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LANDFIRE is a collaborative, 5-year partnership involving the USDA Forest Service, Department of the Interior and The Nature Conservancy. Launched in 2004 and designed to be nationally consistent, locally relevant, and based on peer-reviewed scientific methods, the project is generating landscape-scale maps and data describing vegetation, fire, and fuels characteristics across the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii). These data and models will help agencies and partners better manage ecosystems and protect communities.
LANDFIRE is mapping fire regime condition class (FRCC), which is an ecological metric used by federal agencies, The Nature Conservancy and others, to determine the degree to which the vegetation and fire regimes of a given area have changed compared to natural conditions. FRCC is a key variable in fuels treatment funding requests, National Fire Plan accomplishment reporting, monitoring conservation and restoration success, and biodiversity threat assessments.
Part of the Conservancy’s role in LANDFIRE is to facilitate the development of hundreds of detailed models that describe how ecosystems function and document the natural role of fire. To accomplish this, the Conservancy is engaging partners across the United States in expert forums. To learn more, contact the Global Fire Initiative at fire@tnc.org.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Eric Aldrich (prescribed burn, New Hampshire); Photo © Harvey Payne (prescribed burn, Oklahoma).
