Map layers © LANDFIRE.gov

Quarterly, or more frequently as needed, the Global Fire Initiative LANDFIRE team publishes an e-mail newsletter intended for Nature Conservancy management, scientists and conservation practitioners. The purpose of the newsletter is to keep staff apprised of the project's status and to communicate about new tools and information available to further our conservation planning, land management and monitoring work.

While newsletter contents are reprinted here, you can receive all future TNC-LANDFIRE Newsletter through e-mail by contacting Jeannie Patton.

Suite of Tools Available for LANDFIRE Data Users

April, 2008 -- LANDFIRE spatial products for Map Zones 37, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 50, 51 and 98 are now available for download.  These zones cover much of Louisiana, east Texas, Arkansas, southern and central Missouri, eastern Dakotas, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin.  These deliveries are in addition to those portions of the country that were previously delivered (western half of the US, and the far southeast). The LANDFIRE product suite contains more than twenty 30-meter ESRI raster layers that can inform regional or large landscape conservation planning.

Vegetation models for Map Zones 37, 55, 56, 58 and 98 are available from www.landfire.gov or through the ArcMap LANDFIRE Data Access Tool (see www.niftt.gov). These map zones cover much of Louisiana and East Texas, peninsular Florida and south Georgia, and the southern Atlantic Coastal Plain. The models contain detailed descriptions and quantitative state-and-transition VDDT models of major pre-European settlement NatureServe Ecological systems. Coupled with the LANDFIRE Biophysical Setting spatial layer, these two products provide opportunities to explore, develop and compare desired future conditions for landscapes.

A new page on www.landfire.gov is devoted to a suite of tools developed to assist users of LANDFIRE data. Links to the information are found under Data Products (http://www.landfire.gov/products_tools.php), and on the Home Page. Located there is are the download link and brief description of the capabilities of the LANDFIRE Data Access Tool, FRCC Mapping Tool, LANDFIRE Tutorial, Multi-Resource Integration Tool, Fire Behavior Analysis Tool, Area Change Tool and Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool.

Further information:  Jim_Smith@tnc.org

New LANDFIRE Data and Models Now Available

November 2007 --  All LANDFIRE products for Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming are now publicly available. The new information includes Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) for these states and pre-European settlement vegetation models for approximately 200 unique ecological systems localized to different areas.

FRCC, a relative measure of the departure of current vegetation from ecological reference conditions, can be a valuable metric for measuring and tracking the “health” of fire-dependent ecosystems. LANDFIRE vegetation models include succession pathways and disturbance regimes, and can be customized for local ecosystem types. Vegetation models have many applications, including exploring how alternative management actions impact landscapes, generating desired future conditions for a landscape, and estimating the impacts of invasive species and climate change on landscapes.   

Use the “Data Products|National” link at www.landfire.gov to navigate to the USGS National Map website. Don’t forget to review the Version Alerts, Notifications and Metadata as you begin to utilize these valuable data sets.

Some LANDFIRE data are now available for other parts of the U.S., including western North Dakota and South Dakota, western Kansas, and portions of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. Vegetation models and FRCC are not available for these areas yet, but all other spatial layers (potential vegetation products, existing vegetation products, and fire behavior products) can be downloaded.

LANDFIRE products were designed for regional and national applications, but have been shown to have sub-regional, state and local applications as well. As the analysis area becomes smaller in size, more care must be taken when applying LANDFIRE data.   Local adjustments may be necessary to make the data relevant for smaller areas. Users are always cautioned to review and, if necessary, adjust all data sets before applying them, whether they are from LANDFIRE or some other source. The TNC National Team will try to answer your questions—contact us:

Kori Blankenship, Bend, Oregon (kblankenship@tnc.org)

Darren Johnson, Portland, Maine (darren_johnson@tnc.org)

Randy Swaty, Marquette, Michigan (rswaty@tnc.org)

Jim Smith, Jacksonville, Florida (jim_smith@tnc.org)

Vegetation Modeling completed in the Southeast United States

August, 2007 -- The LANDFIRE vegetation modeling effort for the Southeast United States, which began over a year ago (2006), is complete.  Regional modeling leads Chris Szell and Keith Fisher of The Nature Conservancy orchestrated the model development process, hosting four workshops in three states (Florida, North Carolina and Mississippi), over a period of five months and traveling many miles to reach out to experts across the region.  In all, over 100 models were created and refined for the region, creating a comprehensive database of detailed information regarding the natural range of variability for pre-European settlement vegetation types in the Southeast. The models represent the combined effort of 41 experts from 17 organizations that provided input on how these systems should be modeled and described.

In the LANDFIRE project, the vegetation models will be used to help map Biophysical Settings and used to calculate fire regime condition class.  However, the models, which will be available online at www.landfire.gov when other LANDFIRE results are posted, may be useful for a variety of other applications including, establishing a baseline for estimating current ecosystem status and trends, local and regional planning, testing alternative vegetation management scenarios, and developing consensus and a shared vision of the management objectives.

Rocky Mountain geospatial data sets available

June 18, 2007 -- More than 20 new, geospatial data sets are now publicly available at www.landfire.gov.  These data cover regions west of the Rocky Mountains (excluding southern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, Hawaii and Alaska). Use this link to see an interactive map of the LANDFIRE Schedule and current status (http://www.landfire.gov/schedule_map.php).

All spatial data sets are 30 meter raster grids (ESRI format), and include:

o      Two potential vegetation layers

o      Three existing vegetation layers

o      Four fuels layers

o      Five fire regime layers

o      Three biophysical gradient layers

Nature Conservancy staff working on the LANDFIRE project oversaw the development of a library of aspatial vegetation models for each "biophysical setting" (BpS) mapped. These dynamic, state-and-transition models describe the succession and disturbance pathways for each BpS, and include extensive descriptions of each BpS compiled by local experts. These will be available at www.landfire.gov by July 30, 2007.

About the LANDFIRE National Data

The methods used to develop the new data differ from the project's earlier "Rapid Assessment" deliverables in several ways. For example, plot data instead of expert opinion were used to derive the spatial data layers. The LANDFIRE National effort is also creating new products not included in the Rapid Assessment, and will be covering all 50 states by the end of FY09.

LANDFIRE data were specifically designed to support large scale analyses (many tens of thousands of acres at minimum), but may be useful for localities that have little or no data, or localities who have the facilities and expertise to localize this national data set.   

Data for the remainder of the lower 48 states are scheduled to be released incrementally over the next 16 months.  Data for Alaska and Hawaii will be completed in 2009.

Tools and Training are Available

ArcMap tools are available from the National Interagency Fuels Technology Team (NIFTT) to help local users download, modify and utilize LANDFIRE data. For more details on training opportunities, go to http://www.landfire.gov/training_overview.php. Seats will be limited at these training sessions, so contact the NIFTT team quickly to reserve a spot.

In addition, the Global Fire Initiative is planning a series of WebEx presentations to introduce Nature Conservancy staff to the data. The first WebEx is tentatively scheduled for early August, and will include some lessons learned from Nature Conservancy staff in the West who have successfully evaluated and used LANDFIRE National data and models in their programs.

For more information, visit www.tncfire.org, or contact any TNC LANDFIRE National Team member:

o      Kori Blankenship; kblankenship@tnc.org; 206-343-4345 ext. 378

o      Darren Johnson; darren_johnson@tnc.org; 207-725-6126

o      Jim Smith (Project Manager); jim_smith@tnc.org; 904-327-0055

o      Randy Swaty; rswaty@tnc.org; 906-225-0399 ext. 16

Rapid Assessment Report Released

March 2, 2007 -- The Global Fire Initiative’s LANDFIRE team recently completed an assessment of the ecological role and integrity of fire regimes across the lower 48 states of the U.S., and implications for conservation.

Based on newly available data from the LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment project, the analysis provides a broad-scale glimpse of the biodiversity health of U.S. forests, aridlands and grasslands. The technical report An Ecological Assessment of Fire and Biodiversity Conservation Across the Lower 48 States provides a series of recommendations for the Conservancy and its U.S. partners if we are to maintain and restore fire’s ecological roles in ecosystems, and, therefore, effectively conserve biodiversity.

In essence, the report finds that the Conservancy and partners must

1) restore the ecologically-appropriate roles of fire in forests, woodlands and shrublands where alteration has or will result in uncharacteristic fires and negative contributions to climate change;

2) influence protected area and land management strategies, wildland fire use and fire exclusion policies to allow fire to more effectively play its ecological roles in more places;
3) proactively reform fire, land use, air quality policies, timber harvest and domestic animal grazing plans and activities that alter fire regimes and fuel characteristics;
4) educate policy-makers, decision-makers and the public in anticipation of
inevitable conflicts between maintaining fire’s ecological roles and the increasing expansion of human development into the wildland-urban interface;
5) eliminate, influence or mitigate the impacts of housing and infrastructure
development on ecologically-appropriate fire regimes and intact, large, roadless landscapes; and
6) leverage conservation actions through fire science, building effective capacity and fostering partnerships with governmental and non-governmental organizations that share goals for fire regime restoration.

The main body of the report (35 pages) is posted on the GFI site (internal to TNC employees) http://home.tnc/conservation_initiatiatives/fire/. The entire 6.4mb report, including appendices, can be downloaded from the Global Fire Initiative folder of the Conservancy’s partner FTP site (internal to TNC employees).

For more information about the LANDFIRE project and the Rapid Assessment report, contact Project Manager Jim Smith or the primary author of the report, Kori Blankenship.

Custom GIS tools available: FOR 438 helps users work with LANDFIRE data

Sept. 25, 2006 -- The National Interagency Fuels Technology Team (NIFTT) developed several custom GIS tools that can help Nature Conservancy practitioners in the U.S. with planning and priority setting. In general, the tools allow users to customize and better access data developed by the LANDFIRE project. For example, there is a tool that allows users to calculate fire regime condition class (FRCC) using local data. Another tool helps with the design of restoration and fuel reduction treatments. The LANDFIRE Data Access Tool allows one to download LANDFIRE data from the National Map in an ArcGIS environment.

Training

Two courses are available to train you in the use of these new tools:

• FOR-437 -- The on-line Introduction to LANDFIRE course is a pre-requisite for FOR-438. Information on the course and registration materials are available at http://frames.nbii.gov/niftt under “NIFTT Training.”
• FOR-438 -- Fuel Assessment Techniques using LANDFIRE Data is a classroom training opportunity developed and conducted by NIFTT. Attendees will learn how to use a set of custom ArcGIS tools that will help users analyze fuels and fuels treatments using LANDIRE data. An effective approach for the training is to send two individuals, one who is knowledgeable about fire ecology, and a second who is GIS proficient. 

 

Information about the course, and registration forms for the training sessions are attached to this e-mail, or at  http://frames.nbii.gov/niftt under NIFTT Training, or at http://www.landfire.gov/documents/FOR 438 Announcement.doc

NIFTT Home Page The National Interagency Fuels Technology Team operates under the auspices of the National Interagency Fuels Coordination Group; http://www.nifc.gov/fuels/, and the LANDFIRE Project; http://www.landfire.gov, and is the primary technology transfer group for these organizations. More information on NIFTT activities and roducts is available at: http://frames.nbii.gov/niftt.

NIFTT Tools Page The latest version of the NIFTT tools can be downloaded at http://frames.nbii.gov/niftt/resources.

New U.S. Fire and Fuels Datasets Available Online

July 11, 2006 -- The first “coast-to-coast” data showing fire and fuels characteristics consistently across the lower 48 states has just been released by a multi-partner coalition of the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Department of the Interior and The Nature onservancy. Congress, federal agencies and others will use this information—known as the “LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment”—to help set national priorities for treating landscapes with altered fire regimes.

Conservancy staff can use Rapid Assessment (RA) data for ecoregional planning, regional 3-year implementation planning for the 2015 Goal and to help track progress toward the 2015 Goal in the lower 48 states until better LANDFIRE data are available. These data may also inform conservation actions at state or multi-state scales. Download the data from the Internet. 

The RA was conceived as a way to provide an interim map of fire regime conditions at moderate accuracy for the contiguous United States until the second phase of LANDFIRE is completed. The RA data will be replaced continually by LANDFIRE National data being produced between now and 2009. The LANDFIRE National data will be developed using field information and more refined methods and will have a broader suite of products than the RA.

View a complete list of LANDFIRE products. You may also view one of the A products: a map of Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) for the contiguous 48 states.

The Nature Conservancy’s role in the overall LANDFIRE project is to convene expert workshops and coordinate the development of ecological models across the United States that serve as the foundation for the FRCC map. The Conservancy’s Global Fire Initiative is working with fire ecologists in a number of state chapters to develop approximately 1,000 unique models.

Additional information is available online, or contact LANDFIRE Project anager Jim Smith.

This page last updated 12 June 2008.