Wildland Fire Risk Assessments

NPS Wildfire Risk Assessments A consistent method that has been applied to NPS units nationwide regardless of variations in climate, fuels, and topography. The goals for the assessment effort are to: Gallery - Interact with the Data Using Customized Applications NPS Wildfire Risk Assessment Viewer This application allows users to view the Wildfire Risk Assessment dataset, including a summary of attributes and all photos associated with facilities. This is a publicly accessible application intended to be viewed in a web browser. NPS Structure Priority Dashboard NPS Wildfire Risk Assessments for Field Maps NPS Wildfire Risk Assessments Web Editing App View the outcome of an agency wide effort to prioritize NPS facilities for defensible space treatments (Desired Outcome 2A of the Wildland Fire Strategic Plan - Fire (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov).  For more information, please click here. This is a publicly accessible application intended to be viewed in a web browser. Create, view and update the Wildfire Risk Assessment dataset.  Users who need to collect incident or treatment data in addition to assessment data, should use the NPS Incident Operations or the NPS Fuels Treatment Operations Maps for Field Maps. This application is intended to be used in Field Maps on a Mobile Device. This application allows users to create, view and update the Wildfire Risk Assessment dataset. Membership in the NPS Mobile Editors group is required for access.  This application is intended to be opened in a web browser. NPS Wildfire Risk Assessment Form - Determine Fire Hazard Field crews use the criteria below to evaluate access, surrounding environment, construction design and materials, and resources available to protect facilities from wildland fire. the sum of all values is equal to the score and used to determine the assessment rating.  The resulting rating characterizes the structure's risk of ignition during a wildland fire. The form below is based on  Firewise® assessment forms. Recommendations to Create Defensible Space Maintenance of defensible space includes modifying or removing non-fire-resistant vegetation and keeping needles, leaves, and other dead vegetative material regularly removed from around structures and roofs. The code stipulates that: The need for additional clearance should be determined by the park structural fire coordinator, fuels manager, fire management officer, chief ranger, or park superintendent. The guidelines to the right, based on the IWUIC, Firewise recommendation and the state of California's Code Regulations for Fire Hazard Reduction around Buildings and Structures were provided to field crews to facilitate recommendations for creating defensible space around structures. Firewood should be moved at least 50 ft from the facility and 15 horizontal feet from tree canopies Flammable ground cover such as leaf litter, woody debris or highly flammable vegetation should be removed Clear decks, above and below, of vegetative debris Limb trees 6 to 15 feet above ground Open crown spacing 10 to 30 feet depending on slope (see chart below) Clear adjacent and overhanging fuels to create 10 feet spacing between canopy and structure or chimney openings Remove dead or dying component of shrubs and trees Mow grass to less than 4 inches Firewise Zone 2 (30ft to 100ft from structure) Open crown spacing 10 to 30 feet depending on slope (see chart below) Flammable ground cover should be removed or isolated Firewise Zone 3 (100ft  to 200ft from structure) NPS Fuels Treatment Prioritization Why Prioritize NPS Structures? National Park Service (NPS) owned structures represent a significant investment of taxpayer dollars and many have invaluable historic qualities. The NPS has an existing enterprise spatial database storing authoritative, readily accessible wildfire risk assessment data which can be used to make informed wildland fire management decisions, including how the agency can reduce risk to NPS structures using fuels treatments. Prioritizing this service wide workload will inform the allocation of fuels funds at regional and park levels to support defensible space around structures and help reduce unwanted losses from wildfires. The HIP Value The HIP value was originally created to prioritize NPS structures service wide for fuels treatments. Data from multiple authoritative sources is used to calculate a value for each NPS structure. The value represents the structure's risk from wildland fire, it's monetary value to the NPS as well as its contribution to the mission of the NPS, and the probability of a fire impacting the structure. This number is compared to all other NPS structures agency wide and the structure is given a priority rank. It is important to note, the only component of the HIP value that can be influenced by fuels treatments is the Hazard (score from wildfire risk assessment). The tHIP ValueThe tHIP value was developed in an attempt to identify which structures within the NPS Structure Prioritization are "treatable". The Wildland Fire Risk Assessment process evaluates multiple elements to produce a structure's risk assessment score. Some elements, such as accessibility and building construction materials, cannot be mitigated through fuels treatments. The tHIP calculation will look at the elements of the Risk Assessment that can be reduced by implementing fuels treatments and highlight the structures where fuels treatments can provide a benefit. *Because the minimum value of the sum of the Fuel Load and Defensible space elements in the assessment is 1 (instead of 0) we can't just divide by 38 (the max score). We need to subtract the min (1) and then divide by 37 (max-min), which will result in a true percentage. If we treat a structure (fuel load moves to 'Low' and defensible space is 'Greater than 100 feet'), the Treatability will then drop to 0 resulting in a tHIP of 0 and the structure will fall off the prioritization list. Otherwise, for example, the Old Faithful in at Yellowstone National Park will always out-rank quite a few structures because of its high importance and probability if there remains a little treatability benefit (tHIP >0), even after we have done everything we can around the structure. Adjusting the Treatability score to make it a true percentage will fix that- so once we have fully treated a structure it will result in tHIP = 0. Contact Us RegionFire GIS SpecialistEmailNPS Fire GIS Program LeadSkip EdelSkip_Edel@nps.gov AKR (DOI Region 11) Brian Sorbel Brian_Sorbel@nps.govIMR (DOI Region 5,6,7,8)Sarah Hartsburg & Craig Gallagher Sarah_Hartsburg@nps.gov , Craig_Gallagher@nps.govMWR (DOI Region 3,4,5)Kathie Hansen Kathie_Hansen@nps.govNCR, NER, SER (DOI Region 1,2,4)Justin Shedd Justin_Shedd@nps.govPWR (DOI Region 8,9,10,12)Kent van Wagtendonk Kent_Van_Wagtendonk@nps.govNIFC AGOL QuestionsWildfire Responsewildfireresponse@firenet.gov Region Fire GIS Specialist Email See the table below for your Regional Fire GIS contact. NIFC AGOL Support Request Form NIFC AGOL Account Request Form Site Updated March 2023

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