The TNC LANDFIRE Team plans to spend the majority of FY09 working with Nature 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
Darren Johnson, Burlington, VT darren_johnson@tnc.org
Jim Smith, Jacksonville, FL jim_smith@tnc.org
Randy Swaty, Marquette, MI rswaty@tnc.org
LANDFIRE on ConserveOnline
A wide variety of LANDFIRE tools and information is now available on ConserveOnline (COL): http://conserveonline.org/workspaces/landfire.library. This 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 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.
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)
