Going East Again

I'm trying to decide whether to continue this blog or not. The problem is that I don't blog from work and that's when I typically have something to say about work! Fire season in the United States is over so I'm not actively supporting those fellas. This year was relatively slow; I mapped 63 fires (average is 66) that burned about 582k acres (average is well over a million). I was super busy for about a month and a half but other than that, I was able to focus on other things at work.

I am traveling (my seventh trip this year) to Savannah, GA, the week after Thanksgiving to attend the Assoc. of Fire Ecology conference. This is usually a good conference, but the timing and cost is pretty ridiculous. The conference is hosting workshops the first day, Monday, Nov. 29. We, meaning the MTBS folks, decided to teach a course on how to use MTBS data as one of these workshops. That's fine and all, but that means we have to be ready to start Monday morning at 8am. In Georgia. That means we have to travel across the country with a stop in Atlanta (busiest airport in the world) the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'm flying out next Saturday just to be sure we don't have travel problems. Preparing for this workshop has been long and tiring with a lot of course material creation and testing. I'll be happy when this is over.

I do like this time of year at work, though, because the office gets quiet and it's easy to get lots of work done.

Out in the field!

I swear I've been busier in the last 4 weeks than I have been in two months. With a long, wet spring this year, the fire season has been compacted into August and now into September. Lots of fires lately and even some huge puppies: LaBrea and Station.

Last week I had the opportunity to leave the busy office and do some field work. I visited the 2008 Cold Springs Fire outside Trout Lake, WA. Our purpose was to collect CBI (composite burn index) data on around 40 field plots. Me and a co-worker from my office met up with the godfathers of CBI (Nate Benson and Carl Key) and some Gifford Pinchot National Forest employees for the week.

The fire burned on the slopes of 12,000' Mt. Adams, one of the major volcanic peaks along the Cascades (think of Rainier, Hood, and St. Helens). In our travels back and for from our motel to the field, we noticed this property for sale. It's 1.77 acres with Trout Creek running along the back of the property, septic system already installed, and city services available for use. This picture shows the view from the property looking north towards Mt. Adams. Great property if you want to thrown down $325,000 and live in the shadow of an active volcano!

Oh, another thing: on our first day of the trip, we attended a meeting in Hood River, OR with the Mt. Hood and Gifford Pinchot NFs. I gave an hour-long talk about geospatial tools available for fire suppression, emergency rehab, and long term monitoring. As soon as I finished, one of the guys in the audience stood up and offered a statement and gifts. He offered a Certificate of Merit signed by the Mt. Hood National Forest Supervisor, as well as a coffee table book about Mt. Hood. Then a guy from the Gifford Pinchot NF stood up and gave me a hat with the Gifford Pinchot centennial emblem on it. It was completely unexpected, yet very much appreciated. The funny thing is that I've really only mapped about 3 fires between the two forests in the last 5 years.

Big Pole Fire

The Big Pole fire about an hour west of here is out and quiet. I mapped it last week and sent the data to the BAER team. Here's an example of how I mapped the severity. When I got the satellite imagery, I edited the Incident perimeter and cut 2,000 acres off their number. They had been pretty liberal with counting unburned acres and I think I had a better source for a more accurate perimeter delineation.

Overall, the fire wasn't that severe. You can see that most the high severity corresponds with the north-facing, more densely vegetated slopes. This is pretty common. More fuel = hotter fire = longer residence time = higher soil burn severity. You can also see the 12,000-foot Deseret Peak in the back right of the picture.

Smoke is in the air

I found them...
Looks like fire season has finally heated up and I'm getting lots of requests. This won't be a banner year for acres mapped, but I'll end up mapping plenty of fires. The really big fires this year are in Alaska (multiple 100k+ fires, in fact I counted 7 fires that have burned > 100k acres plus a few more in the 80 - 90k range). We even had a 45,000 acre fire just west of Salt Lake City last week that I've been asked to map, which I'll do as soon as the skies clear up and we snap a picture of the burn scar with a satellite.

The weird thing is that fires are still burning in the Southwest. Their fire season usually runs from April - July 4, which is when the monsoon season starts. Well, they had a very short monsoon season this year and my contacts down there are reporting things have dried up again and are burning.

I also got a request to map a fire in North Carolina called the Carolina Bay Fire. It burned about 2,000 acres right on the coast near the Havelock, NC. It's nice to map a fire somewhere besides the west, too!

Where are you, fires?

It's been quiet on the wildfire front. Historically, Arizona and New Mexico are the areas I map fires in first. They burn between May and July 4, when the monsoon season typically starts. Well, July 4 is this weekend and I've mapped 3 fires in AZ and NM, and only 1 was an actual wildfire where they did emergency rehab. The other two were wildland fire use fires I mapped as favors for people. The only other fire I've mapped was Jesusita, just outside Santa Barbara.

Last year at this time, Northern California was a-blazin'. Remember the June 20 storm? They had 1,200 fires burning at once. There are three nationwide right now. Luckily, I have plenty of other work to keep me busy.

Popular Mechanics

A few years ago we were approached by the National Geographic for an article they were doing on wildfires in the Western United States. They wanted to include a side-bar section on technology, mapping, remote sensing, and wildfires. I was stoked about this because it meant I got to round up the graphics, write a little blurb, and even get my name on that sidebar. We went through all that effort only to have Nat. Geographic come back and say, "We don't have room for that sidebar story. Sorry." Bummer.




Well, we were approached by Popular Mechanics recently, but the topic of their article will be "Mega-Fires." They want graphics and charts showing trends in fire activity in the U.S., whether # of fires and/or severity of those wildfires. They also wanted examples of situations where prescribed fires impacted the spread and severity of wildfires that subsequently burned over the same area. I threw together some examples of the Rodeo-Chediski fire from 2002 (what you see above). It burned nearly 500,000 acres -- that's what I'd legitimately call a "mega-fire." We'll see if this graphic assignment actually goes anywhere this time.

Speaking at a Mile High

I returned from Denver, CO, yesterday after participating in a BAER meeting. Each year, a few of the Forest Service "regions" get together and do a refresher for BAER team members and leaders. They talk policy, protocol for assembling a team, pay, safety, tools available to teams while they do their assessment, responsibilities, etc.

Over the last 4 years now, I've been invited as a speaker and have given a talk on what I can do for them in the remote sensing and GIS arena. These meetings have taken me to LaGrande (Oregon), Spokane, Missoula, Chattanooga, and now Denver. I really enjoy these meetings because I get to interact with the BAER team folks face-to-face, get feedback, and help them better understand the products I deliver.

I got an hour to make my presentation and this time I took help. I've got a co-worker who is helping me out more and more and she came along on the trip. I let her give about a fourth of the presentation so she could get in front of the group and the could get to know her.

While this was a quick trip, I still had time to make a quick drive to Fort Collins to visit an old college buddy who's now a dentist up there. It was great seeing him and his family.

We're still trying to plan our Australia trip. It pretty much has to happen now as my boss thinks the international support is very important. I am getting contact info for people in Australia and I'm excited for the possibilities.