Welcome to the I-Zone

To some it is a paradise, where the air is clean and big city ills are far away. Others recognize the potential nightmare as thousands of people move into the wildlands, an environment subject to unpredictable but inevitable wildfire.

Welcome to the wildland/urban interface or intermix, a.k.a. the I-Zone. This is the place where flammable vegetation and flammable human structures meet. And, with a larger number of people moving into these areas, any wildland fire has a greater potential of causing harm to homes and structures.

The costs and frequency of wildland fires are increasing. After decades of fire suppression, the fuel load in many forests is at an unhealthy level. This increases the danger of catastrophic wildfire while the growing population makes any fire more difficult to control. The worst wildfires in California’s history have occurred since 1980, and more than 60 percent of the homes that have burned since 1923 have been lost in the last decade.

Besides concern for lives and property, there are other problems and complexities when dealing with fire in the I-Zone. Firefighters who fight structural fires have different strategies and equipment from those who fight wildland fires. In the interface, both operate at a disadvantage. Neither can do their job with the efficiency they were trained for.

In addition, fire burns without regard to jurisdictional maps. A single wildfire can affect numerous institutions, private and public landowners, city, state and federal resources. This requires separate agencies to work together to be effective.

What can be done? Any solution must recognize that wildfires will continue to burn and people will continue to move into the I-Zone. The problem is going to get worse.

The first step is to realize that this problem must be addressed, it’s not going away. A long-term solution will require an understanding of the issues, various choices and their consequences. In the meantime, there are steps that individuals, communities, and government entities can do to reduce the fire risk in their area. See page 7 for some suggestions.

An excellent resource on this topic is “How Can We Live With Wild Land Fire?” a booklet designed for discussion of these issues. Call the Forest Stewardship Helpline for this and other resources or go to the Forest Stewardship Website for information.