General

• Appalachian Fire Learning Network develops brochure. This brochure is intended to raise awareness about the importance of controlled burning as a management tool in Appalachian forests. (posted 5 January 2010)
  
  
• Controlled Burning for Safe Communities and Healthy Ecosystems. The Onslow Bight demonstration landscape developed a handout about controlled burning on North Carolina's coastal plain (posted 5 January 2010)
  
  
• New England Nature Conservancy & Partner Fire Restoration Accomplishments. Read highlights of work that the Conservancy has accomplished with a variety of partners in New England's pine barrens and sand plain grasslands. According to author Parker Schuerman, "to do it right... prescribed fire is a lifestyle, not just a job." (posted 9 November 2009)
  
  
• February Training Exchange Planned. The Conservancy is hosting a prescribed fire training exchange at the Refugio-Goliad Prairie in coastal Texas 13-26 February 2010.
  
  
• New Fire Fact Sheet Available. The Prescribed Fire Training Center recently released a summary of its accomplishments. (posted 22 May 2009)

LANDFIRE

• Modeling Manual, Adapting LANDFIRE Vegetation Dynamics Models, now available

The TNC-LANDFIRE team announces the availability of Version 1.0 of a manual, Adapting LANDFIRE Vegetation Dynamics Models, 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. See the Technology Transfer page to download the Manual. All of the models for the U.S. (excluding Alaska and Hawaii, now in process) will be posted on landfire.gov. Both the manual and models are available on CD. To receive the CD, please contact Jeannie Patton. (posted 3 September 2009)

• TNC-LANDFIRE on WiserEarth.org

WiserEarth is an online community space connecting the people, nonprofits and businesses working toward a just and sustainable world. This site provides documents and directions on ways to use LANDFIRE data and models to help The Nature Conservancy, the United States Fire Learning Network, federal agencies and other partners with issues surrounding biodiversity integrity, threats assessments and strategic planning at regional and national levels.  The TNC-LANDFIRE site offers access to resources, samples of data use in the field, background documents, maps and presentations and answers to Frequently Asked Questions. (updated 28 August 2009)

 

• LANDFIRE Team Available to Help You

The TNC LANDFIRE Team plans is spending the majority of 2009 working with Conservancy Operating Units, Cross-Cutting Teams and partners to help them utilize LANDFIRE products effectively and appropriately to further the Conservancy’s mission. We urge you to contact us with any ideas, questions or requests for assistance.

Kori Blankenship, Bend, OR             kblankenship@tnc.org

Jim Smith, Jacksonville, FL                jim_smith@tnc.org

Randy Swaty, Marquette, MI            rswaty@tnc.org

 

• LANDFIRE on Conservation by Design/ConserveOnline

A wide variety of LANDFIRE tools and information is now available on our active workspace located on ConserveOnline (COL) through the Conservation by Design Gateway. The Gateway opens to a global conservation community resource that helps users find and share guidance, tools and resources supporting Conservation by Design or the process of setting goals, developing strategies, implementation and measuring results for biodiversity conservation The LANDFIRE workspace contains an array of resources related to vegetation modeling and workshop preparation, LANDFIRE project background information, a ton of maps, LANDFIRE posters and other items too numerous to mention. If you have any difficulty navigating to materials, contact Jeannie jpatton@tnc.org. (updated 28 August 2009)

 

• Updated Information Available for the West; LANDFIRE Updating Strategy

It is intended that LANDFIRE products be maintained, updated and improved over time.   The first two steps in this process are funded and underway, Rapid Refresh and Refresh. In the Rapid Refresh, the existing vegetation and fuels layers (eight total) for the western states were updated to reflect known fires since 2001. This data is complete and available at www.landfire.gov. The Refresh process has just begun; vegetation and fuels layers will be updated to ca 2008 both for major disturbances such as fire, harvesting, hurricanes, etc., and known mapping errors that could be resolved. The Refresh process will take place over the next 18 months for the entire U.S. Rapid Refresh and Refresh will be stored as separate databases and will not be integrated into the original LANDFIRE National data.

A plan for long term updating and maintenance of the LANDFIRE product suite has been developed and presented to the Executive Oversight Committee (EOC). The plan includes two phases: Biennial Update and Decadal Remap. If funded, the Biennial Update process will use remote sensing technologies to update vegetation and fuels layers every two years starting in 2010. The plan includes a 100% remap of the LANDFIRE fuels and vegetation layers to be completed in 2020. This plan has neither been approved nor funded yet, although it was accepted by the EOC. All updated products will be maintained as separate data bases to facilitate temporal comparisons. (updated 28 August 2009)

 

• TNC GIS Map Gallery

A variety of map products are available at tnc.gis.org, including more than 250 maps submitted by the Global 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 and familiarize themselves with your work. 

(Updated 18 August 2008)

• TNC-LANDFIRE News Archives

To read past release information and general updates of the LANDFIRE program at TNC, please refer to the newsletter page.

U.S. Fire Learning Network

• Mt. Grant FRCC Project Results Published. Louis Provencher was the lead author on a paper about the results of this U.S. FLN-funded project that used mid-scale fire regime condition class (FRCC) to help set fuels reduction and restoration priorities. The paper appeared in the International Journal of Wildland Fire.
  (posted 24 June 2008)
  
  
• New U.S. FLN Field Guide. The 2008 edition of the U.S. Fire Learning Network Field Guide is now available. The Guide contains a brief description of the U.S. Fire Learning Network with a national map, detailed information with regional maps for each regional Network, and even more information on the important fire activities being accomplished on the ground for many landscape.
  (posted 24 June 2008)