Stilly,
I'm glad you clarified that your discourse was not about public lands and roadless areas.

Of course people who own land want to be able to use it as they wish, but there are many circumstances under which we can't.  Zoning ordinances can change, building codes change, freeways are built, and sometimes an area is declared unsuitable for certain kinds of buildings.  I'm not suggesting people shouldn't "live in places we consider sacred" (though I would hope that some places that are now public recreation and wilderness areas stay such).  I'm echoing the concerns of a lot of people and public agencies that people not keep building homes in extremely dangerous places (flood plains, hurricane paths, dense forests) and then expect the public's emergency services to save their homes when Mother Nature does what we know darn well she's gonna do.
 

A lot of your suggestions for homebuilding are great.  (Why can't we use dry composting toilets of the sort used in Scandinavia?) Can you make a house--and its contents--safe from extreme fire temperatures, though?  Even if the house doesn't burn, don't some forest fires get hot enough to melt metal, plastic, etc.?

Genie