SWCA Wildfire Capabilities

With more than two decades of experience in wildfire sciences, SWCA is a recognized expert in completing pre- and post-fire planning work throughout the United States.

We emphasize collaborative planning across large, multi-jurisdictional landscapes, working with federal, state, and local government agencies, non-governmental organizations, private industry, and communities to build fire adaptation and resilience. Successful resilience in the face of climate- and fuel-driven wildfires requires planning ahead for all stages of the wildfire cycle: readiness, response, recovery, and restoration.

Our fire experts provide a full suite of services and customized plans to meet both large-scale, regional needs and those of small communities aligning with the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.

SWCA has helped public and private clients overcome environmental challenges and move their projects forward. Our 100% employee-owned firm offers comprehensive environmental planning, regulatory compliance, and natural and cultural resources management services. We work together to understand the full life cycle of any project, from inception to completion.

Victoria and her team at SWCA were amazing to work with on our project! I would highly recommend using SWCA for another project. I hope that we will get to work together in the future. — Tiffany George, Union County, IL

We wanted to make sure that we expressed our appreciation for you and your team's hard work on our Wildland Fire Protection Plan. We truly appreciate how quickly and thoroughly you all worked with us. —Robert Uresk, Manager - Operations, Moon Lake Electric

Our dedicated technologies team provides services for fire projects that include modeling and analysis, drones, imagery, AI and machine learning, online content such as story maps and hub sites, custom field data collection systems, and digital and online public meeting spaces.

We can create videos, social media posts, flyers, radio advertisements, and more for public outreach.

We use the Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS) as our main fire behavior modeling application, but also use FireFamilyPlus, FlamMap, and FarSite for custom modeling when needed.

Our risk assessments incorporate multiple inputs including fire behavior, fire history, community values at risk, Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), and fire response time. Below is an example of our risk assessments compared to nation-wide scale risk assessments.

National risk assessments, and even regional or statewide risk assessments can't always get the level of detail needed for local areas. However, SWCA always reviews authoritative risk assessments (such as the national USFS risk assessment) to ensure that our local analyses align with federal and state agency risk assessments.

This animation shows the difference at a local scale between a national, statewide, and local risk assessment. You can also see the imagery and how closely it aligns with our local risk assessment.

We build ArcGIS Story Maps, Sites, and Hubs for CWPPs across the country to be used as public outreach and engagement platforms. Story Maps incorporate text, video, images, and graphics with interactive maps to provide an immersive experience. Hubs and sites can be used as one-stop landing pages for projects.

Explore some of the Story Maps and Hub Sites we have created:

•  Santa Clara County CWPP Update 
•  Boulder County CWPP Update 
•  Jefferson County CWPP 
•  Truckee Fire Protection District CWPP 
•  Montrose County CWPP 

We can create within hub sites a project tracking system designed to provide real-time updates and the ability for multi-agency coordination and collaboration. The tracking system is available for internal use, but externally, the project tracker holds the ability to display statistics to the public, such as acres treated, dollars spent, or number of meetings held.  View our custom Project Tracking application demo.  

SWCA has developed custom Survey 123 forms for the field staff in accordance with the Wildfire Hazard Severity NFPA 1144 Assessments. The form takes account for road conditions, vegetation, defensible space, topography, fire history, roofing materials, building conditions, and available fire protection. The final score of the forms is used to assess the risk factor for a particular community. SWCA utilizes these community polygons throughout the risk assessment.

SWCA has also developed custom field collection files for values at risk, water sources, recreation, fire history, critical infrastructure, and navigational hazard points.

SWCA can carry out two separate GIS-based analyses to determine roads or sections thereof that would likely comprise evacuation efforts in the event of a wildfire emergency. One part of the analysis involves assessing road features, including road curvature, grade, length, surface material, connectivity, stability (bridged vs. unbridged), and adjacent structure density. The other part of the analysis involves evaluating fire behavior in landscapes immediately adjacent to road corridors. 

SWCA can evaluate burn severity using the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), a method consistent with the USGS’s burn severity assessments. Burn severity can be assessed in a variety of resolutions—from 50 centimeters and up to 30 meters. SWCA also has an experienced team of fire ecologists that can field validate the results of the NBR. 

We submitted a proposal to begin implementation of the Pope County CWPP. We were able to lift the recommendations right out of the CWPP for the proposal. Thanks for helping us get that done. —Scott Crist, USFS

Ms. Amato is a Senior Fire Planner with a diverse background in forestry, fire ecology, and natural resource management. During her over 15-year tenure with SWCA, she has worked with a variety of land management agencies across the United States, including the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the National Park Service (NPS), developing fuels reduction treatments, fire behavior analysis, forest health assessment and WUI risk and hazard assessments.

She has managed and developed over 45 CWPPs and Fire Management Plans, in a wide range of fire environments and engaging varied communities with often divergent values and opinions. She has expertise in fire behavior modeling, structural hazard assessments, stakeholder facilitation, community engagement and technical writing. She works across the wildfire spectrum from pre-fire planning to post-fire recovery and restoration and prides herself on her ability to balance alignment with fire science and practices, policy and legislation and always putting client focus at the forefront of project delivery. 

Dr. Stropki is a certified fire ecologist and watershed science expert with over 20 years of professional and academic experience in riverine restoration, riparian restoration, forest restoration, and post fire restoration. Dr. Stropki has authored or coauthored more than 20 technical and peer-reviewed publications, varying in topics from wildfire effects on natural resources to community wildfire protection plans. Dr. Stropki has managed or participated in numerous projects dealing with natural resources including wildfire risk management, natural resource feasibility studies, ecological and hydrologic restoration, and ecosystem monitoring. These projects include the South Sacramento Restoration Project, the Ute Park Fire BAER Team project San Miguel County Biomass Feasibility Study, Coyote Creek State Park Habitat Assessment, Ojo Peak post-fire Collaborative Forest Restoration Program (CFRP), and the Estancia Basin Watershed Monitoring Project. He has overseen a number of tasks, including, meeting facilitation, educational outreach, coordinating and supervising field crews, obtaining the necessary state and federal permits including 401/404, and designing and implementing restoration plans.

Emily Geery has 16 years of experience in natural resources planning with a focus on wildland fire policy and planning projects and water resources planning projects for local, state, tribal and federal government clients. She is a Natural Resources Project Manager with a multidisciplinary background in water resources, community and regional planning, and communications and is responsible for regular coordination with clients across the county related to wildfire risk reduction planning. She has managed or contributed to the development of CWPPs, as well as provided senior review of many other plans. She has extensive experience working collaboratively with teams to develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans, lead public meetings, and facilitate steering committee meetings. Her expertise lies in developing science-based, community-informed natural resources plans and has helped communities at the local, regional, state, and tribal levels write and update Community Wildfire Protection Plans.  

As a Principal Geospatial Sciences Program Lead, Ms. Russell contributes data management and GIS deliverables for a wide range of projects, including biological and cultural resource surveys, NEPA, and wildfire planning.  She provides leadership as a subject matter and technical expert through high-level project management and coordination, marketing and business development, training, and development of standards and protocols and GIS processes and workflows.

Ms. Russell’s expertise for wildfire projects and risk assessments includes providing GIS support to CWPPs and advanced fire behavior and risk assessment modeling, including custom fuel model development, climate and weather analysis, wildland-urban interface, and exposure, risk, and hazard analyses.

As a Lead Project Manager and forest ecologist, Ms. Porter has over five years of experience in project management, client relationships, public outreach, scientific research, technical writing, and field operations throughout the United States. Ms. Porter has a master’s degree in ecology from Colorado State University where she focused on aspen regeneration in relation to topographic variables after the Hayman Fire in Colorado. Since then she has worked both in the non-profit and private spheres to collaborate with federal, state, and local entities to restore forest systems after wildfire, and to assist in fire planning and mitigation on federal, state, and private lands. Ms. Porter has worked on CWPPs and other fire protection plans for Santa Fe County, New Mexico; Tulare County, California; Dukes County, Massachusetts among others; and for companies like Raft River Electric Cooperative, Utah and Pend Oreille Public Utility District, Washington. She has experience developing fuels reduction treatments, fire behavior analysis, forest health assessment, community and stakeholder engagement, and WUI risk and hazard assessment.

Montiel Ayala is a biologist with a varied academic background in fire ecology, environmental science, hydrology, and geospatial analysis (GIS). He has over 5 years of experience in technical writing, scientific research, and spatial analysis and GIS modeling. His experience includes field operations in varied ecosystems across California as well as the use of remote sensing and GIS to study fire effects across the western United States. He has substantial knowledge of California’s fire regimes, ecoregions, and wildfire regulations. His graduate level projects include pre and post fire change detection of recent California fires. He has worked on a variety of land/fire management plans and environmental permitting projects for clients throughout the western United States. Mr. Ayala has worked on CWPPs for City of Corona; Three Rivers Fire Safe Council; Kern and Tulare Counties in California; Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska; Union County, Illinois; Bernalillo County, New Mexico; and Dukes County, Massachusetts.

Ms. Hitzfelder is a Lead Geospatial Scientist with a geospatial modeling background specializing in fire and vegetation management. She leads the technical geospatial applications for the fire and forestry work group. She earned her Master of Applied Geography from Texas State University specializing in applications of remote sensing to assess vegetation differencing for geomorphic changes. She has used her expertise for CWPPs and fire projects by providing custom fuel and fire behavior modeling, risk assessment modeling, development of Wildland Urban Interface community boundaries, Hub Site generation, custom experiences, ArcGIS StoryMap production, and GIS analysis. Ms. Hitzfelder has provided GIS services on over 40 CWPPs across the country.

Ms. Lutes is an archaeologist, architectural historian, and project manager with over 12 years of professional experience conducting archaeological surveys, testing, and data recovery in the southwestern United States. She serves as the Cultural Resources Team Lead for SWCA’s Flagstaff office, and she meets and exceeds the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards in Archaeology, Architectural History, and History. She also possesses extensive experience in conducting cultural resources impact analysis for categorical exclusions, environmental assessments, and environmental impact statements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

As a former U.S. Forest Service (USFS) employee, Annie has worked extensively in managing cultural resources in fire-dependent landscapes. She has experience working with fire and timber personnel on fuels reductions projects, full-suppression operations, managed fire incidents, and post-fire monitoring. She has completed coursework in fire ecology and served as a line-qualified Firefighter Type 2 and Fire Archaeologist (Resource Advisor). Her graduate work focused on assessing and evaluating the impacts of indirect fire effects of full-suppression and managed fires on the Kaibab National Forest using Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity data, remote sensing, and ground-truthing methodologies. She is an active member of the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership of which SWCA is a partner.

Sam Lashley is an assistant project manager based in Missoula, MT with 6 years of experience in wildfire operations, mitigation, and planning. He has obtained several NWCG firefighting qualifications and worked as a type 1 wildland firefighter for the United States Forest Service (USFS) while operating on type 6 engines, type 2 hand crews, and a type 1 interagency hotshot crew. He has helped manage CWPPs and Firewise recognition projects in Colorado and Montana while specializing in conducting wildfire risk assessments and crafting wildfire resiliency recommendations for diverse communities in fire-prone landscapes. He has experience collaborating with diverse stakeholders in rural and urban communities. He has a B.S. in geospatial environmental analytics from Montana State University.

Ryan Saggese serves as the Fire Planning Specialist for SWCA’s Fire Team. His duties primarily concern the Community Wildfire Protection Plan development process, which includes conducting key research, drafting technical writing, building public outreach materials, and establishing wildfire risk mitigation recommendations. Mr. Saggese has experience providing research and technical writing for Cities, Counties, and Fire Protection Districts across the county. Additionally, He has conducted carbon emissions analysis and wildfire modeling for fuel reduction projects in counties spanning the entire state of California.

Mrs. Jansen is an Assistant Project Geospatial Scientist with a geospatial analysis background specializing in environmental geography and fire management. She is in the process of earning her Master of Science from St. Cloud State University, specializing in land use land change studies, cartography, and technical geographic information system methodologies. She has supported CWPPs through GIS analysis, fire modeling, and the creation of ArcGIS StoryMaps & Hub Sites. She has been involved in CWPPs across the country including Jefferson County; City of Boulder and Boulder County; Mountain View FPD; Curry County; and Gilpin County.

In 2018, we established a Fire and Forestry Workgroup at SWCA, with the goal of providing a forum for the exchange of information and company-wide coordination. This group has enabled us to assemble the wildfire program geographically to respond to projects anywhere in the nation, extend the capacity of staff to undertake multiple projects with short turnarounds, and increase technical competency. SWCA's commitment to fire services goes beyond the project manager and project teams to include professionals from across the company—making the most of our experience and expertise available to each and every project.

Our team regularly participates in SWCA GivesBack Events. Recently, volunteers from our Denver and Fort Collins offices helped plant ponderosa pine seedlings alongside a group organized by Boulder County Parks and Open Space. The 500 trees will contribute to revegetation of the 2020 CalWood fire burn scar in Heil Ranch, where there was 100% tree mortality in some areas.

For more information, please visit us at  www.swca.com 

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