This month, CAL FIRE and Vibrant Planet enter into a statewide partnership, transforming fire planning and mitigation for the department. CAL FIRE will use Vibrant Planet's wildfire modeling and risk analytics platform to develop, execute, and measure the impact of data-driven Unit Fire Plans across all 21 CAL FIRE Units and six Contract Counties. Statewide deployment will be phased throughout 2026, with the goal of all Units and Contract Counties using the platform by end of year to update their 2027 Unit Fire Plans.
“This expanded partnership provides CAL FIRE a unified, data-driven foundation to visualize and assess where their investments can best protect communities and improve wildland resilience. When CAL FIRE and its partners coordinate risk mitigation actions using the high resolution, best-in-class data and scientific modeling embedded in our platform, protecting communities happens faster and more effectively. We have to manage wildfire risk comprehensively and strategically across the built environment, WUI, and wildlands – it’s the combination of these actions that will actually reduce risk to communities.” — Allison Wolff, CEO, Vibrant Planet
Vibrant Planet’s platform analyzes fuelscape conditions and models wildfire's potential impact on safety, infrastructure, and ecosystems. It then shows planners where investments will deliver the greatest risk reduction. This helps CAL FIRE direct resources to the areas with the highest return on investment, from hardening individual homes to fuel breaks in the WUI to wildland fuels reductions and forest health improvements.
Additionally, Vibrant Planet will support CAL FIRE’s shift to report not just acres treated but the impact and effectiveness of treatments across a number of fire risk reduction and ecosystem resilience measures.
CAL FIRE piloted Vibrant Planet in the Amador-El Dorado Unit (AEU) and the San Diego Unit. Both pilots showed that updating Unit Fire Plans with Vibrant Planet was straightforward and delivered concrete impact metrics.
During the AEU pilot, Vibrant Planet's platform helped identify Strategic Planning Areas for the Unit — acreage that combines the greatest wildfire risk with the greatest opportunity to reduce that risk through fuels treatment. These Strategic Planning Areas make up just 5% of the Unit's 2+ million acres but represent more than 50% of the total risk-reduction opportunity across the Unit. The result: a 10x efficiency gain for CAL FIRE, helping the department apply limited fuels-reduction dollars where they matter most.
Zooming into AEU's North Division alone, a planned 37,000 acres of targeted treatments are forecasted to deliver:
- An 89% reduction in wildfire hazard (across those acres)
- A 99% drop in structures highly exposed to wildfire (across those acres)
- $3.9 billion in avoided losses (across those acres)
We're proud to partner with CAL FIRE in building more fire-resilient communities. While California has long been on the front lines of the wildfire crisis, the challenge isn’t unique to one state. The shift from measuring outputs to measuring outcomes -- from acres treated to risk reduced -- is a model that applies everywhere wildfire threatens communities. We look forward to supporting more states in making that shift.
We will continue to release more details about the partnership and statewide deployment as it unfolds.
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