Click to enlarge Pre-European Fire Regime Groups

Tool Available to Explore Current Vegetation Conditions for the Contiguous United States

August 2010 -- A new tool has been developed by the TNC-LANDFIRE Project Team that can inform large landscape managers and planners about the difference between current vegetation structure and composition and pre-European settlement reference conditions

The Vegetation Departure Calculator (VDC) provides a comprehensive look at vegetation conditions across the contiguous United States. It is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that includes a pivot table that allows users to interactively summarize and compare current vegetation conditions in many different ways (geography, agency, protected status, ecoregion, portfolio status, etc.) using consistently developed and comprehensive nationwide data available from the LANDFIRE project (http://www.landfire.gov/products_national.php).

The VDC can be downloaded at http://www.tncfire.org/AssessingVegetationConditions.htm. Please review all metadata and information included in the tool to provide the proper context and understanding needed to utilize the results appropriately. Contact any TNC LANDFIRE Team member if you have questions http://www.tncfire.org/contact_LANDFIRE.htm.

Map and Brochure Illustrate Historical Fire Regimes Across the United States

August 2010 -- The Nature Conservancy’s LANDFIRE Project team has produced a brochure and map, Wildland Fire in the United States: Then and Now, that summarize historical fire regimes for the entire United States based upon the LANDFIRE National Historic Fire Regime spatial layer. The spatial extent of Fire Regime Groups I, II, III and IV indicate that fire was a dominant ecological force shaping ecosystems across the U.S. prior to European settlement.

For further information, contact Jim Smith, TNC-LANDFIRE Project Manager. Requests for hard copies of this and other brochures and maps should be directed to Jeannie Patton, Program Coordinator.

Download a poster of the Wildland Fire map.

Summary Project Report of TNC-LANDFIRE's First Five Years is Available

March 2010 -- The LANDFIRE Project: Supporting Fire and Land Management Across the Nation summary report describing the unique collaboration between the USDA Forest Service, the Department of the Interior and The Nature Conservancy is now available in hard copy and online here.

The 16-page, full color summary report provides an overview of the LANDFIRE project, selected “Stories from the Field” that illustrate the value of the data and products that LANDFIRE offers and the outline of a plan to refresh and update data in years to come. Individuals and entities involved in fire management, vegetation management, and conservation planning, and others who need models and maps that consistently span the conterminous United States may find this report useful.

Designed from the ground up, LANDFIRE produced consistent data products to meet Government Accountability Office requirements, especially with regard to national applications. Further, because fire management practitioners often drill down to local levels as fire policy has become more flexible regarding suppression and prescribed fire activities, LANDFIRE provides a spatially comprehensive data set that can be adapted to support local management applications in the absence of other data sets. The consistent and comprehensive nature of LANDFIRE spatial products is a key characteristic that makes them unique and important for fire management and other applications.

Among the applications of LANDFIRE products that are described in this report are:

• prioritizing restoration efforts and evaluating ecological sustainability,
• supporting partnerships,
• federal fire planning, and
• landscape-level planning processes.  

Although LANDFIRE has principally been used in wildland fire applications, the depth of the data products is important for vegetation, wildlife habitat, carbon/climate assessments and management across administrative boundaries and across the country.

For further information, download the LANDFIRE Project Report here. Also, click on www.landfire.gov, http://tncfire.org/training_landfire.htm, or contact JIM SMITH, TNC-LANDFIRE Project Manager at jim_smith@tnc.org. Requests for hard copies of the report should be directed to Jeannie Patton, Program Coordinator, at jpatton@tnc.org.

 

GIS Practitioners:

Data and Models for Conservation Planning and Analysis available

June 2010

• Do you need consistent, comprehensive spatial data sets to support planning and analysis over large and very large landscapes?
• Do you want these data sets to be easy to obtain?
• Do you want these data sets to be ready to use virtually immediately with almost no pre-processing?
• Do you need models that help predict future vegetation patterns?

Click here to access background about the updates and active links so you can access these tools quickly and easily.

Brochure & Map Available: Ecosystem Conditions Across the Lower 48 States

January 2010 -- The TNC-LANDFIRE team summarized information gleaned from five years of study and analysis regarding vegetation departure across the conterminous United States by the LANDFIRE Project. “Vegetation departure” (called Fire Regime Condition Class in LANDFIRE) describes the difference between current vegetation structure and composition (as mapped from satellite imagery and plot data) and pre-European settlement reference conditions (described and modeled using literature, local data and expert input). Vegetation departure may be caused by various factors, including altered fire regimes, invasive species and/or land use practices that alter ecological communities, such as grazing and incompatible forestry practices.

The results of the team’s analysis are distilled into a tri-fold brochure and map, available in both electronic and hard copy, that is available for reference and distribution.

Sketch of results

As shown on a national map, 80% of the naturally vegetated area in the conterminous US is moderately to highly departed from its reference condition. And, while popular expectation might be that western lands are the most imperiled, analysis shows that the eastern US demonstrates the highest degree of vegetation departure. The brochure clearly illustrates analysis results using pie charts and color bars, and can be used beyond the TNC science community to inform colleagues and constituents about current ecosystem conditions.

 

Download the brochure by clicking on the link above. For hard copies, contact jpatton@tnc.org.

Modeling Manual Available

August 2009 -- The TNC-LANDFIRE team announces the availability of Version 1.0 of a manual, Adapting LANDFIRE Vegetation Dynamics Models, (downloadable here) that can help ecologists and land managers evaluate and compare the costs and benefits of available management options and restoration strategies. The manual is intended to help users adapt LANDFIRE Vegetation Dynamics Models developed for Pre-European settlement conditions for use in modeling and exploring current and future landscapes.

The manual, intended for those familiar with the Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool, provides step-by-step, screen-by-screen instructions that inform users about the ways scenario-planning can be accomplished. Two “real world" examples—one from Utah and the other from Georgia—illustrate how to add invasive species, management options and budget constraints to help create the most realistic model possible so as to support conservation planning processes. Once adapted, these models may be useful in predicting future vegetation conditions, exploring the impacts of potential environmental changes and comparing the results of different management options. Compared to developing ecological models from scratch, adapting the LANDFIRE models will be much faster, easier and more feasible for resource professionals without much prior modeling experience.

Also available is the entire LANDFIRE vegetation model library, excluding Alaska and Hawaii map zones, which will be added at a later date. To receive the Manual and Model library on CD, contact Jeannie Patton.

TNC-LANDFIRE Email Newsletter Archives

On an ad hoc basis, the TNC-LANDFIRE team writes announcements intended intended for e-mail distribution to The Nature Conservancy managers, scientists and conservation practitioners. The notices keep staff apprised of the Program's status and to communicate about new tools and information available to further our conservation planning, land management and monitoring work. For access to previous news announcements, contact jpatton@tnc.org.

TNC GIS Map Gallery

A variety of map products are available at The Nature Conservancy's GIS site, including more than 250 maps submitted by the Fire Team and dozens of other TNC Operating Units. On this site, you will find Fire Regime Condition Class and Fire Regime maps from the LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment (search keyword: fire). They can be downloaded as graphics for reports, presentations, plans, etc. Consider uploading your interesting map products to this site so others can use them. For more information, contact any TNC LANDFIRE National Team member.

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This page last updated 16 August 2010.