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Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC)

LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment (RA) fire regime condition classes (FRCC) delineate a standardized, interagency index to measure the departure of current conditions from reference conditions. FRCC is defined as a relative measure describing the degree of departure from the reference fire regime (Hann and Bunnell 2001). This departure results in changes to one (or more) of the following ecological components: vegetation characteristics (species composition, structural stages, stand age, canopy closure, and mosaic pattern); fuel composition; fire frequency, severity, and pattern; and other associated disturbances (such as insect and disease mortality, grazing, and drought) (Schmidt and others 2001). FRCC is composed of three classes:

FRCC 1 –	Within the natural (historical) range of variability (“reference fire regime”) of vegetation characteristics; fuel composition; fire frequency, severity and pattern; and other associated disturbances
FRCC 2 –	Moderate departure from the reference fire regime of vegetation characteristics; fuel composition; fire frequency, severity and pattern; and other associated disturbances
FRCC 3 –	High departure from the reference fire regime of vegetation characteristics; fuel composition; fire frequency, severity and pattern; and other associated disturbances

Additional data layer values were included to represent non-vegetated types (such as water, snow/ice, and barren), wetlands/alpine, development (such as residential, commercial, roads, and mines), agriculture, and unclassified vegetation (in other words, vegetation that was not classified during the RA process).

LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment FRCC was calculated for each RA potential natural vegetation group (PNVG) within an ECOMAP subsection using standard Interagency Fire Regime Condition Class Guidebook methods (Hann and others 2004). Reference conditions were estimated through the RA PNVG modeling effort (for more information, please visit the RA Reference Condition Models section of this website). Current conditions were estimated as part of the RA Succession Classes spatial data layer. For additional information on the methods used to calculate FRCC, please visit www.frcc.gov.

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Hann, W.J., Bunnell, D.L. 2001. Fire and land management planning and implementation across multiple scales. Int. J. Wildland Fire. 10:389-403.

Hann, W.; Shlisky, A.; Havlina, D.; Schon, K.; Barrett, S.; DeMeo, T.; Pohl, K.; Menakis, J.; Hamilton, D.; Jones, J.; Levesque, M.; Frame, C. 2004. Interagency Fire Regime Condition Class Guidebook. Last update October 2007: Version 1.3. [Homepage of the Interagency and The Nature Conservancy fire regime condition class website, USDA Forest Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, The Nature Conservancy, and Systems for Environmental Management]. [Online]. Available: www.frcc.gov.

Schmidt, Kirsten M., Menakis, James P., Hardy, Colin C., Hann, Wendel J., and Bunnell, David L. 2002. Development of coarse-scale spatial data for wildland fire and fuel management. General Technical Report RMRSGTR-87. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 41p. Available at: www.fs.fed.us/fire/fuelman.