This polygon shapefile contains the fire hazard severity zones that lie within the Russian River basin region of California. Following the disastrous 1980 fire season, Senator Ayala introduced legislation which required the Director of CDF to zone all State Responsibility Area (SRA) lands in accordance with the degree of severity of fire hazard. The purpose of the zoning was for identifying measures to be taken to retard the rate of spreading and to reduce the potential intensity of uncontrolled fires that threaten to destroy resources, life, or property. Each zone was "to embrace relatively homogeneous lands and shall be based on fuel loading, slope, fire weather, and other relevant factors present" (PRC 4201-4204). The final maps were adopted into regulation as Section 1280 of CCR Title 14 on March 12, 1985. The end result was that each "Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ)" received one of three ratings: Moderate, High, or Very High. The original data from 1985 was digitized into a GIS format. These data have been overlain with the most current "official" SRA data (1998) to give FHSZs on current SRA.This layer can be used for watershed analysis and planning in the Russian River region of California.