The USGS Fire Science Support for DOI Lands project is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) effort to address key aspects of recent legislation concerning wildland fire on Department of the Interior (DOI) lands. The project was initiated in 2023, and work will continue through 2025. The project is comprised of four separate but interrelated tasks and is guided by the input of DOI bureau representatives and the Office of Wildland Fire (OWF). This overview page provides background on the science effort, and links below are available to explore more about each project task.
Department of the Interior (DOI) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) received a historic legislative investment for restoring fire-adapted ecosystems and building fire-adapted human communities through risk assessment and evaluation, strategic hazardous fuels management, and post-fire assessment and restoration activities. A central component of implementing these important investments in DOI landscapes is the Wildfire Risk Five-Year Monitoring, Maintenance and Treatment Plan which aims to reduce severe fire risk, prioritize fuels treatment in areas of highest risk, and leverage partnerships and collaborations at federal, state, and local scales to ensure long-term outcome-based management strategies. The provision also lays out a vision for prioritizing, planning and measuring success of the effort across agencies and with other partners. This legislation highlights the need for science to support these goals.
The USGS has significant capacity to provide the science support needed to address these priorities. The areas of USGS expertise utilized in the USGS Fire Science Support for DOI Lands project include science syntheses, characterization and modeling of fire risk and fuel treatments, monitoring of treatment effectiveness, modeling of long-term landscape resilience, and emphasis on actionable science that leverages co-developed systems to sustain the project outcomes.
Funding provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL; H.R. 3684, SEC. 40803 and SEC. 40805).
Communications and Outreach
Given the diverse management priorities of each of the DOI bureaus, this project has been developed through input from Fire Directors and fuel management and fire science staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), and the Office of Wildland Fire (OWF). The implementation of the proposed work emphasizes a coproduction model, whereby USGS Scientists and staff work closely with DOI managers, policy makers, and other stakeholders to produce actionable science that informs specific management decisions and requirements.
Status
A Science Action Plan has been co-produced with bureau representatives and funds have been allocated to science teams to begin work. Future updates will provide summary of progress, links to web pages, tools, data and publications.
Developing a series of fire science syntheses for wildland fire managers
The USGS Fire Science for DOI Lands project will develop and publish a series of science syntheses about priority topics for wildland fire managers in the DOI to increase access to relevant science and support analyses and decision-making related to wildland fire and fuels management on federal lands.
Science for Wildfire Risk
A common wildfire risk assessment or methodology among DOI bureaus does not exist. However, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service have agency-specific fire risk assessments. While those assessments meet the needs of the agencies that created them, Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and others expect DOI to have a common tool to assess risk and mitigation strategies and communicate the effectiveness of their strategy. The overarching goal of this task is to design a unified approach for wildfire risk assessments on DOI lands.
National Treatment Effectiveness Assessment Strategy
USGS is working to monitor and assess pre- and post-fire treatment effectiveness, and the long-term maintenance needs of these treatments. An enhanced modeling and monitoring framework will assess effectiveness of management actions to influence different wildfire components and improve the ability of the wildland fire and emergency management communities to protect communities, minimize economic losses and ecosystem damages, and enhance post-fire mitigation and recovery.
Expanded Burn Severity Mapping to Support Post-Fire Recovery
To support Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER), or similar teams, the USGS will expand burn severity mapping capabilities to non-federal lands and provide near real-time burn severity mapping where BAER has not been deployed.
Expanded Access to Real-Time Burn Severity Mapping
National Fuels Treatment and Post-fire Treatment Effectiveness Assessment Strategies
Developing a series of fire science syntheses for wildland fire managers
Science for Wildfire Risk
The USGS Fire Science Support for DOI Lands project is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) effort to address key aspects of recent legislation concerning wildland fire on Department of the Interior (DOI) lands. The project was initiated in 2023, and work will continue through 2025. The project is comprised of four separate but interrelated tasks and is guided by the input of DOI bureau representatives and the Office of Wildland Fire (OWF). This overview page provides background on the science effort, and links below are available to explore more about each project task.
Department of the Interior (DOI) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) received a historic legislative investment for restoring fire-adapted ecosystems and building fire-adapted human communities through risk assessment and evaluation, strategic hazardous fuels management, and post-fire assessment and restoration activities. A central component of implementing these important investments in DOI landscapes is the Wildfire Risk Five-Year Monitoring, Maintenance and Treatment Plan which aims to reduce severe fire risk, prioritize fuels treatment in areas of highest risk, and leverage partnerships and collaborations at federal, state, and local scales to ensure long-term outcome-based management strategies. The provision also lays out a vision for prioritizing, planning and measuring success of the effort across agencies and with other partners. This legislation highlights the need for science to support these goals.
The USGS has significant capacity to provide the science support needed to address these priorities. The areas of USGS expertise utilized in the USGS Fire Science Support for DOI Lands project include science syntheses, characterization and modeling of fire risk and fuel treatments, monitoring of treatment effectiveness, modeling of long-term landscape resilience, and emphasis on actionable science that leverages co-developed systems to sustain the project outcomes.
Funding provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL; H.R. 3684, SEC. 40803 and SEC. 40805).
Communications and Outreach
Given the diverse management priorities of each of the DOI bureaus, this project has been developed through input from Fire Directors and fuel management and fire science staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National Park Service (NPS), and the Office of Wildland Fire (OWF). The implementation of the proposed work emphasizes a coproduction model, whereby USGS Scientists and staff work closely with DOI managers, policy makers, and other stakeholders to produce actionable science that informs specific management decisions and requirements.
Status
A Science Action Plan has been co-produced with bureau representatives and funds have been allocated to science teams to begin work. Future updates will provide summary of progress, links to web pages, tools, data and publications.
Developing a series of fire science syntheses for wildland fire managers
The USGS Fire Science for DOI Lands project will develop and publish a series of science syntheses about priority topics for wildland fire managers in the DOI to increase access to relevant science and support analyses and decision-making related to wildland fire and fuels management on federal lands.
Science for Wildfire Risk
A common wildfire risk assessment or methodology among DOI bureaus does not exist. However, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service have agency-specific fire risk assessments. While those assessments meet the needs of the agencies that created them, Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and others expect DOI to have a common tool to assess risk and mitigation strategies and communicate the effectiveness of their strategy. The overarching goal of this task is to design a unified approach for wildfire risk assessments on DOI lands.
National Treatment Effectiveness Assessment Strategy
USGS is working to monitor and assess pre- and post-fire treatment effectiveness, and the long-term maintenance needs of these treatments. An enhanced modeling and monitoring framework will assess effectiveness of management actions to influence different wildfire components and improve the ability of the wildland fire and emergency management communities to protect communities, minimize economic losses and ecosystem damages, and enhance post-fire mitigation and recovery.
Expanded Burn Severity Mapping to Support Post-Fire Recovery
To support Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER), or similar teams, the USGS will expand burn severity mapping capabilities to non-federal lands and provide near real-time burn severity mapping where BAER has not been deployed.