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The LANDFIRE Reference Database (LFRDB) is a collection of field-sampled vegetation and fuel data used to develop and validate LANDFIRE products. It contains over 1 million georeferenced plots collected across the United States from federal, state, academic, and other partner organizations.

The plots approved for public release comprise the Public LFRDB, a subset of the vegetation and fuel plot data used in LANDFIRE production. To support public access and comply with data-sharing agreements, proprietary and sensitive information has been removed from the publicly available database.

The database includes information such as:

Vegetation
  • Natural community occurrences (plots that only have a cover type label and no other data but are cross walked to EVT)
  • Estimates of canopy cover and height per plant taxon
  • Measurements of individual trees
  • Occurrence of exotics plants
Fuel
  • Biomass estimates of downed woody material
  • Depth or biomass estimates of litter and duff layers
  • Percentage cover and height of shrub and herb layers

In addition to field measurements, the database includes derived attributes such as:

  • Ecological System Classifications
  • National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS) group labels

  • Tree, shrub and herb cover and height estimates

     

Improvements Featured in the LF 2025 Update

More than 74,000 plots were added to the database for the release of LF 2025, significantly expanding the available field reference data. These additions came from several major partner programs, including:

  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM)
  • National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
  • National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring (I&M)

This new data improves the geographic coverage and representation of vegetation and fuel conditions available through the Public LFRDB.
 

How Can the LFRDB Be Used?

The Public LFRDB is a valuable resource for researchers, land managers, and modelers who need field-based vegetation and fuel information.
Common applications include:

  • Supporting spatial and non-spatial vegetation modeling
  • Ground-truthing vegetation and fuel maps
  • Evaluating mapping and classification accuracy
  • Ecological and landscape analyses
  • Fuel characterization and fire management planning
  • Research and educational projects

Information about data sources included in the database can be found in the lutdtVisitsSourceID table.