Copy
January 2020:
View this email in your browser
A new year has dawned, a year filled with hopes, dreams, and resolutions. The folks at LANDFIRE wish you 12 months of happiness, 52 weeks of fun, 365 days of success, 8760 hours of good health, 52600 minutes of good luck, and 3153600 seconds of joy.

Happy New Year!
What to expect from LANDFIRE in 2020
LF Remap
 
Users have probably noticed the improvements in our LF Remap products. With that in mind, LF is building upon the momentum from 2019 to release the remaining two LF Remap Geographic Areas for CONUS, Southeastern and Northeastern (see image on the right), on or ahead of schedule. Look for these products in summer 2020.

Once CONUS has been completed, LF's plans are to:
  • provide updated capable fuel products for all of CONUS for the 2020 effective year
  • complete prototyping for OCONUS areas (Hawaii, Insular Areas, and Alaska) 
  • look into providing the entire LF Remap Events Geodatabase ahead of schedule, to coincide with the completion of CONUS
  • continue developing plans for future Update versions
  • continue to produce MoD-FIS for the Great Basin and Southwestern United States (Spring, Summer, Fall) for wet/dry vegetation conditions
BpS Models and Descriptions: Review and Update

The TNC LF Team coordinated a complete review of the original suite of BioPhysical (BpS) Settings models and descriptions. The purpose of this review was to resolve known issues, make the suite more efficient, and update the models and descriptions with new scientific information. Revisions are now complete, and the new products will be available later in 2020 when the LF Remap Fire Regime products that depend on BpS model information are also revised and delivered.
The goal for future BpS revisions is to provide continuous review and updates given the organizational structure of the site. Users are encouraged to provide feedback at any time.
Collapsing LF's EVTs to Important FIA Attributes


Maddie Basil (Swarthmore College) and Salma Huque’s (Reed College) undergraduate research with the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program explored how to collapse LF's Existing Vegetation Type variable into a smaller set of categories that maximized the homogeneity of the categories with respect to important FIA attributes. Their video Reclassifying LANDFIRE's Existing Vegetation Type Variable tied for first place in the Best Video Presentation Competition of the national 2019 Electronic Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition. The mentors for this project were Kelly McConville, an Assistant Professor of Statistics at Reed College, and Gretchen Moisen, a Research Forester for Interior West FIA.
Questions from the LF Help Desk

Does LF have information about the historical range of variability for fire or other ecosystem characteristics?

Yes! This type of information is available in the LF BpS models and descriptions. The description documents describe historical fire frequency and severity for every BpS and will often include an estimate of the historical fire frequency range.
In addition, the LF team and partners developed a methodology for simulating the range of variability in reference conditions. The article, A state-and-transition simulation modeling approach for estimating the historical range of variability, discusses how this method is used to estimate the historical range of variability around the mean reference condition for a BpS by varying the fire probabilities. Reference ecological conditions offer important context for land managers as they assess the condition of their landscapes and can inform the development of desired future conditions.

Kori Blankenship, LF TNC, supported some large-scale implementations of this methodology by applying the method for all forested BpS in an ID state-wide forest assessment. Recently, Haugo et al. used the methodology for all forest BpS in the Pacific Northwest (The Missing Fire), and the method has been used on the Salmon-Challis and Nantahala Pisgah National Forests to support Forest Plan Revision.

Back to top
  • Cross Boundary Landscape Restoration Workshop / Albuquerque, NM / March 2-4. The Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes (SWERI) is hosting this workshop to advance all-lands forestry in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and surrounding states.
  • After the Flames / Tahoe, CA / April 6-8
    This conference has two tracks: one for property owners, community leaders, and agencies responding to fire, and another providing technical information for scientists, engineers, trainers, and consultants

Henry Bastian
DOI Business Lead
Frank Fay
USFS Business Lead
Tim Hatten
USGS Project Manager

 

Jim Smith
TNC-LF Project Lead
Birgit Peterson
USGS Technical Lead

LANDFIRE Helpdesk
The LANDFIRE Program is a cooperative agreement between the USDA Forest Service, agencies of the Department of the Interior, and The Nature Conservancy. In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, the Program is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.
LANDFIRE LANDFIRE
Cons Gateway Cons Gateway
Email Email
Twitter Twitter
YouTube YouTube
Our address is:
LANDFIRE@tnc.org