Fire managers in the U.S. Southern Region face complex challenges regarding current and future wildland fire risk assessment and management. These challenges are compounded by increasing fire intensities due to accumulation of vegetative materials, continued residential growth into wildland fire-prone areas, and increasing firefighting costs. In response, The Southern Group of State Foresters manages and updates a multi-state wildland fire risk assessment for the 13 Southern states.

This critical assessment allows agencies and organizations at the national, state, and local levels to obtain a more comprehensive picture of what the overall potential is for wildland fire and its associated challenges. This project is called the Southern Wildfire Risk Assessment (SWRA).