FLAGSTAFF, AZ — Researchers at Northern Arizona University have developed a new nationwide database to track and improve wildfire treatment.
The Treatment and Wildfire Interagency Geodatabase, otherwise known as TWIG, compiles years’ worth of nationwide wildfire data, as well as fuel treatment records, into one interactive platform.
To create the tool, NAU’s Ecological Restoration Institute partnered with two additional Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes located in Colorado and New Mexico.
In the past, land managers have had to rely on forest thinning or other fuel treatments to reduce fire risk and promote the health of communities and forests. While still considered effective, it was extremely hard to evaluate the true impact of the treatments until the creation of the database.
See Meteorologist Ashlee DeMartino's full report on this impactful database in the video player above.
