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Description
A landscape-level GIS coverage of large fires within Yukon, spanning from 1946 to the present. The dataset includes fire perimeters, originally limited to fires over 200 hectares, with more recent additions of smaller fires near communities. It is provided by the Government of Yukon.
Use Cases
Analyze temporal trends in fire occurrence and size using the 1946-present time range and perimeter data.
Map fire perimeter proximity to communities to assess wildfire risk for populated areas.
Compare fire detection and mapping completeness between pre-1960s and post-1960s periods using the documented historical coverage gaps.
Strengths
Covers a long temporal scale from 1946 to the present.
Includes recent data with improved satellite-aided mapping that may capture unburned patches within perimeters.
Original data specification focused on fires larger than 200 hectares, providing a consistent baseline.
Limitations
Fire perimeters only were mapped, meaning unburned areas within a perimeter are not accounted for in ecological or area-burned summaries.
Fire detection and mapping capabilities were not fully developed until the 1960s, leading to under-recording or poor mapping of fires in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly in northern regions.
Provenance
Source
Government of Yukon, distributed from GeoYukon.
Collection Method
GIS coverage compiled from aerial mapping and, more recently, satellite technology.
Time Range
1946 to present.
Freshness
Last updated March 2026.
Geography
Yukon, Canada.
License is yk-oglyk; data is provided via ESRI REST and HTML formats. Historical data prior to the 1960s is incomplete and care must be taken when drawing conclusions from the early years.