US Forest Service Aerial Fire Retardant Avoidance Areas

A map service depicting aerial fire retardant avoidance areas delivered as part of the 2011 Nationwide Aerial Application of Fire Retardant on National Forest System Land Environmental Impact Statement. This Feature Class shows areas, provided by each National Forest who used aerial fire retardant from 2000-2010, where the aerial application of fire retardant should be avoided in order to prevent the potential of impacts to Federally listed threatened or endangered species as identified through consultation, or Forest Service sensitive species. Data includes location of terrestrial and hydrographic areas where the application of aerial fire retardant is to be avoided. Current aerial fire retardant standards prohibit application within 300 feet of hydrographic features. Therefore, this data may contain duplicate hydrographic areas already covered by existing standards. This data is to be used in planning and implementation phases of USFS fire activities to help prevent misapplication of aerial fire retardant in known areas of TES species or water features throughout National Forest lands. Provided here is a National merged dataset derived from each National Forest contribution. This data has been merged, dissolved, and erased of attributes contained in each original component dataset. For this purpose, specific attributes are not necessary, as any spatial areas depicted simply show areas where aerial fire retardant use is to be avoided as stated in USFS guidelines.

To help determine areas where aerial fire retardant should be avoided within USFS lands.