The Economics of Wildland Firefighting Aviation Procurement and Effectiveness

We examine two economic aspects of aviation used for wildland firefighting in the United States. First, we analyze the procurement of aviation resources by federal agencies, and how the structure of contracts influences suppression costs. Second, we highlight the lack of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of aviation and provide a research design to quantify effectiveness and the benefits of aviation use. Our analysis can inform tactical operations on individual wildfire incidents and help federal agencies develop season-long resource utilization strategies.