RFF's Carolyn Kousky at the NYT's Room for Debate on "Does the Government Cause or Prevent Wildfires?":
... federal fire suppression efforts can act as a subsidy for development, increasing the amount of land conversion in fire-prone areas.
Communities have little incentive to restrain growth, but there may be high-risk areas where the costs of development to society outweigh the benefits. We need a public dialogue on who bears the costs and benefits of development.
Randall O'Toole takes the argument a step further:
If fire in the wildland-urban interface is a problem, it is because people have come to depend on the federal government to use extraordinary resources in suppressing fires. Instead, people should take responsibility by making their own properties fire-safe.
