185 Spreading Lessons About the Benefits of Fire Across the Southeast A new application developed with the support of researchers at Tall Timbers and the US Geological Survey, SE FireMap, is helping grow ecological awareness and bring together a broad group of collaborators to determine when, where, and why fires happen. This solution is funded by the Working Lands for Wildlife Program at the US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. The app uses yearly burned area maps derived from Landsat satellite imagery to create Fire History Metrics that show details such as how many times a particular area has burned over a period, and the last year it burned. This workflow uses artificial intelligence (AI) models to detect where fires occurred and show how vegetation responded. Many of the fires are on private lands and aren’t tracked that well. Using imagery, the app fills in the missing fires. To ensure accuracy in the application, Tall Timbers ground-truths inputs from satellite imagery and AI analysis. “We go out and do the fieldwork to train and calibrate the model and answer such questions as why some areas are burning better,” said Kevin Robertson, the fuel ecology research scientist at Tall Timbers. Using SE FireMap, landowners can observe how prescribed fire has been a beneficial practice across a broad area, and that it can be done safely. Tall Timbers has been using the app to locate land properly maintained by fire. Then staff members can work with landowners to commit these acres to longleaf pine conservation. Landowners receive tax benefits when the land goes into a conservation easement that preserves natural habitats. Operating Farms and Timberlands More Efficiently land managers can observe how fire helps longleaf pine ecosystems thrive and support a rich biodiversity. “Fire is tightly connected with biodiversity because if we don’t have frequent fire in this ecosystem, we lose most of our endemic plants and animals,” Robertson said. “When you walk by these plots, the types of birds that you hear and see are completely different,” Nowell said. “In overgrown plots, you won’t hear any quail calls and it’s difficult to see any species. When you walk into the plots we maintain regularly with fire, you’ll spook the quail and see red-cockaded woodpeckers—an endangered species. GIS was used to create this map of the Wade Tract that shows the locations and relative diameters of the trees (size of black circle symbols). The model projects the concentration of carbon in the soil, with red color representing higher concentrations, based on field soil samples and laboratory analysis. (Image courtesy of Tall Timbers)
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