Skip to Main Content
U.S. Forest Service
Caring for the land and serving people

United States Department of Agriculture

Home > Search > Publication Information

  1. The effect of newspaper coverage and political pressure on wildfire suppression costs

    Share via EmailShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInShare on Twitter
    Dislike this pubLike this pub
    Author(s): Geoffrey H Donovan; Jeffrey P Prestemon; Krista Gebert
    Date: 2011
    Source: Society and Natural Resources 24(8):785-798
    Publication Series: Scientific Journal (JRNL)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08941921003649482
    PDF: Download Publication  (81.53 KB)

    Description

    Controlling wildfire suppression expenditures has become a major public policy concern in the United States. However, most policy remedies have focused on the biophysical determinants of suppression costs: fuel loads and weather, for example. We show that two non-biophysical variables—newspaper coverage and political pressure—have a significant effect on wildfire suppression costs. Hausman tests showed that newspaper coverage and fire size were endogenous, so regression models were estimated using two-stage least squares. We suggest a number of non-biophysical policy remedies that may be able to reduce wildfire suppression expenditures more cost-effectively than traditional biophysical remedies such as fuel management.

    Publication Notes

    • You may send email to pubrequest@fs.fed.us to request a hard copy of this publication.
    • (Please specify exactly which publication you are requesting and your mailing address.)
    • We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
    • This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

    Citation

    Donovan, Geoffrey H; Prestemon, Jeffrey P; Gebert, Krista. 2011. The effect of newspaper coverage and political pressure on wildfire suppression costs. Society and Natural Resources. 24(8):785-798.

    Cited

    Google Scholar

    Keywords

    endogeneity, forestry, media coverage, political influence

    Related Search

    XML: View XML
Show More
Show Fewer
Jump to Top of Page
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/38985