...About 300 miles away from Kolden’s office at the University of Idaho in Moscow, is the Boise office of the US Geological Survey (USGS)’s Western Geographic Science Center and the base of Jason Kreitler, a USGS research geographer. Like Kolden, Kreitler has spent considerable time thinking about the policies that shape wildland fire management. However, Kreitler is examining the problem with a different lens, using economics and social science.
Kreitler explains his research focus like this: “We have fixed budgets for most, if not all, of our public land management, so the question is, how do we optimize the use of those funds to best meet our conservation goals, like protecting biodiversity or ecosystem services? I hate to use buzzwords, but it’s really how can we manage our public lands in a more ‘holistic’ way?” As Kreitler’s research is showing, one key tactic is to incorporate costs into fuel treatment planning. Although it’s not common practice, incorporating costs can substantially increase returns on fuel treatment expenditures....
