Reply to Fitzsimmons: Transparency needed in defining fire-mitigation effort near the wildland–urban interface

2009 
We appreciate the perspectives provided by Fitzsimmons (1) in response to our recent PNAS paper (2). The goal of our study was to provide an independent, methodologically transparent spatial analysis of fuel-reduction treatments, using data provided directly by federal agencies, in order to quantitatively assess the degree to which treatments have been located near the wildland–urban interface (WUI). A critical aspect of our work is that we applied a quantitative definition of the WUI based on census data—listed in the January 4, 2001 Federal Register (3). This yielded results consistent with the only other census-derived WUI map that spans the West (4). A quantitatively defined WUI offers a defensible, objective way to assess fire-mitigation effort and to better target the WUI zone across agencies, regions, and legislative authorities.
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