Headwaters Economics has developed a free data visualization tool that shows state and national structure losses by wildfires over time. The accompanying article argues that structure losses are a more useful metric for understanding wildfire impacts than ‘acres burned.’ Measuring wildfires by assessing ‘acres burned’ does not discern the positive impacts of wildfires in terms of fuel reduction, ecosystem restoration and wildlife habitat from the negative impacts of wildfire. In comparison, tracking structures lost, while imperfect due to reporting processes, can provide a more nuanced measure of the human and economic toll of wildfires.

View the tool here.