About this Project
The data compiled for this Southern Rockies Fire Science Network “Subregion” is the result of a volunteer project that supports information dissemination and natural resource management decisions within the 5 subregions of the SRFSN. Why subregions? Learn more here.
The Nature Conservancy & LANDFIRE
LANDFIRE, Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools, is a shared program between the wildland fire management programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and The Nature Conservancy, that provides landscape-scale geo-spatial products, vegetation models and tools to support cross-boundary planning, management, and operations.
The Nature Conservancy supports LANDFIRE through
“Advancing conservation outcomes through collaborative ecosystem science.”
LANDFIRE provides 25+ national geo-spatial layers (e.g. vegetation, fuel, disturbance, etc.), databases, and ecological models that are available to the public for the U.S. and insular areas. These nationwide geospatial data products reflect current and historic conditions and include ecosystem dynamic models that can be used for conservation, fire planning, and land management decisions.
Conservation Data Lab
The dynamic members of the Conservation Data Lab have been coding, creating and supporting natural resource decisions since 2020. Led by TNC Ecologist, Randy Swaty, the CDL meets weekly to collaborate, problem solve, try out (and break) code, create cool maps and produce insightful data visualizations (among other things).
Check out the CDL’s 2022 Accomplishments here.
CDL members donated their time to complete this web app for the SRFSN. Projects like these provide real-life opportunities to apply new techniques to answer common natural resource questions. A big thanks to Myles Walimaa for GIS processing R code.
The CDL is dedicated to fostering curious, independently minded, problem solving scientists. Learn more about the CDL here.
Biophysical Settings Products
Quick intro
A Biophysical Setting (BpS) is a concept that represents the vegetation that may have been dominant on the landscape prior to European colonization of North America and is based on both the current biophysical environment and an approximation of the historical disturbance regime.
LANDFIRE collaborated with experts around the country to create a description and model for every BpS it mapped across the US.
Check out the vegetation modeling website to learn how to integrate BpS into your work.
Resources
- Vegetation dynamics models: a comprehensive set for natural resource assessment and planning in the United States. Kori Blankenship, Randy Swaty, Kimberly R. Hall, Sarah Hagen, Kelly Pohl, Ayn Shlisky Hunt, Jeannie Patton, Leonardo Frid, Jim Smith
- BpS Descriptions and Models information
- Information about the BpS Spatial Data
Vegetation Products
Quick Intro
LANDFIRE (LF) existing vegetation layers describe the following elements: Existing Vegetation Type (EVT), Existing Vegetation Canopy Cover (EVC), and Existing Vegetation Height (EVH). These layers are created using predictive landscape models based on extensive field-referenced data, satellite imagery and biophysical gradient layers using classification and regression trees.’ (from https://landfire.gov/vegetation.php)