N RANCHING


atural Resources It was then that she realized


that these maps might be useful as an outreach tool to help land- owners cope with such a life- and landscape-changing event. Doan- Crider said, “The initial shock of seeing your property converted into a blackened landscape would fool anyone, including myself, into be- lieving that all hope is lost, espe- cially in the middle of such a serious drought. However, burn severity maps can help landowners develop a plan of attack for recovery.”


Burn severity Burn severity is an index that measures fi re’s im-


pact on the soil and vegetation. Wildfi re often burns unevenly across a landscape, and can have varying levels of “severity” throughout a burned area. Accord- ingly, post-fi re management needs to be adapted. Some patches may require more time and effort, and different approaches, to recover. The team’s objective was to compare before-and-


after satellite images of the burned areas to determine 4 levels of burn severity: severe, moderate, low, and unburned. They used a special index to address vari- ables like scorching, soil color, tree and vegetation mortality, and the replacement of previously existing vegetation communities by invasive species to “vali- date” what the satellite images refl ected. Validation is necessary for areas that have not been


50 The Cattleman September 2016


thecattlemanmagazine.com


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