ABSTRACT
The wildland-urban interface occurs at the urbanizing edges of cities and towns and along surviving natural corridors within urban areas. At these junctures, urban development and environmental protection appear to work at cross-purposes. Community development interests see urgent needs to accommodate a growing population and economy in pleasant neighborhoods and business centers, while conservation advocates are troubled tby the continued spread of American cities and towns into the countryside. Problems at the interface are exacerbated by our conventional low-density forms of suburban development, which consume great swaths of forests and farmlands and
threaten to degrade air and water quality. But our approaches to protecting natural qualities and features at the interface are often uncoordinated and a case of too little, too late. Unfortunately, the debate over balancing needs for urban growth with environmental protection traditionally has been framed in terms of growth vs. nature instead of growth with nature or even, as Ian McHarg argued, growth within nature (McHarg 1992).
