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Wildfire Risk to Carbon

Release Date

The Wildfire Risk to Carbon dashboard allows users to visualize and analyze risk to forest and rangeland carbon from wildfire across the continental United States. This data can be used to estimate emissions from wildfire at a range of intensities and analyze wildfire risk to total and market (standing live and dead tree) forest carbon, among other uses. Areas of interest can be identified at the county-level, by state, or by user-defined boundary. 

Mapping the risk of carbon emissions from wildfire across the continental United States requires nationwide datasets of vegetation, burn probability, conditional fire intensity, and vegetation response to fire. Wildfire Risk to Carbon brings together the following data sources to estimate initial carbon pools, emissions by flame length, and expected carbon emissions:

  • Carbon estimates are from the TreeMap dataset and a new model of rangeland carbon.
  • Burn probability and intensity estimates are from from the Large Fire Simulator (FSim).
  • Carbon response in TreeMap is estimated using the Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator.
  • Carbon response in rangelands is estimated using the Spatial First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM).
Screenshot from the Wildfire Risk to Carbon dashboard showing expected carbon emissions from rangelands across the United States.
Photo Credit
USDA Forest Service Rachel Houtman

Wildfire Risk to Carbon Dashboard showing expected rangeland carbon emissions from wildfire circa 2014.

Key Uses
Forest Health
Scale
Mid-Scale
User Experience Level
Intermediate
What do you need to get started?
General information about wildfire risk to carbon can be found on the associated website: https://www.wildfireriskcarbon.org/. Familiarity with GIS systems is helpful but not required.
Outputs
Expected carbon emissions from, or carbon remaining after, wildfire for a project, county, or state boundary. Users can provide their own project footprints or draw areas of interest directly onto the map to access data at desired locations.
Strengths
Wall-to-wall continental United States datasets of carbon emissions and loss across forest and rangelands provide managers with methodologically consistent datasets for the entire country.
Limitations
Downloads of areas of interest that are larger than the state-scale are not recommended due to file size. For national level uses, please reach out to the authors for access to the full dataset.

Online Resources

Related Publications and Datasets

Related Data and Tools

Articles

In evening light, wildfire burns atop a mountainous landscape. The foreground is a silhouette of mountains. Fire glows along the ridgetops and reveals a 3-dimensional landscape, which is partially obstructed by a large cloud of smoke. The scene almost resembles a sunset right before the sun disappears behind the horizon and the sky and clouds range from orange to purple, gray, and blue..
Article
2 min read
New dashboard displays wildfire risk to carbon across the United States
https://research.fs.usda.gov/firelab/articles/new-dashboard-displays-wildfire-risk-carbon-across-united-states

People

  • Person
    Karin Riley, PhD

    Karin Riley, PhD

    Research Ecologist
    https://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/karin.l.riley
  • Forest Service
    Rachel Houtman

    Rachel Houtman

    Biological Scientist
wildfire risk carbon
Last updated March 24, 2026
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