Long term, cross-site comparison of socioecological preferences and constraints on unauthorized fire setting behavior using spatiotemporal variability of wildfires in and around the Coweeta and Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER sites, 1987-2010.

I analyzed the spatiotemporal variability of intentional, unauthorized landscape fires in and around the Coweeta and Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER sites for the years 1987-2010 with the aim of delineating socioecological constraints on and fire-setter preferences for the timing and placement of ignitions. Unauthorized fires represent complex phenomena through which actors compete over social and ecological outcomes that transcend the spatiotemporal confines of individual fires themselves. Current classificatory systems define unauthorized fire-setting behavior as irrational, destructive, and malicious. Because landscape fires cause both positive and negative consequences for biological diversity and ecosystems services, perceived cost/benefits of fires are contestable and relative to point of view.  Spatially explicit wildfire data from the years 1987 through 2010, show that unauthorized fires exhibit a range of spatiotemporal characteristics, and that locational and temporal clustering is not suggestive of preferences for maximizing damage to landscapes. Spatiotemporal patterns of anthropogenic landscape fires may provide insight into the human behavior responsible for such fires.