The “Wildland Urban Interface” is often referred to as the WUI (rhymes with “Louie”). According to the U.S. Fire Administration, it describes the “area or zone where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland.” Across the United States, the WUI is growing rapidly, about 2 million acres per year. 

Wildfire Risk in the WUI

Wildfires in the WUI pose the greatest risk to homes and communities due to the proximity of flammable vegetation and structures. Between 2002 and 2016, an average of over 3,000 structures per year were lost to WUI fires in the United States. 

As the line between developed and undeveloped areas blurs, WUI fires will continue to become a more severe problem for our communities. Firefighting agencies, already stretched thin during ever-lengthening fire seasons, will be challenged to protect homes and structures from wildfire. Accordingly, actions taken before fire season are critical. Agencies charged with managing these lands must meaningfully engage with the public and adhere to the best available science for mitigating the future risk of wildfire to communities. That means retaining mature and old-growth forests, not replacing them with dense young timber plantations.

Logging the WUI can increase fire hazard

KS Wild works with our partners to reduce fire hazard in the WUI through small-diameter thinning and utilization of prescribed fire. We also seek to prevent the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from replacing fire-resilient large diameter trees with young tree plantations. 

“Artificial regeneration” or “regeneration harvest” is colloquially known as “clear cutting”. This forestry practice involves clearing mature forest canopy and trees from an area and replacing them with new timber crop. This unfortunately-common management choice results in second-growth, dense stands of small, homogenously-aged trees.  The conversion of native forest stands into young tree plantations significantly increases fire hazard for decades. This is because tree plantations are “extremely flammable” due to the high density of small-diameter trees per acre and are more susceptible to intense fire behavior and severe fire effects than unlogged mature forests (including mature forests that have burned). 

These commercial logging operations also increase fire danger in the short term. “Residual activity fuels” associated with timber management (aka slash or cull piles) are large mounds comprised of tree limbs and debris left over from the timber harvest. Slash piles left on the forest floor unsurprisingly have the potential to increase fire hazard in these areas. The fire risk of new slash piles is compounded when old slash piles from previous timber harvests in the same location are not properly treated. 

The Lost Antelope Timber Sale

In 2020, the Medford District BLM initiated planning for the Lost Antelope timber sale. Much of Lost Antelope was proposed to take place in the WUI zone near homes, ranches, and farms in the vicinity of Lost Creek. It was also located directly adjacent to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

The BLM identified “fire hazard reduction” as the project’s purpose and need but proposed commercial harvest as the best method to achieve it. KS Wild immediately began raising concerns about the effects of regeneration harvest and the increased fire hazard that would result. Had the timber sale been logged, 131 acres near or within the WUI would have undergone clearcutting and regeneration. 

The BLM’s own Environmental Analysis acknowledged that the proposed logging would increase fire hazard in “regeneration harvesting” logging units within and near the WUI in both the short term and long term; yet they refused to reconsider the logging proposal. Additionally, the BLM refused to take a hard look at the likely results of the proposed logging. Instead, the project relied on a nonspecific fire risk and hazard analysis conducted in 2016. Through KS Wild’s on-the-ground analysis we learned that areas proposed for regeneration involved the removal of many large trees. We also witnessed numerous slash piles from a previous timber sale still sitting there untreated. Following our field observations, KS Wild and our allies filed suit in federal court challenging the BLM’s Lost Antelope decision and timber sale. 

The good news: as of March 10, 2022, the BLM withdrew the Lost Antelope old-growth timber sale! 

The bad news: it’s likely not over yet. While we won this round, a new Lost Antelope decision is expected in the future. Stay tuned! 

Learn more about the WUI in Episode 3: Communities at Risk from KS Wild’s podcast One Foot in the Black.

Hear stories from people impacted by wildfire in the WUI, along with what communities are doing to protect themselves in the face of wildfire.