That would be the Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System–you know–that’s been in development and then beta-testing since 2006?  Well, the good news is they’ve officially released it now as a finished tool and it’s free and available to everyone.  See the new official IFTDSS webpage to review the history and capabilities.  For the uninitiated, IFTDSS is a web-based software and data integration framework that organizes fire and fuels software applications to make fuels treatment planning and analysis more efficient.

Ft. Richardson and BLM personnel conduct a prescribed burn on military training facility in 2006.  (R. Jandt)

We’ve had the beta-test version available for a while but funding availability to maintain the web-based tool has been a subject of debate so it’s nice to see this 2017 roll-out!  If you haven’t checked out IFTDSS, one of it’s strengths is enabling you to complete an analysis using “cloud”-power without loading a lot of disparate pieces of software for project definition, fuel types, fire behavior and spread rate, etc. onto your personal or government computer.  The platform has integrated links to sources of vegetation data (LANDFIRE), topography, etc. making them easy to upload.  The proliferation of different software systems, by different entities, to “help” managers plan fuel treatments was identified as a source of confusion and inefficiency by the national fuels management committee, which spurred the initial development of IFTDSS.  So check it out–they offer both training and a help center, and IFTDSS is now included in the training for Prescribed Fire Planner (aka Burn Boss) RX341 class.