Abstract:
Efforts to suppress wildfires in the past decade have become increasingly difficult. Increased
costs, threats to firefighter safety, accumulating fuel from past wildfire suppression, and detrimental
impacts to ecosystems have all been compounded by increasing populations in formerly wild space.
Although wildfire is typically perceived as a Western problem, the majority of wildland-urban interface
(WUI) land is actually in the Eastern United States (Radeloff et al. 2005). Indiana itself has 142
municipalities or census designated places that are at high risk from wildfire (66 FR 751). Many of these
WUI communities are in a nine county area in South-Central Indiana in which the Hoosier National
Forest (HNF) has landholdings. Increased development and population in this region has resulted in a
complex, parcelized landscape with intermixed private and public lands, making wildfire management
and mitigation strategies difficult for natural resource professionals. This research addresses perceptions
of wildfire and prescribed fire among residents across public/private lands within the WUI in the greater
HNF area. It utilizes GIS and key informant interviews as an analytical tool to design a random sample
mail survey to gain a better sense of residents’ perceptions of risk and their attitudes toward wildfire
management and mitigation. Study outcomes will be used to help wildfire and natural resource
professionals in the greater HNF area understand the social and physical complexities influencing WUI
residents’ perceptions of risk and develop strategies based on research findings to build adaptive capacity
among WUI residents that is specific and relevant at the local and regional level in South-Central Indiana.
