Researchers at the University of Wisconsin says that home construction in Wisconsin’s rural areas increases risk of fire and loss of animal habitat, WPR reports.
Officials with the university have been working together with the U.S. Forest Service to look at the “wildland-urban interface,” which finds the number of primary and vacation homes being built in or at the edge of wild vegetation or lakes, which account for 10 percent of the state’s land area.
The report says that the number of primary and vacation homes is growing. “"Some wildlife respond negatively to just the light and noise and that type of disturbance. Invasive species are associated with development because the soil is disturbed and then, when landscaping happens with non-native species, they also spread," said Volker Radeloff, a UW forest and wildlife ecology professor.
