Defensible and Data-Driven: The New Baseline for Wildfire Mitigation

Utilities like Northern Lights and Inland Power are trading reactive maintenance for smarter, risk-informed strategies. By partnering with Overstory, they’ve gained system-wide visibility into vegetation threats—helping them reduce hazard trees by up to 88%, focus work where it matters most, and improve coordination with regulators and fire districts. With AI-powered insights, they’re not just clearing more trees—they’re making better decisions.

From identifying nearly half a million strike trees to targeting just 4% of scanned areas for action, these utilities are proving that defensible, cost-effective mitigation is possible at scale. The result? Safer communities, optimized budgets, and a foundation for long-term resilience.

Key takeaways:

• 88% reduction in hazard trees (Northern Lights)
• 76,000 hazard trees identified, 335 prioritized (Inland Power)
• Focused action on just 4% of network area
• Data that drives fieldwork, funding, and collaboration

“Most of our wildfire-related concerns come from the fall-in of trees into our lines and rights of way. We maintain those to the extent that we can, but a lot of the trouble trees are big, dying aspens that look healthy. Satellite data from Overstory helps us identify those trees and mitigate risk before they fall, which is really cool.”

— Bryan Hannegan, CEO, Holy Cross Energy