Jennifer Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management and Policy, presented a fuel treatments database project in October at the Fall Fire Review, an annual event convened by the Alaska Wildland Fire Coordinating Group (AWFCG), the body that oversees fire management in the state.
Reducing the amount of combustible material available to a wildfire is key to its containment. Treatments include mechanical thinning of vegetation and controlled burns.
Many different agencies create these fuel treatments – also known as fuel breaks – around the state. Being able to see them all on one ArcGIS online map is a valuable tool for wildfire responders, managers, researchers, city planners and the public.
Schmidt and her team started building the database with a resource from the Division of Forestry, which had laid a solid foundation for tracking fuel treatments. They added to it by gathering datasets from numerous agencies and communities. The information includes 44 years of fuel treatments in Alaska, so Schmidt’s team also used recent aerial imagery to see if they are still visible.
“We wanted to create something that could be used when responding to wildfires, or when planning future fuel mitigation activities,” she said.
The database is available as an online layer that agencies or land managers can add to their existing ArcGIS views. Viewers can browse a map view or a review database list of fuel treatments by criteria such as name, status, type and year. “This is a living database,” noted Schmidt. “Updates will be an ongoing process including, adding over 400 federal fuel treatments.”
Agencies that contributed to this project include the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Municipality of Anchorage, Tanana Valley Chiefs Conference (TCC), Chugachmiut, and BLM.
