The Economics Implications of Fuel Management: Sagebrush Rangelands

1. The Economics Implications of Fuel Management: Sagebrush Rangelands Presenter: Laine Christman (UNR) For the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition and Nevada Pinyon-Juniper Joint Summer Conference July 16th, 2014 Authors: Michael Taylor, Kimberly Rollins, Mimako Kobayashi, Robin Tausch

2. Why the Great Basin? • Suffering from invasive grass and PJ encroachment • Wildfire contributes to these threats • Ecosystem changes effects costs of fighting fire, habitat, ranching, recreation values, etc. • Treatments to reduce threats • Reduce fuel loading/characteristics – lessen wildfire severity • Restore health and resiliency of the ecosystem • What is the value of these treatments? • One approach – put benefits in terms of reduced future wildfire suppression costs Introduction and Study Area Mountain Big Wyoming

3. Inputs • Treatment cost (per acre) and probability of success • FRI and cost of wildfire (per acre) • Transition time between ecologic health states • Assume a finite number of year without wildfire or treatment • Assume fire in “healthy state” is , fire in “unhealthy state” is  • Simulation Based – dynamic • Changes happen over time • Uncertainty regarding state, success, fire • Defined States of Health • Mountain Big Sagebrush • Healthy = Shrubs/ native grass or mix PJ/shrubs/ native grass • Unhealthy = Closed Canopy PJ or invasive grass dominated • Wyoming Sagebrush Steppe • Healthy = Shrubs/grass • Unhealthy = Decadent sagebrush/grass or invasive grass dominated The Model

4. Big Mountain Sagebrush (>6500 ft) STM

5. Wyoming Sagebrush Steppe (4700-6500 ft) STM

6. WSS-1 • Benefit = $272/acre (CBR = 13.3) • Tx Cost - $19.50/acres and highly successful are preventing transition • Expected wildfire cost savings = $293/acre • WSS-2 • Treatment is expensive ($205/acre) • only successful half the time • Failure moves to WSS-3 • WSS-3 • reduces wildfire suppression costs • Treatment is extremely expensive • Rarely successful Results - WSS

7. MBS-1 & MBS-2 • Only BCR greater than 1 • Cheap, successful, prevent transition • MBS-3& MBS-4 • Expensive, unsuccessful • Not a good return on investment Result Table - MBS

8. Take Home Message • Fuel treatment are cost effective for healthiest states only • Treatment costs are relatively cheap and success is relatively high • Results hold for a range of different success rates • Fuel treatment costs greater than expected wildfire costs for unhealthiest states • Once degraded, benefits reduce dramatically • Rehabilitation costs are expensive and success is relative low • Fuel Treatment Priority for a uniform landscape • Focus on lands that have not yet transitioned • WSS-1 = 13.3 • MBS-1b CBR = 9.0 • MBS-1a CBR = 5.7 Results and Conclusion

9. Thank You