Fire-prone areas are growing faster than anywhere else in the Northwest

MEDIA CONTACT: Martina Pansze, martina@sightline.org

REPORT: The Costs of Northwest Sprawl

Northwest wildfires are larger and more destructive than ever before, thanks to increasingly arid summers, earlier snowmelt, and a century of fire suppression. Yet the region’s leaders continue to increase risk to residents’ lives and properties by allowing further development into flammable landscapes.

A new report from nonpartisan regional think tank Sightline Institute surveyed the mounting dangers and costs of growth in wildfire-prone areas:

• In all Northwest states except Idaho, population is growing fastest in the places most threatened by wildfires. As of 2023, almost 1.6 million people in the Northwest lived in wildfire hazard areas, an 8 percent increase since 2018.
• Affluent parts of Northwest fire country are growing most quickly.
• People living in relatively safe areas are increasingly subsidizing the risk of sprawling into flammable landscapes. Most northwesterners—about 80 percent—live outside high wildfire hazard zones. These communities are saddled with higher taxes for fire suppression, steeper utility rates to mitigate the risk of placing power lines in fire prone landscapes, and larger insurance premiums. 

The report recommends that policymakers  look to measures that a) stop subsidizing affluent residents choosing to build in harm’s way and b) direct limited public resources to aiding communities with few alternatives to living in fire country. They can:  

1. Redirect growth away from fire-prone areas.  
2. Ensure buildings are constructed to fire-safe standards in high-hazard zones.  
3. Encourage rebuilding in safer places after disaster strikes. 

To lay the groundwork for these transformative changes, leaders can, in the near term, daylight the truth about wildfire risk. They can:   

4. Require wildfire hazard disclosures for renters and homebuyers.  
5. Facilitate accurate home insurance pricing to account for both increased fire risk and better risk mitigation.    

“Wildfires aren’t just driven by chance and climate. Current policy allowing unchecked growth of new vacation homes, strip malls, and subdivisions into high-risk areas is fanning the flames,” said Sightline Senior Director and report coauthor Emily Moore. “The course Northwest governments choose right now will shape whether future fire seasons are marked by enormous loss or real protection.”

Read the report: The costs of Northwest sprawl

Related:

• Uncontainable Wildfires Are Inevitable. Community Destruction Is Not. | Five policy shifts could help communities harden their homes against fire danger.
• Four Ways Context Matters for Wildfire News Coverage | Reporters can help people see the forest, even when the trees are on fire.
• The Best Wildfire Solution We’re Not Using | Three ways to curb the sprawl that traps us on a wildfire treadmill.
• We’re Stuck on a Wildfire Treadmill | To escape, we need more fire, not less.

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Emily Moore is Senior Director of Sightline’s Climate and Energy program, based in Seattle. Read more of her work or reach out via email.

Ricardo Pelai is a Researcher with Sightline Institute’s Climate and Energy program, based in Vancouver, BC. Read more of his work or reach out via email.

Sightline Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank providing leading original analysis of climate, democracy, and housing policy in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, British Columbia, and beyond.