Wildfires are a part of life in the Tri-Counties. We hear about the rebuilding process when homes are lost. But, how do wildfires impact vegetation across the state?
Cal Fire has launched a new online interactive mapping tool to help government agencies and the public learn more about fire impacts.
"The Cal Fire Burn Severity Viewer is designed to indicate in a graphic way how much vegetation was lost during a fire, and how much has come back," said Cal Fire Battalion Chief David Acuña.
He said it shows data for all wildfires over a thousand acres in size in California from 2015 to 2023.
"What it shows is how much in two different indexes did the fire affect in an area across all jurisdictions," said Acuna. "The two things we are talking about are the composite burn index and relative normalized burn ratio."
According to Acuna, the burn severity tool lets users assess data in a straightforward way.
"The composite burn index means how much of the actual vegetation and foliage from the ground all the way to the top of the tree, how much of that was destroyed or damaged," explained Acuna. "When we talk about the relative normalized burn ratio, what we are talking about is a year later, or two years, or three years. Is there more vegetation than existed the previous year, or is there less?"
Acuna added that the burn severity viewer is a tool firefighters can use to assess current and future fire threats.
The Cal Fire official said the information is also important in the aftermath of a fire because it can help efforts to restore damage caused by wildfires and firefighting efforts.
The tool lets you see information on the state’s fires by name, year, or size. You can also examine multiple layers of data.
The information comes from satellite images taken a year after each fire to allow for vegetation recovery and tree mortality.
