Who wants some Wildfire Bacon?
If you’ve even been in a wildfire meeting with Keith Smith (NASF Director of Wildfire Technology Director), you’ve probably heard his analogy that compares wildfire data to bacon, aka the miracle food that makes everything better. Whether you’re cooking up solutions to the wildfire crisis or implementing shared stewardship, you need a big helping of sizzling data to get those savory results. In the world of wildfire data, GARP is bringing home the (data) bacon!
What is GARP?
“GARP” is the nickname for the new Grant Accomplishment Reporting Portal, created through partnership between for the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) and the USDA Forest Service (USFS). GARP is the new reporting platform for State Forestry and other grantees of USFS State and Volunteer Fire program grants, capturing nationally-consistent quantitative and geospatial data of the dollars being invested and the work being done to implement the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (NCS). The reporting data is turned into “wildfire bacon” – positioning NASF members and the USFS to quickly and easily show where work is being accomplished and how investments impact local communities.
Why did GARP happen?
Leaders in the Wildfire world, including the USFS, the Department of Interior, NASF members, NGO partners and the private sector, recognize that they lack good bacon (ahem, wildfire data). This prevents them from showing their progress towards the goals of the NCS and to “tell the story” of their shared stewardship priorities, coordinated planning, and collective investments. They needed a centralized repository to aggregate the data of work accomplished: what, where, when, and how much. As a result, “GARP happened” and will start supplying the wildfire bacon in 2025.
What’s in the bacon?
GARP houses several key data sources including:
- National Fuels Treatment Database (NFT), which represents s the mapped areas of hazardous fuels treatment investments on the landscapes of our country crossing all boundaries from DOI, USFS, State Forestry Agencies, and Local communitiess via the CWDG grant process.
- Response boundaries of all Volunteer Fire Departments (VFD) assisted with building their suppression capacity.
- Communities assisted as a result of funding plans, assessments, prevention education, fuels reduction, and VFD assistance.