Treesearch

Tools are developed that help specify the classification accuracy required from remotely sensed data. These tools are applied during the planning stage of a sample survey that will use poststratification, prestratification with proportional allocation, or double sampling for stratification. Accuracy standards are developed in terms of an “error matrix,” which is familiar to remote sensing specialists. In addition, guidance is provided to determine when new remotely sensed classifications are needed to maintain acceptable levels of statistical precision with stratification.

The Hayman Fire report on home destruction examines the following four questions: 1. How many homes were destroyed out of the total number of homes within the Hayman Fire perimeter? 2. What was the relative wildland fire intensity associated with the destroyed homes? 3. What was the categorical cause of home ignition suggested by the associated wildland fire intensity adjacent to the home site? 4. Did community covenants and/or county regulations exist that suggest differences in the potential for home destruction? An onsite assessment at each destroyed home provided the principal informati...

On June 26, 2002, U.S. Representative Mark Udall wrote the US Forest Service Chief, requesting that the Forest Service conduct an analysis of the Hayman Fire. In response to the Congressman’s letter, five teams were established in August, 2002 to analyze various aspects of the Hayman Fire experience. This report describes the Hayman Fire analysis work conducted by the social/economic team and presents our findings

To address historical and current fire regimes in the Hayman landscape, we first present the concepts of “historical range of variability” and ”fire regime” to provide the necessary conceptual tools for evaluating fire occurrence, fire behavior, and fire effects. Next we summarize historical (pre-1860) fire frequency and fire effects for the major forest types of the Colorado Front Range, to illustrate and emphasize the key point that the ecological role of fire is dramatically different in the various forest types that are found in and around the area burned by the Hayman Fire. We...

The ecosystems within the area that burned in the Hayman Fire have a long history of fire (see part 1 of this chapter). It follows, therefore, that all of the native species and populations in this area probably have one or more mechanisms for enduring fire or becoming reestablished after fire and that no native species is likely to become extinct as a result of the direct effects of the Hayman Fire. It also follows that active rehabilitation is not required for all of the burned area. In fact, much or even most of the area is likely to recover normally without intervention, and in some...

The watersheds within the Hayman Fire area represent a mosaic of ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial streams of various sizes. Given the intensity of the fire, the effects on these streams will often vary from mild to severe. For example, the vegetation along streams in the upper Wigwam Creek drainage was almost completely removed by the intense fire that moved through the upper watershed, while vegetation along other streams was minimally affected (fig. 20; table 7). The severity of the fire in the surrounding watershed will generally dictate the initial response of the stream....

Invasive, nonnative plant species pose one of the greatest potential threats to long-term ecosystem integrity in the area burned by the 2002 Hayman Fire. In other ecosystems, nonnative invaders have been shown to cause decline of native plant species and pollinators, as well as adverse changes in fire regimes, nutrient cycling, and hydrology. Thus, invasive, nonnative species may be responsible for some of the most serious ecological impacts and the greatest long-term costs (for example, for mitigation) associated with the Hayman Fire. Early detection and subsequent monitoring will be...

Conclusions about the effects of fire on species of concern will depend on the temporal and spatial scales of analysis. Populations of some species may decline in abundance immediately postfire due to alteration or destruction of habitat, but over larger spatial and temporal scales, fire contributes to a shifting mosaic of habitat conditions across the landscape. Whether or not a fire results in persistent and significant population changes depends on a number of factors including fire size and severity, dispersal capabilities and other life history traits, availability of refugia within...

Effects of roads on fire behavior intensity and severity can be studied directly or indirectly. A direct study of road effects would include uses by fire suppression, burnout operations, and delay of fire progress at the roadside. Interpretations after the fire burns are easily confounded by the unknown nature of suppression activities and fire arrival time, and fire behavior. Indirect study of road effects is by association. We chose to perform only an indirect analysis given the uncertainties in road usage by suppression resources and the imprecision of the fire progression. Our methods...

The purpose of this report is to document the suppression actions taken during the Hayman Fire. The long duration of suppression activities (June 8 through July 18), and multiple incident management teams assigned to the fire, makes this a challenging task. Original records and reports produced independently by the various teams assigned to different portions of the Hayman Fire had different reference locations and time frames. Nevertheless, this report reviews the success of those crews in achieving their planned tactics but did not attempt to equate this performance to their overall...