Back to Writing

One of the objectives of our recent trip to Denver was to get support from the national and regional BAER coordinators for a report we want to write. Here's the problem:

BAER teams are assigned to fires all over the country. Most fires of any significant size get remote sensing support from me in the form of satellite imagery and some sort of GIS layer showing a preliminary cut at burn severity (over 100 in each of the last two years). Some fires don't get anything from me, though, due to satellite orbits or inclement weather such that I can't image the fire.

However, with more and more turn over in the USFS workforce (due to "transformation" and retirement), how people use the data I send and how to validate it and how to hand-map a fire if they don't get anything from me isn't really clear. What models do people use? What field forms do they use? Should they test for water repellancy? What ancillary factors should they consider when hand mapping a fire (things like potential needlecast that provide instant ground cover, therefore reducing runoff and erosion)?

Anyway, we're teaming up with the San Dimas Technology and Development Center and the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Moscow, ID, to write a General Technical Report (GTR - see examples here) to address these topics. It will act as a guide that BAER teams can reference when they are assigned to a fire. It will hopefully help with consistency and with new talent as they come into the Forest Service.