Webinar
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This webinar will discuss how Behave v7 differs from BehavePlus v6 by highlighting the Surface, Surface/Crown, Surface/Mortality, and Surface/Contain modules and enhancements that will be included in the next few releases in 2025-2026. This webinar will be most useful for both
burn bosses and RX-300 cadres.
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This webinar will discuss how Behave v7 differs from BehavePlus v6 by highlighting the Surface and Surface/Crown modules and enhancements that will be included in the next few releases in 2025-2026. This webinar will be most useful for fire analysts, S-390 cadres, and S-490 cadres.
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Title: How LANDFIRE EVT contributes to the estimation of forage and seasonal range in Idaho: A perspective through time 2003-2023
Speaker: Scott Bergen, Senior Wildlife Research Biologist, Idaho Department of Fish and Game
Summary: Idaho Dept of Fish and Game uses LANDFIRE extant vegetation type databases 2001-2023 to estimate seasonal range analyses of Idaho’s big game species. Using mule deer as a focal species, IDFG has developed multi-temporal analyses that use GPS data that has been collected from deployed location collars through time (2003- present). One of the most influential factors in determining mule deer summer range is the quality of forage where IDFG reclassifies EVT vegetation data into forage type data. This data, along with several other graphic data are ‘mined’ using machine-learning algorithms to estimate both winter and summer range conditions for a seasonally migratory species and their conservation management. We will discuss how LANDFIRE data is used, some of the problems and inconsistencies found with LANDFIRE (2001-2023), and how LANDFIRE is an invaluable resource for the management of this iconic western species.
Webinar recording (43:56)
Join the LANDFIRE Office Hour as Nicole Vaillant (Fire Management Specialist, RMRS, Fire Lab, Wildland Fire Management RD&A) discusses how conducting a Quantitative Wildfire Risk Assessment (QWRA) can enhance land management by evaluating wildfire risk and benefits across a landscape. This information can help plan fuel treatments, suppression responses, and fire effects monitoring. QWRA uses LANDFIRE data to model fire behavior, including fire likelihood, intensity, and impacts efficiently. The Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS) includes a workflow to make the QWRA process manageable and time efficient.
Webinar recording (1:00:34)
The Sagebrush Conservation Design (SCD) is a tool to identify intact sagebrush areas and address the largest threats to the ecosystem. The SCD focuses on first protecting intact and functioning sagebrush ecosystems, called Core Sagebrush Areas, then works outward toward more degraded areas (i.e., “Defend the Core”). The premise behind the Defend the Core approach is simple: focus resources first on preventative actions that retain ecosystem services in Core Sagebrush Areas because they are more cost-effective and more likely to be successful. The November 2024 special issue of Rangeland Ecology and Management is dedicated to applying the SCD to improve conservation outcomes across the sagebrush biome in the face of pervasive ecosystem threats. This special issue provides new science and real-world examples of how we can implement the SCD to save a biome. The overarching themes are: 1) Business-As-Usual Won’t Save the Sagebrush Sea, 2) Better Spatial Targeting Can Improve Outcomes, 3) Conservation Planning is Needed to Develop Realistic Business Plans, 4) Targeted Ecosystem Management: Monitoring Shows Managing for Sagebrush Ecological Integrity is Working, 5) Maintaining Sagebrush Ecological Integrity is Ecologically Relevant, and 6) There is Only Hope if We Manage Change. The collective articles show that there is no shared plan to save the biome, yet a business plan for the biome could ensure realistic goals. The sagebrush biome still has vast expanses of open spaces with high ecological integrity at a scale that is rare in other ecological systems within the lower 48 states. If we focus on the common ground of the main drivers of ecosystem change, implementing the SCD and Defending the Core are viable strategies to help save a biome.
Webinar recording (7:49)
The recent fires that swept the central and southern plains are catastrophic and exhibited extreme fire behavior. Fire behavior is a result of fuels, weather and topography and in this case the weather and fuels were extreme, and most importantly, the timing was just right. In this webcast, USFS, Research Ecologist Dr. Matt Reeves analyzes rangeland fuel conditions in the southern plains and keys in on the critical aspect of growing season position that is so influential to fire hazard. The conditions have to be just right to produce the type of outcomes witnessed in March and the high amount of standing dead grass (the minimum loading of herbaceous material in the fires we have seen to date was about 1200 pounds per acre on average), with no growth yet of green herbaceous material in the 2025 growing season permitted the extreme fire behavior across the region. All previous recordings are located on the Reading the Tea Leaves page.
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Wildfire analysis is increasingly recognized as a critical tool for effective wildfire management across Europe. However, access to high-quality data and advanced analysis remains prohibitively expensive, often because countries have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to data collection, integration, and reporting.
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Presenter: Sarah Anderson, Ecologist, Terrestrial Condition Assessment Coordinator
Partner Organization: US Forest Service, Terrestrial Condition Assessment Program, Natural Resources Staff Area, Washington DC Office
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Presenter: Sam Amato, Fire Application Specialist, Forest Service, Wildland Fire Management RD&A
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The NRI program collects and produces scientifically credible information on the status, condition, and trends of land, soil, water, and related natural resources on the nation’s non-federal lands. It is the largest field-based survey of natural resources in the world. Inventories of natural resources have been conducted for over 65 years on non-Federal lands. For rangelands, the 12 current inventory and assessment protocols were developed in a collaboration of federal agencies, were tested for several years across the continental United States, and were set in 2004. The same set of protocols was applied to Federal rangelands beginning in 2009. This presentation describes the protocols and some of the new relevant information being generated by this longitudinal statistical study of on-site rangeland inventory.