WFDSS is MOVING!

On March 26th, 2025, the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) NextGen will officially replace the current application and become the authoritative system of record for decisions on federal wildland fires.

WFDSS integrates various applications used to manage incidents into a single risk-informed, collaborative system to streamline the analysis and reporting process.

What will happen on March 26, 2025?

The Production environment of WFDSS Classic will become read-only.
Users can view or download content.

The WFM RD&A will facilitate to copying of active Decision content into the new application.
Already published Decision content won’t be copied to WFDSS NextGen for active incidents and incidents should download copies before 3/26.

Archiving activites to retain legacy data, including published decisions, completed analyses and other supporting information, will continue.

WFDSS Classic Homepage will direct users to the WFDSS NextGen Homepage.

The Training environment of WFDSS Classic will remain live until approximately April 12th to support planned training.

The Production environment of WFDSS NextGen will become the authoritative system of record for active wildland fire incidents.

Application Access and Role requests will be processed by Geographic Area Editors, with the support of the WFM RD&A. User access and roles for WFDSS NextGen PROD are independent of all other application instances.

The Training environment of WFDSS NextGen (EDU) should be utilized for pre-season training.

WFDSS NextGen will continue to add features and functionality through the season and beyond!

In the event of a temporary lapse in government funding, the transition from WFDSS Classic to WFDSS NextGen will occur as planned; priority will be given to users managing active wildland fire incidents due to limited staffing.

Why WFDSS NextGen?

WFDSS Next Gen is designed to improve the user experiencing by being Scalable, Map-Focused and Intuitive, while providing users with authoritative data and “as near to” real-time information as possible to facilitate informed and rapid decision making. WFDSS NextGen will be utilizing services as the primary method for displaying spatial data, populating weather data throughout the application, running fire behavior analyses and displaying Spatial Fire Planning data. Utilizing services gives WFDSS NextGen much more flexibility on the data it provides to the end user while ensuring that data is the most up to date and accurate information available.

What will happen to the information stored in WFDSS Classic?

For all incidents where there is a published decision or relative risk OR there is an analysis in Review or Completed status, the following information will be packaged up to be downloaded through the WFDSS NextGen interface:

Published decisions (PDF format)
Relative Risk and Organizational Assessments
Incident shapes (Planning areas, perimeters, M.A.P.'s, Incident Objective shapes, Point of Interest shapes).
Analysis Reports for completed analyses
Analysis shapes (ignitions, barriers, masks)
Incident Content Library materials (images, map captures, etc.) .
Incident History

As part of the archiving process for the current version of the WFDSS application, this incident information and all other data that is valuable for historical, legal, and regulatory reasons will be extracted and stored in a database accessible through the Data Warehouse.

Data will not be retained from the Training environment of WFDSS Classic.

How can users prepare for the Transition?

Request access and roles for EDU and PROD through the Wildland Fire Application Portal (FAMAuth)
Users requesting roles and access should view the application help and work with your GAE to ensure that you are requesting the proper role for your needs.
Check out the WFDSS NextGen Frequently Asked Questions
View the library of user support videos
Register for the Remote Incident Support Team (RIST) workshop (May 2025)
Watch the recording of the Agency Administrator Refresher (viewable after March 11, 2025)
Users can self-register for the course Agency Administrator WFDSS Refresher Webinar 2025 on the Wildland Fire Learning Portal to obtain a certificate.

Active incidents should work to finalize any pending decisions prior to the 26th.

To get assistance with transition for active incidents, please complete this request form for each incident.

Content from the Training environment will not be archived.

Along with the monthly distribution of this newsletter, we'll begin delivering weekly, hour-long webinars consisting of a system- or feature-related demo followed by user Q&A.

WFDSS NG General Overview (recording)

WFDSS NG Account Management (recording)

WFDSS NG Roles and Permissions (recording)

Planning for the Transition - March 12 1300-1400 MTN

Strategy Overview - March 19 1300-1400 MTN

Open Office Hours - March 26 1300-1400 MTN

WFDSS NextGen Home Page

Collaboration Spotlight:

Are you Familiar with our sister application?

Spatial Fire Planning Service

Click the logo to find out more!