Land use planning approaches in the wildland-urban interface: an analysis of four western states

This report focuses on a critical aspect of working towardscommunity fire adaptation: analyzing effective land use policy and regulatory solutions in thewildland-urban interface (WUI). The WUI is any area where the built and natural environmentscreate a set of conditions that allow for the ignition and continued spread of wildfire. Theseverity of how wildfire impacts the WUI is influenced by a number of factors, such as whereand how homes, businesses, and infrastructure are developed, weather conditions, and theamount, type, and arrangement of vegetation.Land use planning plays a role in these development decisions, and therefore can be aneffective means for reducing damage and losses in the WUI. State and local governmentsapproach WUI planning through a variety of policy and regulatory frameworks. This reportexplores four western states—California, Colorado, Montana, and Washington—to betterunderstand each state’s approach to wildfire policy and regulation, and to identify potentialopportunities for reducing wildfire risk to communities in the future.