to average 2002-2007 levels costing a half million dollars annually would have potentially averted over 800 wildfires and an estimated $11 million in combined wildfire damages and firefighting costs each year….
The 2007 Bugaboo fire in Florida, shot by FEMA
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