As populations expand in the South, human influences on southern forests are increasing. As a result, the goods, services, and management of its forests are changing. Such areas of rapid change commonly are referred to as the wildland-urban interface. Although the interface has been variously defined, perhaps the most common definition is that of an area of urban sprawl where homes and other development press against the boundaries of public or private wildlands or rural areas. From a natural resource perspective, the interface is an area where increased human influence and land use conversion are changing natural resource benefits and management.
Natural resource professionals currently have limited skills, information, and tools necessary to address the challenges of managing resources in the wildland urban interface. Local policymakers, planners, and homeowners need scientific information packaged in user-friendly, easily accessible formats for informed decision making. The Southern Research Station and the Southern Region of the USDA Forest Service, in cooperation with the Southern Group of State Foresters, conducted the assessment to identify and better understand factors driving social and ecological changes within the wildland urban interface, as well as the consequences of such changes.
The assessment considers a geographical area that includes 13 southern states from Virginia to Texas. Although the South differs in many ways from other regions—in climate, vegetation, land ownership, and culture—most of the broad findings of this assessment will be applicable to other regions of the United States and around the world.
