Strategies for and Barriers to Public Adoption of Fire Safe Behavior 1

A recent survey of people living in wildland-urban intermix neighborhoods in a portion of the Sierra-Cascade foothills identified perceptions of defensible space that block its rapid and widespread adoption. A companion survey described communication channels used by residents to acquire information about landscaping and identified opinion leadership characteristics. Neither lack of awareness of the wildfire threat, lack of basic knowledge of defensible space, nor skepticism about defensible space effectiveness were a barrier to adoption of wildfire defenses by property owners. Perceived costs and labor requirements, lack of specific knowledge about how to do the required work, lack of time or assistance to do the work, and the difficulty of disposing of large amounts of brush generated in the initial conversion to defensible space were serious barriers. Biomass harvesting was experimented with to dispose of brush and to cover some of the costs of initial conversion. Social marketing and community organization methods were used to promote and carry out the project. The approach proved effective. Results showed excellent promise for the use of biomass harvesting in thickly settled subdivisions. In spite of years of effort to encourage the adoption of defensible space—a safe zone that protects a structure from fire—only a relatively small proportion of wildlandurban intermix residents have changed their landscapes to help protect their properties from wildfire. Even more rare are entire neighborhoods and communities protected by strategic wildfire defense preparations. The annual drama of flames, ashes, and despair broadcast on California primetime television and featured on the front pages of newspapers from the smallest weekly to national circulation giants regularly alerts residents to the potential danger. Clearly other barriers must block widespread public adoption of