The ReSHAPE Project
On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” (IIJA), commonly referred to as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” (BIL). In addition to addressing issues with the nation’s transportation and utilities systems, the bill includes numerous provisions that support hazardous fuels reduction, forest restoration, and wildfire management.
The Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes (SWERI) were identified in the BIL to undertake a national wildfire and treatment effectiveness mapping and assessment project. Policymakers, land management agencies and the research community identified the following needs:
- (1) To compile and display existing information on fuels treatment projects and wildfires at the national level.
- (2) To coordinate and facilitate the use of these data for assessing planning and monitoring fuel treatment interactions with wildfires across boundaries.
- (3) To analyze and report on fuel treatment effects.
The resulting effort is the ReSHAPE Project.
Through the resulting ReSHAPE Program, the SWERI are working closely with an advisory team at the Department of Interior Office of Wildland Fire, Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management and Research and Development, National Association of State Foresters, and are forging new partnerships to ensure that ReSHAPE incorporates, supports, and enhances and adds capacity to facilitate the use and application of fuel treatment and wildfire data.
TWIG: Treatment Wildfire Interagency Geodatabase
ReSHAPE will result in 1) a geodatabase that compiles existing fuel treatment and wildfire data from US Department of Agriculture Forest Service and Department of Interior systems of record from all 50 states and 9 territories, and 2) a web-based map viewer and portal that allows easy access to compiled data. This geodatabase and associated viewer are referred to as the ReSHAPE Treatment & Wildfire Interagency Geodatabase (TWIG).
Research into fuel treatment data shows that while many data and decision support systems already exist, they are not easily accessible or applicable, and systems of records are not easily comparable. Given this, TWIG is being developed as one of the main deliverables of the ReSHAPE project and will be a tool that combines relatable data, presents it in a comprehensible way, allows users to query and download information easily, and facilitates analysis of fuel treatment effects.
Click here to access the prototype TWIG Viewer*
*Please note that TWIG, including data and the viewer, is in prototype phase and is still under development. There will be service disruptions as updates are being made. Current data is for general display and testing purposes only and should not be used in official decision making.
Want to be a Beta Tester?
Scan the QR Code below or follow this link to take a short survey and sign up to be a beta tester!
More Information
Browse the documents below to learn more about the ReSHAPE project.