Data Products ›› Vegetation

Vegetation is mapped using predictive landscape models based on extensive field-referenced data, satellite imagery and biophysical gradient layers using classification and regression trees. LANDFIRE uses vegetation products to create fuel and fire regimes data.

Most vegetation products use NatureServe's Ecological Systems classification, meeting the requirement that map units be identifiable, scalable, and model-able. The NatureServe Explorer provides descriptions for each ecological system including species, distribution and classification information.

Products » Vegetation Data Product Alerts
LANDFIRE 2008 (LF_1.1.0) existing vegetation layers for zones 10, 19, 41, 37, 46, 48, 54, 98, and 99 are updated 5/1/12. The existing vegetation layers were updated due to corrected input layers. Updated layers are Existing Vegetation Type (EVT), Existing Vegetation Height (EVH), and Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC). Users are advised to delete local copies of these layers downloaded prior to May 1, 2012 and download the updated versions. We regret any inconvenience this may cause. Biophysical Settings (BPS) versions 1.0.5/1.1.0 (Refresh 2001/2008) for the Southeast (SE) GeoArea are updated as of 1/30/12. LF_1.0.5/1.1.0 was delivered incrementally over the course of a year beginning in April 2010 with the SE GeoArea (zones 37, 46, 48, 54, 55, 56, 98, and 99). Remaining GeoAreas were completed over the course of the next eighteen months and methods for completing these data were refined, including improved agricultural, urban, and riparian/wetland mapping. LANDFIRE has now implemented these refinements in the SE GeoArea. Users are advised to delete local copies of the BPS layer for the SE GeoArea LF_1.0.5/1.1.0 downloaded prior to 1/30/12 and download the updated versions. We regret any inconvenience this may cause. Vegetation layers for the Southeast (SE) GeoArea versions 1.0.5/1.1.0 (Refresh 2001/2008) are updated as of 12-20-11. LF_1.0.5/1.1.0 was delivered incrementally over the course of a year beginning in April 2010 with the SE GeoArea (zones 37, 46, 48, 54, 55, 56, 98, and 99). Remaining GeoAreas were completed over the course of the next eighteen months. Methods for completing these data were refined, including improved agricultural, urban, and riparian/wetland mapping. LANDFIRE implemented these refinements in the SE GeoArea. The updated LF_1.0.5/1.1.0 vegetation layers for the SE GeoArea include: Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC) Existing Vegetation Height (EVH) Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) Users are advised to delete local copies of these SE GeoArea LF_1.0.5/1.1.0 layers downloaded prior to 12-20-11 and download the updated versions. We regret any inconvenience this may cause. A problem with LF_1.1.0 (Refresh 2008) zones 1 - 25, 28 - 31, 39 -41 was recently identified. Areas in mechanical disturbances were misclassified. Affected layers include: Existing Vegetation Cover, Existing Vegetation Height, and Existing Vegetation Type. While the affected acreage varies depending on the amount of mechanical disturbance found in any given zone, users are advised to delete any local copies of these layers downloaded prior to May 12, 2011 and download the current versions. We regret any inconvenience this may cause. To read an expanded explanation concerning this Vegetation Transition Error click here. Revisions were recently made to the Existing Vegetation Cover, Existing Vegetation Height, and Existing Vegetation Type layers for mapping zones 70, 71, and 75. Users are advised to delete any local copies of these three layers downloaded prior to 03/31/09 and download the current versions. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. The Environmental Site Potential layer for mapping zones 15, 18, and 28 was updated October 20, 2008. Users are encouraged to use this updated version of the fuel suite. A minor problem was recently identified with the Biophysical Settings layer for Mapping Zone 44. Users are advised to delete any local copies of this layer downloaded prior to October 20, 2008 and download the current version. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. Relative age was not set correctly in the VDDT models in the following eastern zones when they were first made available for download from www.landfire.gov: 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37, 44, 45, 55, 56, 58, and 98. Relative age, according to LANDFIRE modeling rules, should be set to the inverse of the end age of the class (for example, if the class end age is 10 and relative age is used, it should be set to -10). In the aforementioned zones, relative age was set to the class end age rather than the inverse of the class end age. In some cases, an incorrect relative age setting could change the model results. The LANDFIRE team has corrected the relative age issue and redelivered corrected files. For zone 25 a new version of the model description document was released to correct inaccurate descriptive information related to this issue. For all other zones, only the VDDT database was changed. The error in the relative age setting did not affect any of the mapped products. Customers are advised to delete any local version 1 databases (that is, those that have "v1" in the file name) they may have downloaded and replace them with the version 2 databases (those that have "v2" in the file name) currently available from the LANDFIRE website. A minor problem was recently identified with the Aspect, Elevation, Slope, Existing Vegetation Cover, Existing Vegetation Height, and Existing Vegetation Type layers for mapping zone 37. While affected acreage is very small, users are advised to delete any local copies of these six layers downloaded prior to September 6, 2007 and download the updated versions as of September 18, 2007. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused. posted 01-MAY-12 LANDFIRE 2008 (LF_1.1.0) existing vegetation layers for zones 10, 19, 41, 37, 46, 48, 54, 98, and 99 are updated 5/1/12... posted 01-FEB-12 Biophysical Settings (BPS) versions 1.0.5/1.1.0 (Refresh 2001/2008) for the Southeast (SE) GeoArea are updated as of 1/30/12... posted 21-DEC-11 Vegetation layers for the Southeast (SE) GeoArea versions 1.0.5/1.1.0 (Refresh 2001/2008) are updated as of 12-20-11... posted 12-MAY-11 A problem with LF_1.1.0 (Refresh 2008) zones 1 - 25, 28 - 31, 39 -41 was recently identified... posted 31-MAR-09 Zones 70, 71, and 75: Revisions were recently made to the Existing Vegetation Cover, Existing Vegetation Height, and Existing Vegetation Type layers... posted 22-OCT-08 Zones 15, 18, & 28: The Environmental Site Potential (esp) layer was updated... posted 22-OCT-08 Zone 44: A problem was identified with the Biophysical Settings layer... posted 20-MAY-08 Zones 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37, 44, 45, 55, 56, 58, and 98: A problem was identified with the relative age setting in the VDDT models... posted 18-SEP-07 Zone 37: A problem was identified with the following layers...
Existing Vegetation	Potential Vegetation
Existing Vegetation Type - complexes of plant communities Existing Vegetation Cover - vertically projected percent cover of the live canopy layer for a specific area Existing Vegetation Height - average height of the dominant vegetation Existing Vegetation Type, Cover, and Height agree by lifeform for every pixel. Use existing vegetation layers together for a more complete representation of the vegetated landscape.	Biophysical Settings - vegetation that may have been dominant on the landscape pre Euro-American settlement Vegetation Dynamics Models - state-and-transition models representing pre-settlement reference conditions for each biophysical setting Environmental Site Potential - vegetation that could be supported at a given site based on the biophysical environment
Other LANDFIRE Reference Database (LFRDB) – consists of vegetation and fuel data from geo-referenced sampling units nationwide

Application

Vegetation products are used:

In change detection analysis	For natural resource management
to identify the nation’s major ecosystems	to inventory wildlife habitat

Follow the links below to learn more about how these data are used for these and other uses:

2011

Use of LANDFIRE Data in Bee Pollination Study

2009

Use of LANDFIRE in Sage-Grouse Habitat Analysis: Western North America - 2007 - 2009

2007

Use of LANDFIRE Data in Bighorn Sheep Viability Analysis: Payette National Forest Area
Project Summary: Supporting Fire and Land Management Across the Nation
Vegetation Dynamics Models & VCC to Support Ecological Assessments

2006

Modeling Grizzly Bear Density using LANDFIRE Data: NW Montana, November 2006