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Landfire: Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Managers are faced with reducing hazardous fuel, restoring fire regimes, and decreasing the threat of catastrophic wildfire. Often, the comprehensive, scientifically-credible data and applications needed to test alternative fuel treatments across multi-ownership landscapes are lacking. Teams from the USDA Forest Service, Department of the Interior, and The Nature Conservancy are completing the LANDFIRE Project, which produces consistent and comprehensive spatial data describing vegetation composition and structure, wildland fuel, historical fire regimes, and ecosystem status across the entire United States. LANDFIRE provides a scientific foundation for assessments of wildland fuel conditions, fire hazard, and ecosystem status. While LANDFIRE products will fill immediate needs for testing alternative fire management scenarios, planning fuel treatments, and allocating resources, the data and models have much broader applications in research, biodiversity conservation, and strategic forest and resource management planning. This paper provides a synopsis of the background, objectives, and deliverables of the LANDFIRE Project and the management challenges LANDFIRE products address. Presented are potential applications of LANDFIRE data for use in fire research and vegetation ecology studies and in wildland fuel treatments and restoration projects to protect communities at risk.

Parent Publication

Keywords

fire, fire ecology, fuels management, LANDFIRE, wildland fuel conditions, fire hazard, ecosystem status, alternative fire management scenarios, models

Citation

Ryan, Kevin C.; Lee, Kristine M.; Rollins, Matthew G.; Zhu, Zhiliang; Smith, James; Johnson, Darren. 2006. Landfire: Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project. In: Andrews, Patricia L.; Butler, Bret W., comps. 2006. Fuels Management-How to Measure Success: Conference Proceedings. 28-30 March 2006; Portland, OR. Proceedings RMRS-P-41. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 193-200
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/25946