First, we would like to thank the wildland fire advisory group. Their wisdom and guidance helped us build the dataset as it currently exists. This dataset is comprised of two different zip files. Zip File 1: The data within this zip file are composed of two wildland fire datasets. (1) A merged dataset consisting of 40 different wildfire and prescribed fire layers. The original 40 layers were all freely obtained from the internet or provided to the authors free of charge with permission to use them. The merged layers were altered to contain a consistent set of attributes including names, IDs, and dates. This raw merged dataset contains all original polygons many of which are duplicates of the same fire. This dataset also contains all the errors, inconsistencies, and other issues that caused some of the data to be excluded from the combined dataset. Care should be used when working with this dataset as individual records may contain errors that can be more easily identified in the combined dataset. (2) A combined wildland fire polygon dataset composed of both wildfires and prescribed fires ranging in years from mid 1800s to the present that was created by merging and dissolving fire information from 40 different original wildfire datasets to create one of the most comprehensive wildfire datasets available. Attributes describing fires that were reported in the various sources are also merged, including fire names, fire codes, fire IDs, fire dates, fire causes. Zip File 2: The fire polygons were turned into 30 meter rasters representing various summary counts: (a) count of all wildland fires that burned a pixel, (b) count of wildfires that burned a pixel, (c) the first year a wildfire burned a pixel, (d) the most recent year a wildfire burned a pixel, and (e) count of prescribed fires that burned a pixel.

First, we would like to thank the wildland fire advisory group. Their wisdom and guidance helped us build the dataset as it currently exists. Currently, there are multiple, freely available fire datasets that identify wildfire and prescribed fire burned areas across the United States. However, these datasets are all limited in some way. Their time periods could cover only a couple of decades or they may have stopped collecting data many years ago. Their spatial footprints may be limited to a specific geographic area or agency. Their attribute data may be limited to nothing more than a polygon and a year. None of the existing datasets provides a comprehensive picture of fires that have burned throughout the last few centuries. Our dataset uses these existing layers and utilizes a series of both manual processes and ArcGIS Python (arcpy) scripts to merge these existing datasets into a single dataset that encompasses the known wildfires and prescribed fires within the United States and certain territories. Forty different fire layers were utilized in this dataset. First, these datasets were ranked by order of observed quality (Tiers). The datasets were given a common set of attribute fields and as many of these fields were populated as possible within each dataset. All fire layers were then merged together (the merged dataset) by their common attributes to created a merged dataset containing all fire polygons. Polygons were then processed in order of Tier (1-8) so that overlapping polygons in the same year and Tier were dissolved together. Overlapping polygons in subsequent Tiers were removed from the dataset. Attributes from the original datasets of all intersecting polygons in the same year across all Tiers were also merged so that all attributes from all Tiers were included, but only the polygons from the highest ranking Tier were dissolved to form the fire polygon. The resulting product (the combined dataset) has only one fire per year in a given area with one set of attributes. While it combines wildfire data from 40 wildfire layers and therefore has more complete information on wildfires than the datasets that went into it, this dataset has also has its own set of limitations. Please see the Data Quality attributes within the metadata record for additional information on this dataset's limitations. Overall, we believe this dataset is designed be to a comprehensive collection of fire boundaries within the United States and provides a more thorough and complete picture of fires across the United States when compared to the datasets that went into it.

First, we would like to thank the wildland fire advisory group. Their wisdom and guidance helped us build the dataset as it currently exists. Currently, there are multiple, freely available fire datasets that identify wildfire and prescribed fire burned areas across the United States. However, these datasets are all limited in some way. Their time periods could cover only a couple of decades or they may have stopped collecting data many years ago. Their spatial footprints may be limited to a specific geographic area or agency. Their attribute data may be limited to nothing more than a polygon and a year. None of the existing datasets provides a comprehensive picture of fires that have burned throughout the last few centuries. Our dataset uses these existing layers and utilizes a series of both manual processes and ArcGIS Python (arcpy) scripts to merge these existing datasets into a single dataset that encompasses the known wildfires and prescribed fires within the United States and certain territories. Forty different fire layers were utilized in this dataset. First, these datasets were ranked by order of observed quality (Tiers). The datasets were given a common set of attribute fields and as many of these fields were populated as possible within each dataset. All fire layers were then merged together (the merged dataset) by their common attributes to created a merged dataset containing all fire polygons. Polygons were then processed in order of Tier (1-8) so that overlapping polygons in the same year and Tier were dissolved together. Overlapping polygons in subsequent Tiers were removed from the dataset. Attributes from the original datasets of all intersecting polygons in the same year across all Tiers were also merged so that all attributes from all Tiers were included, but only the polygons from the highest ranking Tier were dissolved to form the fire polygon. The resulting product (the combined dataset) has only one fire per year in a given area with one set of attributes. While it combines wildfire data from 40 wildfire layers and therefore has more complete information on wildfires than the datasets that went into it, this dataset has also has its own set of limitations. Please see the Data Quality attributes within the metadata record for additional information on this dataset's limitations. Overall, we believe this dataset is designed be to a comprehensive collection of fire boundaries within the United States and provides a more thorough and complete picture of fires across the United States when compared to the datasets that went into it.

First, we would like to thank the wildland fire advisory group. Their wisdom and guidance helped us build the dataset as it currently exists. Currently, there are multiple, freely available wildland fire datasets that identify wildfire and prescribed fire areas across the United States. However, these datasets are all limited in some way. Time periods, spatial extents, attributes, and maintenance for these datasets are highly variable, and none of the existing datasets provide a comprehensive picture of wildfires that have burned since the 1800s. Utilizing a series of both manual processes and ArcGIS Python (arcpy) scripts, we merged 40 of these disparate datasets into a single dataset that encompasses the known wildfires within the United States from the 1800s to the present. These datasets were ranked by order of observed quality, and overlapping polygons in the same year were used individually or dissolved together with other polygons based on ranked quality (see individual steps in the polygon metadata for full details). The fire polygons were turned into 30 meter rasters representing various summary counts: (a) count of all wildland fires that burned a pixel, (b) count of wildfires that burned a pixel, (c) the first year a wildfire burned a pixel, (d) the most recent year a wildfire burned a pixel, and (e) count of prescribed fires that burned a pixel.

First, we would like to thank the wildland fire advisory group. Their wisdom and guidance helped us build the dataset as it currently exists. Currently, there are multiple, freely available wildland fire datasets that identify wildfire and prescribed fire areas across the United States. However, these datasets are all limited in some way. Time periods, spatial extents, attributes, and maintenance for these datasets are highly variable, and none of the existing datasets provide a comprehensive picture of wildfires that have burned since the 1800s. Utilizing a series of both manual processes and ArcGIS Python (arcpy) scripts, we merged 40 of these disparate datasets into a single dataset that encompasses the known wildfires within the United States from the 1800s to the present. These datasets were ranked by order of observed quality, and overlapping polygons in the same year were used individually or dissolved together with other polygons based on ranked quality (see individual steps in the polygon metadata for full details). The fire polygons were turned into 30 meter rasters representing various summary counts: (a) count of all wildland fires that burned a pixel, (b) count of wildfires that burned a pixel, (c) the first year a wildfire burned a pixel, (d) the most recent year a wildfire burned a pixel, and (e) count of prescribed fires that burned a pixel.

This dataset is comprised of four different zip files. Zip File 1: A combined wildfire polygon dataset ranging in years from 1878-2019 (142 years) that was created by merging and dissolving fire information from 12 different original wildfire datasets to create one of the most comprehensive wildfire datasets available. Attributes describing fires that were reported in the various source data, including fire name, fire code, ignition date, controlled date, containment date, and fire cause, were included in this product’s attribute table. Zip Files 2-4: The fire polygons were turned into 30 meter rasters with the values representing area burned in each year (128 yearly rasters total, as some years in the 1800s had no fires recorded). Three rasters were calculated from the yearly rasters: (a) their yearly values were turned to 1 and these values were summed to create a count of the number of times burned, (b) the first time a pixel burned was selected to create a first year burned raster, and (c) the last time a pixel burned was selected to create a most recent year burned raster. These calculations were done for the contiguous US, Alaska, and Hawaii separately in order to reduce file size and download time. Each of the zipped files contains the three rasters for one of the following locations: contiguous US, Alaska, and Hawaii.

This dataset is comprised of four different zip files. Zip File 1: A combined wildfire polygon dataset ranging in years from 1878-2019 (142 years) that was created by merging and dissolving fire information from 12 different original wildfire datasets to create one of the most comprehensive wildfire datasets available. Attributes describing fires that were reported in the various source data, including fire name, fire code, ignition date, controlled date, containment date, and fire cause, were included in this product’s attribute table. Zip Files 2-4: The fire polygons were turned into 30 meter rasters with the values representing area burned in each year (128 yearly rasters total, as some years in the 1800s had no fires recorded). Three rasters were calculated from the yearly rasters: (a) their yearly values were turned to 1 and these values were summed to create a count of the number of times burned, (b) the first time a pixel burned was selected to create a first year burned raster, and (c) the last time a pixel burned was selected to create a most recent year burned raster. These calculations were done for the contiguous US, Alaska, and Hawaii separately in order to reduce file size and download time. Each of the zipped files contains the three rasters for one of the following locations: contiguous US, Alaska, and Hawaii.

These data consist of plot-level plant species cover measurements from numerous targeted post-fire vegetation studies across the western United States. This data release includes two data tables. The first data table: 'postfire_vegplot_dataset.csv', consists of absolute percent live foliar cover measurements of all plant species within plots from targeted post-fire vegetation studies, or 'datasets', across the western United States. The second data table: 'dataset_information_table.csv', lists any citations, links to related publications, or other notes about data collection for specific datasets.

These data consist of plot-level plant species cover measurements from numerous targeted post-fire vegetation studies across the western United States. This data release includes two data tables. The first data table: 'postfire_vegplot_dataset.csv', consists of absolute percent live foliar cover measurements of all plant species within plots from targeted post-fire vegetation studies, or 'datasets', across the western United States. The second data table: 'dataset_information_table.csv', lists any citations, links to related publications, or other notes about data collection for specific datasets.

The increase in wildfires, particularly in the western U.S., represents one of the greatest threats to multiple native ecosystems. Despite this threat, there is currently no central repository to store both past and current wildfire perimeter data. Currently, wildfire boundaries can only be found in disparate local or national datasets. These datasets are generally restricted to specific locations, fire sizes, or time periods. Our objective was to create a comprehensive national wildfire perimeter dataset by combining all freely available wildfire datasets that we could download. We combined and dissolved individual wildfire polygons from multiple datasets if they were in the same year and overlapped each other or were within 1km of the fire boundary. This combined dataset includes spatial summary statistics such as number of times burned, earliest fire of record, and most recent fire of record.