American Forests Launches Free Tool to Help Land Managers Get Ahead of Wildfire, Drought and Pests

The Forest Innovation Platform by American Forests provides accessible, actionable data across private, state, Tribal, federal and NGO lands so forest managers can evaluate vulnerabilities and protect their lands from fire and other natural disasters

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 15, 2026, Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American Forests, the nation’s oldest nonprofit dedicated to forest stewardship and conservation, today announced the availability of the Forest Innovation Platform (FIP), a free, all-lands resource that turns the best-available forest and climate data into actionable assessments.

With extreme wildfires more than doubling over the last two decades, an ongoing 25-year mega drought throughout the western U.S. and pests and disease impacting forests across the country, proactive forest management is critical. FIP by American Forests is the most comprehensive and actionable forest data tool ever developed. This open-source tool incorporates over 40 datasets and allows users to create on-demand custom assessments for specific areas, without the need for specialized expertise or months of manual analysis. Users can evaluate potential climate, wildfire, hydrological, and ecological changes that impact forest health today and identify the projected risk over time to inform forest management plans and adaptation strategies.

“In order to prevent the wildfires that are ravaging our country year after year, we need to give people the tools they need to build resilience and protect forests and communities. The Forest Innovation Platform takes fragmented and technical data and makes it easy to use and understand. Now, landowners can easily assess where their forestland is vulnerable to fire and take action to restore wildfire resilience,” said Hilary Franz, President and CEO of American Forests. “What used to take months or years now takes minutes. These are the types of innovations we need to deploy to end the era of megafires.”

FIP by American Forests builds on comprehensive research initially developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, to identify data to support forest management practice. FIP expands upon this work, offering deeper insights and customizable assessments across all lands, so private, state, Tribal, federal and NGO land managers can access the data they need.

To develop this tool, American Forests engaged hundreds of scientists, federal agency partners, NGOs and practitioners. Expert partners helped identify data gaps and functionality essential to forest management. Together, this community will form the foundation of the Forest Innovation Network (FIN), a collective working to advance the platform’s future use and development.

"The Sustainable Forestry Initiative actively promotes climate smart forestry across the nearly 70 million acres in the U.S. that are certified to SFI's Forest Management standard. With the Forest Innovation Platform, Certified Organizations will be able to quickly and intuitively assess climate-driven risks specific to the forests they manage, removing barriers and accelerating innovations that further advance forests as a climate solution," said Healy Hamilton, Chief Scientist at Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

“The Forest Innovation Platform brings forest vulnerability assessment into a new era, reducing scientific analysis to minutes rather than months or years,” said Christopher Swanston, Director of Science at Save the Redwoods League. “For redwoods – forests that define the California coast and face rapidly evolving climate pressures – this tool will help us understand emerging risks faster and act with greater confidence.”

American Forests will join partners and the climate community at New York Climate Week, Sept. 20-27, 2026, to celebrate the announcement of this innovative free tool. FIP by American Forests is available now on ForestInnovationPlatform.org.

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About American Forests 

For more than 150 years, American Forests has led transformative initiatives to protect and restore our forests, end the wildfire crisis and ensure tree canopy so that every community can have clean air and water, cool shade and be safe and healthy. As the nation’s oldest nonprofit dedicated to forest stewardship and conservation, we lead by combining data, science, policy, partnerships and on-the-ground action to maximize impact at the pace and scale needed. 

Learn more at: www.americanforests.org  

Contact Info

Katherine Clark
kclark@americanforests.org