Training Park Fire Crews in GIS: In-Person Sessions at Three Parks in 2023

Over the last 20 years wildland fires have become more frequent, longer and more intense. Over the same period, geographic information systems (GIS) have grown much more accurate, timely and capable. Fire planners and initial attack crews depend on good data from trained GIS staff to work efficiently and manage risk.

GIS technicians monitoring the Dragon Fire at Grand Canyon National Park. NPS/Li Brannfors.

From webinars to the classroom

The National Park Service's Intermountain Region Fire and Aviation Management office has spent several years training park fire staff and field crews in GIS. Webinars let people learn online and put questions to experts about their own park and program. That worked well, but parks and field teams needed in-person training to build their GIS skills further.

In April 2023 the region's GIS specialists travelled to Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon National Park and Bandelier National Monument and gave two-day, in-person courses to 42 trainees. The courses taught advanced GIS use in a range of scenarios, mainly fuels planning and incident response.

The classes brought together many roles:

• park GIS specialists;
• cultural resource specialists and archeologists;
• fire management officers, fuels specialists and fire ecologists;
• biologists;
• wildland fire module leaders, engine crews and helitack crews.

Why teach in person, together

Teaching a mixed group in the room let the trainers build on what the park already knew and work through map-based detail that matched that park's needs. Staff could raise their own concerns while sitting beside the people who would be on the ground at the start of an incident.

The sessions improved both the amount and the quality of the GIS data collected and analyzed for initial response. They also prepare a park to hand an incident over more quickly and smoothly to an Incident Management Team if a fire grows complex enough to need one.

The payoff

The Park Service reports that training field staff in GIS has improved:

• data quality and cost-effectiveness;
• situational awareness and decisions based on data;
• collaboration and planning;
• incident response.

Those gains feed into fuels projects such as thinning and prescribed burns, which are central to managing park resources and lowering the risk of severe fire. With more GIS skill among their own staff, parks can plan for and react to fire conditions that change quickly.

Sources

• National Park Service, Wildland Fire Program: "GIS training prepares NPS employees for success in wildland fire management."