LANDFIRE operates through an extensive web of interconnected tools, agencies, and mission-critical programs, all of which are essential to its functions. A key component of LANDFIRE’s success has been its interagency approach to work and challenges alike.

Foundational to LANDFIRE has been the incorporation of research and science-based methods and data that has led to the extensive family of products LANDFIRE is, and has delivered, over the years. The idea of LANDFIRE started with some initial science and land managers. Given this start, collaboration with researchers over the years has provided a sound structure and backbone toward LANDFIRE’s effectiveness and delivery of results we see today. The following individuals and their respective work highlighted below, represent the driving force behind how LANDFIRE has been created and its continued success today.

Birgit Peterson

• Monitoring Landscape Change for LANDFIRE Using Multi-Temporal Satellite Imagery and Ancillary Data
• Automated integration of lidar into the LANDFIRE product suite

James Vogelman

• Mapping Forest Height in Alaska Using GLAS, Landsat Composites, and Airborne LiDAR

Josh Picotte

• LANDFIRE Remap Prototype Mapping Effort: Developing a New Framework for Mapping Vegetation Classification, Change, and Structure
• LANDFIRE 2015 Remap – Utilization of Remotely Sensed Data to Classify Existing Vegetation Type and Structure to Support Strategic Planning and Tactical Response

Kevin Ryan

• LANDFIRE – A national vegetation/fuels data base for use in fuels treatment, restoration, and suppression planning

Kurtis Nelson

• The LANDFIRE Refresh Strategy: Updating the National Dataset
• LANDFIRE 2010—Updates to the national dataset to support improved fire and natural resource management
• A Landsat Data Tiling and Compositing Approach Optimized for Change Detection in the Conterminous United States

Matt Rollins

• The LANDFIRE Prototype Project: nationally consistent and locally relevant geospatial data for wildland fire management
• LANDFIRE: a nationally consistent vegetation, wildland fire, and fuel assessment
• Using simulated historical time series to prioritize fuel treatments on landscapes across the United States: The LANDFIRE prototype project

Matt Reeves

• Spatial fuel data products of the LANDFIRE Project
• Fuels Products of the LANDFIRE Project

Roger Ottmar

• An overview of the Fuel Characteristic Classification System — Quantifying, classifying, and creating fuelbeds for resource planning
• Using fine-scale fuel measurements to assess wildland fuels, potential fire behavior and hazard mitigation treatments in the southeastern USA

Susan Prichard

• Empirical approaches to modeling wildland fire in the Pacific Northwest, United States: methods and applications to landscape simulations

Zhi Lang Zhu and Robert E. Keane

• Using simulated historical time series to prioritize fuel treatments on landscapes across the United States: The LANDFIRE prototype project

How it began

In 2000, the President directed the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to recommend how best to respond to severe wildland fires, reduce the impacts of fire on rural communities, and ensure sufficient firefighting capacity in the future. As a result, Congress directed development of the National Fire Plan, which precipitated LF, along with the creation of a National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy) addressing responses to wildfire, restoring and maintaining resilient landscapes, creating fire-adapted communities all based on a scientific foundation. LF is a shared program between the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior's wildland fire management bureaus under the direction of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC). LF produces a comprehensive, consistent, scientifically based suite of spatial layers and databases for the entire United States and territories.

In 2001, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported, "Federal land management agencies do not have adequate data for making informed decisions and measuring the agencies' progress in reducing fuels."

In 2002, GAO reported, "Data are not available to better prioritize communities and projects for funding" and "On the basis of our review, LANDFIRE is the only proposed research project so far that appears capable of producing consistent national inventory data for improving the prioritization of fuel projects and communities." (GAO-02-259)

LF started with a prototype in 2002 and was officially chartered in 2004 by WFLC. LF marked its 20th year in 2024. 

LANDFIRE delivering data for over 20 years

In 2004, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) signed the charter that launched LF - an innovative effort considered critical to natural resource and fire management programs. The USDA Forest Service and the Department of the Interior fund LF. Principle production partners are the U.S. Geological Survey, Forest Service, and The Nature Conservancy; other partners include the Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. New partners and collaboration contribute to the program's success, and partnerships are continually being formed.

In 2017, LANDFIRE was awarded the Department of the Interior Environmental Achievement Awards - "Environmental Dream Team" award.