Return on investment from fuel treatments to reduce severe wildfire and erosion in a watershed investment program in Colorado

Journal of Environmental Management
Kelly W JonesBrett Wolk

Abstract

A small but growing number of watershed investment programs in the western United States focus on wildfire risk reduction to municipal water supplies. This paper used return on investment (ROI) analysis to quantify how the amounts and placement of fuel treatment interventions would reduce sediment loading to the Strontia Springs Reservoir in the Upper South Platte River watershed southwest of Denver, Colorado following an extreme fire event. We simulated various extents of fuel mitigation activities under two placement strategies: (a) a strategic treatment prioritization map and (b) accessibility. Potential fire behavior was modeled under each extent and scenario to determine the impact on fire severity, and this was used to estimate expected change in post-fire erosion due to treatments. We found a positive ROI after large storm events when fire mitigation treatments were placed in priority areas with diminishing marginal returns after treating >50-80% of the forested area. While our ROI results should not be used prescriptively they do show that, conditional on severe fire occurrence and precipitation, investments in the Upper South Platte could feasibly lead to positive financial returns based on the reduced costs of dredgin...Continue Reading

References

Apr 11, 2006·PLoS Biology·Paul J Ferraro, Subhrendu K Pattanayak
Oct 20, 2006·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Robin NaidooMathieu Rouget
Jul 23, 2013·Ecology Letters·Phillip J van MantgemLorriane Flint
Jul 10, 2014·Environmental Science & Technology·Kevin D BladonMicheal Stone

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Citations

Sep 29, 2020·Geosciences·Lifeng YuanKenneth J Forshay
Jun 9, 2020·Journal of Environmental Management·Stephanie K KampfLee MacDonald
Jun 9, 2021·Risk Analysis : an Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis·Benjamin M GannonKaren C Short
Jul 13, 2021·Hydrological Processes·François-Nicolas RobinneYu Wei
Nov 10, 2021·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Jeffery B CannonJennifer S Briggs

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