Data collected and managed by Forest Service programs is available in a map service and two downloadable file formats – in a shape file and an ESRI file geodatabase.
Metadata is available that describes the content, source, and currency of the data.
You can filter the list by the topic categories in the menu at the left to help you find information you are interested in.
You can view the feature classes in a single dataset by clicking on the name of the parent dataset at the bottom of the abstract.
More Forest Service map services are available in ArcGIS Online
Shapefiles do not exist for all National Datasets.
This format has technical limitations which make them unsuitable for multiple datasets within this clearinghouse. These constraints include file size, attribute name length, field length, number of fields, limited data types, lack of topological representations and floating-point rounding errors leading to inevitable data loss.
The EDW Team is unable to support Shapefile exports for datasets that approach those limits. Esri File Geodatabases (FGDB) will remain available. Alternative formats including GeoPackage, GeoJSON, Character Separated Values (CSV), Map Services and Geospatial Discovery Tool offerings will be used to provide open format access to these National Datasets. Once these formats are available for all National Datasets, EDW will retire the shapefile format as a supported file exchange format.
Requests for KML/KMZ output
The Enterprise Data Warehouse Team tested exporting out to KML/KMZ files as a deliverable and due to the complexity and size of the datasets this has been unsuccessful.
To obtain a KML file for any EDW dataset, go to the Geospatial Data Discovery Tool and search for the dataset. An option to download to KML is available from that website.
If you have questions, contact: SM.FS.data@usda.gov.
Feature Classes
Abstract
Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 (6th Edition)
This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States from 1992 to 2020. It is the fifth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed and redundant records were identified and removed, to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.3 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 180 million acres burned during the 29-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included.
Purpose:
There is a wealth of information to be found in agency and local fire reports, but even the most rudimentary interagency analyses of wildfire numbers and area burned from the authoritative systems of record have been stymied to some degree by their disunity. While necessarily incomplete in some aspects, the database presented here is intended to facilitate fairly high-resolution geospatial analysis of U.S. fire activity over the period 1992-2020, based on available information from federal, state, and local systems of record. It was originally generated to support the national, interagency Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system (http://www.forestsandrangelands.gov/FPA/index.shtml).
