Greater Santa Fe Fireshed: Triple Bottom Line Analysis Of Fuel Treatments | 2021
The Greater Santa Fe Fireshed is an area of forested mountains and foothills directly to the east of the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, spanning 173 square miles and including a portion of the Santa Fe National Forest, as well as tribal land, residential areas, and County recreation areas. The Fireshed provides numerous benefits for the surrounding community. For example, the lands of the Fireshed support the recreation and tourism economy of Santa Fe; each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors use the recreational amenities within the Fireshed, including Ski Santa Fe, and dozens of miles of hiking trails. The Fireshed also contains diverse ecosystems including pinyon, juniper, and ponderosa pine forests that sequester and store carbon and provide critical habitat in an urbanizing landscape. The Santa Fe Source Watershed (contained within the Fireshed) provides nearly half of the city of Santa Fe’s water.
Like many forested areas in the West, the Fireshed had historically experienced relatively frequent, low-intensity fires. However, fire suppression in the 20th century has led to a buildup of fuels, and in the context of a changing climate and a growing wildland–urban interface, the Fireshed is increasingly at risk of a high-intensity wildfire. To address this risk, the U.S. Forest Service has proposed a combination of thinning and prescribed burning treatments within the Santa Fe National Forest to reduce the risk of severe wildfire across the landscape. The proposed treatments include treating 50,566 acres within the Fireshed, primarily in mixed conifer and ponderosa pine forests.
The U.S. Forest Service engaged Earth Economics to conduct an analysis of the social, environmental, and economic benefits that the fireshed provides for the surrounding community, and to explore the impact of the proposed fuel reduction treatment on these benefits. This study seeks to capture the costs and benefits of the proposed treatments to inform and prioritize fuel reduction decision-making.
This conservative analysis found that the proposed fuel treatments are estimated to generate between $1.44–$1.67 in benefits for every dollar invested in treatment. The majority of these benefits directly accrue to the Santa Fe community, through avoided air quality impacts, recreational losses, damages to structures, and source water impacts. The remaining benefits accrue to public agencies at the state and national level or to the global community (in the case of avoided carbon emissions).
Source: “Santa Fe Fireshed Landownership” (n.d.) The Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition.
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Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr Creative Commons
Funding provided by the US Forest Service.
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