2025
Comparably’s Best Company Outlook
Service
Wildfire Services
Wildfire impacts everyone—from neighborhoods and critical infrastructure to forests and public lands. SWCA delivers comprehensive wildfire services that span the entire fire cycle: from proactive planning and risk reduction to post-fire recovery and restoration.
We Want to Hear From You
For questions or further information, please fill out the form below.
Victoria Amato
Principal Environmental Planner
Anne Cabrera
Environment and Infrastructure Vice President
Cody Stropki
Resilience Director
Overview
With over three decades of experience in wildfire sciences, SWCA is a recognized expert in the U.S., delivering wildfire solutions grounded in sound science and applied research. We emphasize collaboration with federal, tribal, state, and local government agencies, non-governmental organizations, private industry, and communities to support informed decision-making that is both technically defensible and operationally effective. We recognize and embrace the essential role wildfire plays in many regions, providing important ecosystem services for fire-adapted landscapes.
At the same time, increasing wildfire severity, expanding development in fire-prone areas, and changing environmental conditions require proactive, science-based planning across the full wildfire cycle—readiness, response, recovery, and restoration. SWCA helps communities and land managers evaluate risk, prioritize actions, and implement strategies rooted in the best available data, fire ecology, and land management practices to strengthen resilience and long-term sustainability.
Our wildfire mitigation and management experts provide a comprehensive suite of services and customized solutions to address both large-scale regional objectives and the unique needs of individual communities. Our work aligns with the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, as well as applicable state guidance and policies, ensuring recommendations are practical, defensible, and aligned with regulatory and planning frameworks.
Selected wildfire projects and capabilities are further illustrated through our ArcGIS StoryMaps.
Agency Fire Management Planning
We work with our clients to align fire planning with agency policy and requirements and outline fire management strategies coupled with local, state and federal policy expertise that ensures the protection of recommended wilderness, historic sites, critical infrastructure, water supplies, federally protected species, and public health and safety.
Relevant Services
- California Environmental Quality Act and Cal VTP
- Decision Support Dashboards
- Facilitation and Public Stakeholder Engagement
- Fire Management and Land Management Planning
- Grant Writing for Wildfire Resilience Funding
- Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessments
- National Environmental Policy Act Compliance
- Online Web Content
- Public Education and Outreach
- Resource-Specific Workshops and Training
- Riparian Restoration
- Vegetation and Fuels Management Plans, Assessments, and Surveys
- Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessments
- Wildfire Mitigation Plans for Private Development and Code and Ordinance Compliance
- Wildlife Habitat Improvements
Community Wildfire Protection Plans
CWPPs identify and prioritize areas most at risk in the event of a wildland fire, emphasizing collaboration with local communities and federal, tribal, state, county and municipal governments. By applying customized risk assessments, we make site specific recommendations for fuels management, identify actions that support safe and effective wildfire response and preparedness, improve community resilience to wildfire, and inform and educate residents about how to live in a fire-adapted community.
Relevant Services
- Collaboration and Coordination With Stakeholders Including Local, Tribal, State, Federal, County and Municipal Partners
- Community Wildfire Protection Planning and Implementation
- Custom Hazard and Risk Assessments Using Site-Specific Advanced Modeling and Real-World Data
- Development of Actionable Strategies for Mitigation, Response, and Resilience
- Fire Behavior Analysis and Modeling
- Fire Operations and Emergency Response Planning and Coordination
- Firewise and Community Assessments
- Fuels Management and Mitigation Planning Including Vegetation Management
- Grant Writing for Wildfire Resilience Funding
- Landscape-Scale Project Planning and Management
- Monitoring and Adaptive Management Including Project Tracking and Effectiveness Evaluation
- Pre- and Post-Fire Data Acquisition Using Drones, Satellite Imagery, and Lidar
- Public Engagement, Education, and Outreach Including Workshops, Story Maps, and Dashboards
- Quantitative Wildfire Risk Assessments Using Proprietary and Industry Tools
Forest Restoration and Environmental Compliance
We offer forest restoration planning and environmental compliance services to address hazardous fuel conditions and restore forest health and resilience. We serve as a critical partner by initiating project development and creating grant proposals while supporting and managing grant awards. Collaborative partners include FEMA, USFS, BLM, USFWS, NPS, BIA, NRCS, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, State Forestry Departments, Tribes, Spanish Land Grants, municipalities, and private landowners.
Relevant Services
- Air Quality Assessments
- Carbon Modeling and Greenhouse Gas Analysis
- Ecological and Post-Fire Restoration Planning
- Environmental Permitting and Regulatory Compliance
- Facilitation and Public Stakeholder Engagement
- Forest Health and Resilience Planning
- GIS Services and Spatial Analysis
- Grant Proposal Development and Management
- Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Vegetation Management
- Monitoring and Adaptive Management
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Compliance
- Natural, Cultural, and Water Resource Management
- Training for Agency Partners
- Vegetation and Fuels Management Plans, Assessments, and Surveys
Post-Fire Recovery and Rehabilitation
For over two decades, we have supported restoration projects for federal, tribal, state, and local governments and private landowners from damage assessments and on-the-ground rehabilitation to securing funding for post-fire restoration and monitoring.
Relevant Services
- Burn Severity Classification and On-The-Ground Assessment
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Post-Fire
- Grant Writing to Obtain Funding for Post-Fire Restoration
- Implementation of Post-Fire Plans
- NASA RECOVER Program Analysis
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Compliance
- Post-Fire Cultural and Historic Surveys
- Post-Fire Damage Assessment
- Post-Fire Drone Reconnaissance
- Post-Fire Reconnaissance-Level Engineering Assessments
- Post-Fire Reconnaissance-Level Engineering Assessments
- Post-Fire Restoration Plans and implementation
- Post-Fire Natural Resource Surveys
- Pre- And Post-Fire Fluvial Geomorphic Modeling
- Revegetation
- Riparian Restoration
- Soil, Erosion Control, And Hydrology
- Wildlife Impacts
- Workshops And Training
Utility Wildfire Protection Planning
We develop mitigation plans that optimize systemic wildfire resilience for utility and generation companies and electric cooperatives. By assessing vegetation, operational procedures, and equipment, we pinpoint hazardous conditions and processes and provide custom recommendations for fuel management, reducing potential ignitions, improving situational awareness, and system hardening.
Relevant Services
- Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) Specific Wildfire Mitigation Plans
- Conditional and Special Use Permits
- Emergency Response Planning in Coordination with local, state, and federal agencies
- Expert Review of Wildfire Mitigation Plans
- Facilitation and Public Stakeholder Engagement
- Federal Right-of-Way Operations and Maintenance Plans
- Identification of Ignition Risks
- Landscape-Scale Project Planning and Project Management
- Vegetation and Fuels Management Plans, Assessments, and Surveys
- Wildfire Mitigation Plans to meet State Public Utility Regulations
- Wildfire Risk Modeling and Assessments
Meet the Experts
Principal Fire Planner
Victoria Amato
Victoria has a background in forestry, fire ecology, and natural resource management and has managed and developed over 100 CWPPs and Fire Management Plans. She started with SWCA in early 2007 and now leads the company’s fire and forestry team.
Resilience Director
Cody Stropki
Dr. Stropki has been researching and working with fire in the southwest since 2002. He is a certified fire ecologist and watershed science expert who focuses on pre- and post-fire mitigation to make landscapes more resilient to climate change.
Lead Project Manager | Fire and Forestry
Arianna Porter
Arianna began working in the field of fire & forestry in 2016. She supports the team through project management, fire planning, client relationships, public outreach, technical writing, and field operations throughout the U.S.
Project Environmental Planner
Emily Geery
Emily began working in natural resources planning in 2006 with a focus on wildland fire policy and planning projects and water resources planning projects for local, state, tribal and federal government clients.
Lead Geospatial Scientist | Fire and Forestry
Liz Hitzfelder
Liz has been working with the fire & forestry team since 2019. She supports the team with wildfire modelling, geospatial analysis, advanced mapping, and custom web design (Hub Sites and Story Maps).
Planning Technical Advisor | Fire
Mitch Burgard
Mitch has over 30 years of experience in wildland fire management, fire behavior analysis and fuels management with the NPS and the USFS. His expertise includes CWPP’s, structure and fuel assessments, and wildland fire compliance documents.
Planning Technical Advisor | Fire
Marlena Hovorka
Marlena has a diverse background in fire management, fire planning, fire behavior modeling, fire decisions support application development, and prescribed fire implementation. She has 30 years of wildfire experience working for the NPS and USFS.
Senior Project Manager
Carly Gibson
Carly is a senior project manager with more than 20 years of experience in federal and state environmental compliance for wildfire mitigation and forest management. She brings deep expertise in hazardous fuels and vegetation management planning, post-fire values at risk assessment and mitigation, efficient interdisciplinary team leadership, landscape scale NEPA compliance, and wildfire mitigation CEQA.
Planning Technical Advisor
Tami Parkinson
Tami is a nationally and internationally recognized wildland fire behavior analyst with more than 30 years of experience in federal wildfire management, holding senior leadership positions within the U.S. Forest Service. In 2025, Tami started with SWCA as a technical advisor, her expertise has been leveraged to support CWPP’s, WMP’s for Utilities, NEPA, in addition to building relationships with local, state, national and international entities. She specializes in fire behavior and risk, wildfire analytics for at risk communities, cross boundary mitigation, and wildfire risk analysis for critical infrastructure.
Associate Project Manager
Sam Lashley
Sam is an associate project manager and NFPA Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist with eight years of experience in wildfire operations, mitigation, and planning. He holds multiple NWCG firefighting qualifications and has served as a Type 1 wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service on engines, hand crews, and an interagency hotshot crew. Skilled in wildfire risk assessment and fuel treatment design, Sam specializes in developing Wildfire Mitigation Plans for transmission, generation, and land development clients as well as Community Wildfire Protection Plans for counties and cities.
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