Groundbreaking tool helps track and improve wildfire treatments

A new nationwide database developed by researchers at Northern Arizona University is helping land managers answer a long-standing question: Are fuel treatments actually reducing wildfire risk?

The Treatment and Wildfire Interagency Geodatabase, or TWIG, is the most comprehensive open-access resource of its kind, bringing together decades of fuel treatment records and wildfire data from across the United States into one interactive platform. The tool was co-led by NAU’s Ecological Restoration Institute in partnership with the other two Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes, collectively known as SWERI, in Colorado and New Mexico.

Researchers described the creation of the geodatabase in a new paper in Nature.

With wildfires growing in size and severity, land managers have relied on fuel treatments—such as forest thinning and prescribed burning—to reduce risk to communities and improve forest health. These treatments are widely considered effective, but until now, fragmented data systems have made it difficult to evaluate their impact at scale.

“Open access to wildfire and fuel treatment data is essential,” said SWERI ReSHAPE Program Director Aaron Kimple. “By making the data accessible, more people can engage in the evaluation and development of strategies for applying treatments on the ground with the greatest effect and efficiency.”

TWIG consolidates treatment records from multiple federal systems and overlays them with wildfire footprints, giving users a clearer picture of where work has been done and how it intersects with fire activity. The database is designed to support both land management decisions and scientific research.

A new paper describing TWIG was published this week in the journal Scientific Data. The paper details the development of TWIG, the sources it draws from, and the code behind it. It also establishes the official reference for citing TWIG data, making it easier for researchers to build on this work.

“With this publication, TWIG becomes a community resource,” said Andrew Sánchez Meador, ERI executive director and NAU School of Forestry professor. “It opens the door for collaboration across agencies and disciplines and for improving the quality of the data itself as more people engage with it.”

By making treatment data open and accessible, TWIG aims to improve coordination among agencies, support strategic planning, and enable new research that advances ecological understanding and wildfire resilience.

“This effort underscores NAU’s leadership in wildfire science and the strength of collaboration,” Sánchez Meador said. “Together with our partners, we’ve created a resource that will play a vital role in preparedness as communities face the growing risks of wildfire.”

To access the TWIG Viewer, visit https://reshapewildfire.org/twig/layers.