WildfiresRemote cameras monitor Montana wildfires

Fire officials on the Powell District of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, in partnership with the University of Montana, are testing a system of cameras remotely to monitor wildfires. The district has cameras mounted on two fire lookout towers and a third mobile camera that can be deployable as needed. Operators at the Powell Ranger District control the cameras to provide multiple viewpoints of the targeted area. Matt Young, the fire management officer for the district uses the cameras to monitor fires before deciding to send an air patrol to investigate if a fire could turn dangerous. “It’s been a good tool,” he said. “We definitely reduce risk and save money.”

The Lewiston Tribune reports that some fire officials see cameras as a threat to the agency’s historic reliance on human fire lookouts stationed on pinnacles throughout forests, but Young sees the cameras as complementary to human experience. “You can’t replace the human eye and those cameras can’t take a check-in from a wilderness ranger at 3 a.m.,” he said. “So you can’t replace the humans and they were never meant to do that.”

Since 2010, the Douglas Forest Protective Association in southwestern Oregon has replaced all human lookout posts with cameras. The cameras use infrared technology for better night vision, and operators can select different filters to improve image quality. The cameras are also able to rotate, and take a picture every eight seconds. Computer software compares the images and alerts fire officials when it detects smoke. “The auto-detection isn’t quite there yet,” said Kyle Reed, a fire prevention specialist with the association at Roseburg, Oregon. “It still takes a human element to say yes or no it is or isn’t a fire.” About three to four operators monitor computer screens from the association’s twelve cameras and more images from eighteen other cameras used by nearby agencies.

Reed explained that his agency began exploring remote cameras after a human lookout tower burned down and it would have cost up to $300,000 to rebuild the tower. Adding that most of the lookout towers under his agency’s control were built in the 1940s and would soon need significant maintenance. The Tribune notes notes that the camera systems, manufactured by EnviroVision Solutions of South Africa, cost $50,000 to $70,000 per location. “So it’s considerably cheaper to build a camera site than to build a lookout,” Reed said.

More fire officials are beginning to support cameras because they allow managers to view relatively live feeds without relying on the interpretation of a human lookout. “What is a large column of black smoke to you might be different to somebody else,” Reed said. “(Fire managers) can look live and judge a response based on what we are seeing.”