News from the Enterprise Program

New Landfire Data Guide

Author: Donald Helmbrecht

LANDFIRE’s suite of spatial data layers are a valuable resource for land managers because they stretch “wall-to-wall” across the US, are created with a consistent methodology, and are updated over time. These data are designed to support broad-scale land management activities, and users are encouraged to critique and modify them as needed for local application.

Don Helmbrecht, TEAMS Fire Management Specialist, and co-author Kori Blankenship, Fire Ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, have produced a guide to do just that. The new guide, Modifying LANDFIRE Geospatial Data for Local Applications, provides an easy to understand introduction to each of the LANDFIRE products, explains where and how to look for common data pitfalls, and offers guidance on how to complete common modification tasks. This guide is an excellent resource for anyone working with LANDFIRE data, but will be especially helpful to users, such as Enterprise Program Resource Specialists, who need to refine the data for local application.

Funding for this project was provided by the Rocky Mountain Research Station’s Wildland Fire Management Research, Development, and Application program and the LANDFIRE program. The project is an excellent example of external collaboration and technology transfer to the Forest Service and other agencies.

The guide may be downloaded from The Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Gateway.