As Wildfires Continue to Burn, New Maps Shows Expansion of Wildland-Urban Interface

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2015 – A new U.S. Forest Service report shows the continued expansion of housing development near forests, an area referred to as the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), with direct implications for the cost of wildfire fighting. Increasing densities of people and infrastructure in the WUI makes wildfire management more complex and requires more firefighting assets to ensure an appropriate, safe and effective response, which in turn drives up the cost of fighting wildfires.

From: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2015/09/0250.xml&contentidonly=true