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About

Background:

The SE FireMap is built to improve landscape conservation efforts and fire management. More effective spatial wildland fire tracking and a better understanding of fire patterns can benefit both public and private lands in the Southeast.

The beta SE FireMap was released in March 2021 as a final product of the Scoping Phase. Tall Timbers Research, Inc. (TTR) led this effort with support from partners and the Technical Oversight Team (including TLA, SERPPAS, and ALRI). In addition to the beta version of the SE FireMap, deliverables from the Scoping Phase included recommendations on mapping products and tools to reference, proposed methodologies, priority databases to test, and budget estimates for the next phase. The Scoping Phase was funded by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) Working Lands for Wildlife program under an agreement with the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.

In 2022, the NRCS approved a second proposal from Tall Timbers Research and the U.S. Geological Survey aimed at developing an enhanced version of the SE FireMap, with Version 2.0 expected to launch in 2025. See the SE FireMap 2.0 tab for more information.

Woman with Drip Torch (from Fact Sheet)

Objectives

  • Develop a cohesive system using remote sensing to track both prescribed fires and wildfires across the Southeast, providing significantly improved resolution over other regional and national systems currently in use.
  • Identify priority databases already in use by partners to test mapping accuracy and help train the SE FireMap toward reducing error rates.
  • Provide comprehensive coverage of both public and private lands.
  • Seek to achieve a mapping scale that balances the desire to support site-specific management decisions with the ability to ensure accuracy.
  • Coordinate continuously with fire mapping experts within the U.S. to facilitate future expansion of this project to include other regions, especially the Western U.S.
  • Deliver the SE FireMap online for public use as a decision support tool “dashboard” with standard query options, as well as spatial data and pdf map downloads, to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of fire management toward conservation, economic and public safety goals.

Importance of the SE FireMap:

Improved accuracy in the SE FireMap Version 2.0 will support better decision-making and allow wildland fire partners to work smarter together. With more precise tracking and information on historic fire patterns, fire partners will be able to reliably prioritize geographies where they ought to focus time, staff, and funding to support high-impact projects.

Fire is key to healthy native landscapes in the Southeast. It is required to keep working lands healthy, restore the longleaf pine ecosystem, support the Department of Defense’s military and training missions, conserve endangered and at-risk species, and manage wildfire risk for communities.

Documentation:

SE FireMap Version 1.0 Product Information

SE FireMap Version 1.0 Product Information

Learn more about the dataset development process, attribute descriptions, known issues, limitations, considerations, and references.

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SE FireMap Fact Sheet

SE FireMap Fact Sheet - Technical Version

This document highlights the overall SE FireMap initiative – offering a technical summary of the project’s background, development process, timeline, and objectives.

Read More…