The National Center for Landscape Fire Analysis is a locus for research, learning, and technology development located within the College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana, Missoula. Its work depends upon collaborative relationships with federal, state, and local partners engaged in fire, fuels management, and research in the western United States. Read our 2007 Yearly Report (6.22 MB pdf)

Purpose
The Center develops, integrates, and synthesizes remote sensing, social assessments, economic considerations, and other information technology applications to improve fire and fuels management at the landscape scale. It also develops innovative approaches for delivery of these products through training, education, and support for graduate level research. The Center's efforts revolve around six broad goals:

• Advance the effectiveness of fire management operations to improve fire-fighter safety, public safety, and natural resource protection;
• Contribute knowledge and applications that can be used in planning and implementation of management outcomes to sustain ecological processes while providing socially desirable goods and services from forest and grassland ecosystems;
• Develop assets and capabilities among natural resource professionals engaged in the administration and management of forests and grasslands;
• Expand knowledge of remote sensing, social and economic concerns, and information technology systems, their applications, and utility in addressing fire and fuels management through the research and educational programs at The University of Montana.
• Develop education training, and information delivery programs that meet the specific operational needs of the fire management community.
• Develop information and decision support for planning and managing wildland fire use.

The Center's operations are transparent, which allows for interactive evaluation of products and applications. Center staff work with targeted groups of managers to test emerging products and coordinate information systems with existing capabilities. The Center strives to clarify barriers and opportunities within current information systems to create multiple-scale opportunities for information products to be more widely applied at the landscape level.