Artificial intelligence and smart cameras for spotting wildfires are hot topics. But you may not know that there are still people in fire lookouts across the U.S. and here in Washington, spotting and reporting fires — and often better and faster than the new technologies.
Satellites, airplanes and AI-enabled cameras all bring something to locating wildfires, but all have limitations. Satellites can “see” fires, but their ability to precisely locate blazes is limited by distance from the fires, cloud cover and their periodic orbits; they can only look a few times per day. Airplanes are a great tool for spotting fires and are vital for surveilling ongoing blazes, but usually only patrol once or twice a day.
Now we have added AI-assisted cameras. Washington’s Department of Natural Resources has contracted with a San Francisco company for AI camera systems for fire spotting. Cameras are great at staring at the landscape, don’t have to sleep and never take bathroom breaks. By using machine learning techniques, computers can be trained to watch the cameras and tell the difference between haze, clouds, rain and real fires.
But can they replace humans in fire lookouts?
Trained fire spotters stand watch in many countries around the globe. In the U.S., there used to be 8,000-plus fire lookout towers, but today there are just over 2,500 fire lookout structures still standing and a mere 92 here in Washington.
Professionals and volunteers remain, watching the forest, mountains and landscape every fire season. This job can be boring and challenging, but nearly every day these lookouts spot something they suspect is a fire. Some staffed lookout locations spot and report five to 10 — or more — fires over a summer fire season.
Studies done in Oregon and Alberta, Canada, compared the effectiveness of cameras to human lookouts. Both studies indicated that human-staffed fire lookouts are still better at detecting and reporting fires than AI-enhanced cameras in terms of speed of response and the area they can effectively watch over. And humans have legs: If a view is blocked by a tree or post, they can move. They also have insider knowledge of what is going on in the forests around them, from occupied campsites to where shooters may be active.
The benefits of retaining human-staffed fire lookouts don’t stop there. Unlike AI cameras, satellites or airplanes, fire lookout personnel perform human services. Lookout staff greet visitors and provide education on fire safety, our forests and lookout history. Suntop lookout in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest hosts over 6,000 visitors per year.
Lookout staffers perform many tasks that cameras can’t: providing directions; bandaging scraped knees; responding to serious emergencies; performing search and rescue; and occasionally putting out abandoned campfires. Lookout staff also preserve and protect these historical structures, some of which are over 100 years old.
And cost? A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the cost of AI-camera systems as cheap at $30,000 per year (Washington pays $48,000 per camera per year) — but a paid lookout generally costs the Forest Service $16,000 for a season and volunteers do the job for free. Additionally, volunteer groups like Forest Fire Lookout Association pay for needed repairs and restoration efforts to preserve fire lookouts.
Like Smokey Bear, fire lookouts are icons of the outdoors — the lookouts transmit the message that these places are worth preserving. Cameras, satellites or fire lookouts can’t stop all wildfires; some are just too big and too fast. However, the addition of AI-assisted cameras to the toolbelt of forest managers represents a significant advancement, joining satellites, airplanes, and human-staffed fire lookouts to help preserve our forests and wild lands for future generations and protect those who live near them. Technology and tradition can and should complement one another.
If you are interested in the mission of Forest Fire Lookout Association or want to volunteer, visit ffla.org.
