Energy infrastructure as built environment in rural rangelands of the US Interior West

Authors: McGranahan, Devan

Submitted to: Rangeland Ecology and Management
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/3/2025
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Current maps of the wildland-urban interface--zones where natural vegetation meets or mixes with development like homes and buildings--generally do not include energy production structures like oil/gas wells and wind turbines. This study identifies over 1.2 million structures that cover nearly 1.5 million square kilometers in the US Interior West. Most of this footprint is rangeland, and very little is currently formally recognized as wildland-urban interface. Including the energy production footprint in maps of the wildland-urban interface will bring attention to the unique challenges these structures might present to wildland firefighters in rural areas.

Technical Abstract: Wildfire is occurring more frequently in areas identified as wildland-urban interface (WUI), where natural vegetation meets or mixes with the human built environment. While understanding of the spatial extent of WUI has been expanded to include rural areas and rangeland ecosystems, products that identify WUI based on the location of homes and other buildings appear to miss components of the built environment that dominate these unconventional locations, specifically, energy production structures like petroleum wells and wind turbines. This study describes the spatial distribution and density of energy production areas in the US Interior West, summarizes the land cover and current WUI designations within energy production areas, and describes historical wildfire activity within energy production areas by state. This analysis identified a 1,453,654 km^2 energy production footprint comprised of 1,218,706 individual energy production structures. Only 6% of the footprint is currently designated as WUI, and 78% of the footprint is comprised as rangeland. Four out of the five states with the largest energy production footprint have also experienced the greatest number of historical wildfire activity within the energy production areas, suggesting these structures are at risk of fast-spreading wildfire through rangeland fuels. Despite the fire risk to energy production assets and the challenges energy infrastructure might pose to emergency managers, there is a paucity of research or resources addressing these changes within rural landscapes.