I note that you didn't try to 'add it up' - but we get the picture! And, this is what has currently been quantified. What of less tangible (or intangible) factors such as pressure on or loss of species or habitat...I suspect your post would get a LOT longer!!!
Here's a few more for you: the 'environmental cost' in $ per hectare of five major Australian fire seasons including Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday: about $1000 per hectare. This includes water supply, nutrient cycling, climate regulation and recreation. Fascinating study by Stephenson et al. over 10 years ago that is still relevant today. https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2012.7034
Then we have Pausas and Keeley, two luminaries of the field, who in 2019 argued that wildfire itself can be considered an ecosystem service (they don't go so far as to put a dollar value on it). As they put it, "Wildfires generate open habitats that enable the evolution of a diversity of shade-intolerant plants and animals that have long benefited humans. There are many provisioning, regulating, and cultural services that people obtain from wildfires, and prescribed fires and wildfire management are tools for mimicking the ancestral role of wildfires in an increasingly populated world." https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2044
I note that you didn't try to 'add it up' - but we get the picture! And, this is what has currently been quantified. What of less tangible (or intangible) factors such as pressure on or loss of species or habitat...I suspect your post would get a LOT longer!!!
thanks Patrick. You are correct.
Here's a few more for you: the 'environmental cost' in $ per hectare of five major Australian fire seasons including Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday: about $1000 per hectare. This includes water supply, nutrient cycling, climate regulation and recreation. Fascinating study by Stephenson et al. over 10 years ago that is still relevant today. https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2012.7034
Then we have Pausas and Keeley, two luminaries of the field, who in 2019 argued that wildfire itself can be considered an ecosystem service (they don't go so far as to put a dollar value on it). As they put it, "Wildfires generate open habitats that enable the evolution of a diversity of shade-intolerant plants and animals that have long benefited humans. There are many provisioning, regulating, and cultural services that people obtain from wildfires, and prescribed fires and wildfire management are tools for mimicking the ancestral role of wildfires in an increasingly populated world." https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2044