DOCSLIB.ORG

Sandoval County, New Mexico Community Wildfire Protection Plan

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sandoval County, New Mexico Community Wildfire Protection Plan Sandoval County Community Wildre Protection Plan August 2012 Submitted by: SANDOVAL COUNTY, NEW MEXICO COMMUNITY WILDFIRE PROTECTION PLAN Prepared for 314 Melissa Road P.O. Box 40 Bernalillo, New Mexico 87004 Prepared by SWCA® ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANTS 5647 Jefferson Street NE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109 Telephone: 505-254-1115; Fax: 505-254-1116 www.swca.com Victoria Amato, M.S. Cody Stropki, Ph.D. SWCA Project No. 17646 August 2012 Sandoval County Community Wildfire Protection Plan This is a 2012 update to the 2008 Sandoval County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (SCCWPP), which addresses hazards and risks of wildland fire throughout Sandoval County and makes recommendations for fuels reduction projects, public outreach and education, structural ignitability reduction, and fire response capabilities. Sandoval County comprises a diverse landscape and landownership, but a population with one common concern, the need to prepare for wildfire to reduce the risk of loss of life and property. Community members in Sandoval County are familiar with large fires as several have occurred in recent years. The most significant was the Los Conchas fire, the second largest fire in New Mexico history and the largest ever fire in Sandoval County. Prior to that the Cerro Grande Fire (2003) started in Sandoval County and, until Los Conchas (2011) and later the Whitewater-Baldy Complex (2012), was the largest fire in state history. This SCCWPP has been developed to assist Sandoval County in ensuring that a catastrophic wildfire will be avoided in the future by assessing areas at risk and recommending measures to decrease that risk. The purpose of the SCCWPP is to assist in protecting human life and reducing property loss due to wildfire throughout Sandoval County. The plan is the result of a community-wide wildland fire protection planning process and the compilation of documents, reports, and data developed by a wide array of contributors. This plan was compiled in 2012 in response to the federal Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) of 2003. The SCCWPP meets the requirements of the HFRA by: 1) Having been developed collaboratively by multiple agencies at the state and local levels in consultation with federal agencies and other interested parties. 2) Prioritizing and identifying fuel reduction treatments and recommending the types and methods of treatments to protect at-risk communities and pertinent infrastructure. 3) Suggesting multi-party mitigation, monitoring, and outreach. 4) Recommending measures and action items that residents and communities can take to reduce the ignitability of structures. 5) Facilitating public information meetings to educate and involve the community to participate in and contribute to the development of the SCCWPP. A group of multi-jurisdictional agencies (tribal, federal, state, and local), organizations, and residents joined together as a Core Team to develop this plan. Many of these Core Team members had been part of the initial 2008 planning process and had many years of experience working in fire management in Sandoval County. After the Core Team was assembled, public meetings were held to obtain vital information from stakeholders and homeowners in Sandoval County regarding wildfire protection and community concerns. The public outreach process is critical to the SCCWPP’s effectiveness, and community concerns and comments have been considered and addressed within. The planning process has served to identify many physical hazards throughout Sandoval County that could increase the threat of wildfire to communities. The public also has helped to identify community values that it would most like to see protected. By incorporating public and Core Team input into the recommendations, treatments are tailored specifically for Sandoval County. The SCCWPP emphasizes the importance of collaboration among multi-jurisdictional agencies SWCA Environmental Consultants August 2012 Sandoval County Community Wildfire Protection Plan in order to develop fuels mitigation treatment programs to address wildfire hazards. Sandoval County has a committed team of career and volunteer firefighters, who work arduously to protect the life and property of citizens, but without homeowners taking on some of the responsibility of reducing fire hazards in and around their own homes, these resources are severely stretched. A combination of homeowner and community awareness, public education, and agency collaboration and treatments are necessary to fully reduce wildfire risk. Sandoval County’s varied landscape is categorized into wildland urban interface (WUI) corridors for the purpose of this project. Each corridor has distinct characteristics, most notably the Rio Grande corridor and the Jemez corridor. The Rio Grande corridor is densely populated, urban, mostly developed, and is generally flat and rolling but with fire risk associated with thick bosque fuels close to homes, while the Jemez corridor is rural, but highly visited, characterized by steep mountainous terrain, dense forests, and limited access. Both areas have been subjected to catastrophic wildfire and structure losses. Changes in both the fire environment and community structure have been documented in the SCCWPP. Several communities in Sandoval County are recognized by the program Firewise Communities as being relatively well prepared for wildland fires, and in some cases risk ratings for individual homes have decreased due to community work efforts and organization. Maintenance of treated areas is paramount, however, in order for mitigation to remain effective, and some residents who have treated their homes are put at risk by neighboring property owners refusing to reduce fuel loads. A significant amount of fuels reduction has been employed on public lands throughout Sandoval County, particularly in the Jemez corridor; landscape-scale projects are being implemented to significantly reduce hazardous fuels in the ponderosa pine and mixed conifer communities. These positive changes contribute to decreasing the likelihood of wildfire’s negative impacts on communities in the Sandoval County WUI. Since not all communities have taken the necessary steps to mitigate increasing fire risks, the SCCWPP highlights the need for increased preventive activities to reduce the negative impacts that wildland fire can have on communities and community members living in the WUI. The SCCWPP provides background information, a risk assessment, and recommendations. Section 1 provides a general overview of Community Wildfire Protection Plans and describes Sandoval County’s need for a plan, Section 2 provides demographic and background information about Sandoval County, Section 3 presents an overview of the fire environment and specific information about fuel types, Section 4 describes in detail the methodology and results of the risk assessment, and Section 5 provides recommendations that incorporate action plans and monitoring strategies for implementing fuels reduction projects, reducing structural ignitability, improving fire response capabilities, and initiating public outreach and education. The plan does not require implementation of any of the recommendations. However, the message throughout this document is that the greatest fire mitigation could be achieved through the joint actions of individual homeowners and local, state, and federal governments. It is important to stress that this document is an initial step in raising public awareness and treating areas of concern, and should serve as a tool in doing so. The SCCWPP should be treated as a live document to be updated approximately every two years. As is the case with this 2012 update, the plan should continue to be revised to reflect changes, modifications, or new information. These elements are essential to the success of mitigating wildfire risk throughout Sandoval County and will be important in maintaining the ideas and priorities of the plan and the communities in the future. SWCA Environmental Consultants August 2012 Sandoval County Community Wildfire Protection Plan Table of Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... i List of Figures .................................................................................................................................v List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................v List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ........................................................................................ vii 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 1.1 Overview of Sandoval County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan .........................1 1.2 Overview of Community Wildfire Protection Plans ........................................................2 1.3 Need for a CWPP .............................................................................................................3 1.4 The Goal of a CWPP........................................................................................................4 1.5 Planning Process ..............................................................................................................4 1.6 Documents Contributing to the CWPP Planning Process ...............................................6 1.6.1 Sandoval County Community Wildfire Protection Plan
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New Emission Factors for Australian Vegetation Fires Measured Using
    Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 11335–11352, 2014 www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/11335/2014/ doi:10.5194/acp-14-11335-2014 © Author(s) 2014. CC Attribution 3.0 License. New emission factors for Australian vegetation fires measured using open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy – Part 2: Australian tropical savanna fires T. E. L. Smith1, C. Paton-Walsh2, C. P. Meyer3, G. D. Cook4, S. W. Maier5, J. Russell-Smith5, M. J. Wooster1, and C. P. Yates5 1King’s College London, Earth and Environmental Dynamics Research Group, Department of Geography, London, UK 2Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia 3CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, PMB 1, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia 4CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, PMB 44, Winnellie, Northern Territory, Australia 5Charles Darwin University, Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia Correspondence to: T. E. L. Smith ([email protected]) Received: 30 December 2013 – Published in Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss.: 11 March 2014 Revised: 16 September 2014 – Accepted: 17 September 2014 – Published: 29 October 2014 Abstract. Savanna fires contribute approximately 40–50 % stantially between different savanna vegetation assemblages; of total global annual biomass burning carbon emissions. Re- with a majority of this variation being mirrored by variations cent comparisons of emission factors from different savanna in the modified combustion efficiency (MCE) of different regions have highlighted the need for a regional approach to vegetation classes. We conclude that a significant majority emission factor development, and better assessment of the of the variation in the emission factor for trace gases can be drivers of the temporal and spatial variation in emission fac- explained by MCE, irrespective of vegetation class, as illus- tors.
    [Show full text]
  • Final Fire Ecology July 1.Qxd
    Investigating Fire Ecology in Ponderosa Pine Forests 2004/First Edition A Field Guide for Sixth Grade Teachers This project was made possible by generous contributions of: Publishing Information This curriculum guide was created with funding from the NPS Fire Program and Challenge Cost Share Programs. Funding for implementation was provided by the NPS Parks As Classrooms program. All right s are not reserved. Materials in this guide may be reproduced by teachers for classroom use i.e., student handout s, transp arencies, etc. All right s are reserved for all other uses. The listing of a resource in this curriculum does not presume it s endorsement by the National Park Service. This guide may be obtained by p articip ating in a teacher workshop or by visiting the Bandelier website at www.nps.gov/band. Teachers are encouraged to offer their feedback by filling out the enclosed evaluation form or con - tacting the VTF or WPS directly. Printed on recycled p aper using soy-based inks. PREFACE hen the more than 18,000 residents of Los Alamos, New Mexico awoke W on May 6, 2000, they were unaware that within the next ninety-six hours their sleepy, relaxed mount ainside community would be forever changed. A small wildland fire approximately five miles southwest of town was rapidly growing. The fire was named for the peak of it s origin, Cerro Grande. As resident s uneasily watched the column of smoke rising from the thickly forested backdrop to town, over the next days firefighters battled the blaze with mixed success. On the morning of Wednesday, May 10th, represent atives of a wide range of government agencies, including New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, visited Los Alamos to assess the fire.
    [Show full text]
  • Fire Regimes Approaching Historic Norms Reduce Wildfire-Facilitated
    Fire regimes approaching historic norms reduce wildfire-facilitated conversion from forest to non-forest 1, 1 2 3 RYAN B. WALKER, JONATHAN D. COOP, SEAN A. PARKS, AND LAURA TRADER 1School of Environment and Sustainability, Western State Colorado University, Gunnison, Colorado 81231 USA 2Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Missoula, Montana 59801 USA 3Fire Ecology Program, Bandelier National Monument, National Park Service, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544 USA Citation: Walker, R. B., J. D. Coop, S. A. Parks, and L. Trader. 2018. Fire regimes approaching historic norms reduce wildfire-facilitated conversion from forest to non-forest. Ecosphere 9(4):e02182. 10.1002/ecs2.2182 Abstract. Extensive high-severity wildfires have driven major losses of ponderosa pine and mixed-coni- fer forests in the southwestern United States, in some settings catalyzing enduring conversions to non- forested vegetation types. Management interventions to reduce the probability of stand-replacing wildfire have included mechanical fuel treatments, prescribed fire, and wildfire managed for resource benefit. In 2011, the Las Conchas fire in northern New Mexico burned forested areas not exposed to fire for >100 yr, but also reburned numerous prescribed fire units and/or areas previously burned by wildfire. At some sites, the combination of recent prescribed fire and wildfire approximated known pre-settlement fire fre- quency, with two or three exposures to fire between 1977 and 2007. We analyzed gridded remotely sensed burn severity data (differenced normalized burn ratio), pre- and post-fire field vegetation samples, and pre- and post-fire measures of surface fuels to assess relationships and interactions between prescribed fire, prior wildfire, fuels, subsequent burn severity, and patterns of post-fire forest retention vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Recent Updates to the SMOKE Modeling System
    Recent Updates to the SMOKE Modeling System Bok H. Baek, Alison Eyth, and Andy Holland Carolina Environmental Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 137 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27599-6116 [email protected] ABSTRACT EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards is developing the one-model framework for toxics and criteria modeling for all air quality models used by U.S. EPA, including CMAQ, CAMx, REMSAD, and AERMOD. In addition, OAQPS is developing an Emission Modeling Framework (EMF) to provide better management, versioning, quality assurance, and tracking of data used for emissions modeling. The Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) modeling system is used to prepare emissions input data for many of the models used by U.S. EPA. SMOKE has been enhanced in FY05 and FY06 to better support the integration with the EMF and the one-model framework, which includes the improved integration of toxics and criteria modeling. Many updates in support of this effort have been completed, and others are currently underway or planned for the remainder of FY06 and for FY07. Updates to SMOKE v2.2 include processing data for variable grid resolutions and integration with the BlueSky fire emissions estimates model. SMOKE v2.3 significantly reduces memory requirements during gridding, can model non-sequential episodes within a single run of Temporal, supports an extended one record per line (ORL) format, and includes a new approach to wildfire inventories. Additional details regarding the usage of the new versions of SMOKE are available at www.cmascenter.org under the model documentation section.
    [Show full text]
  • Postwildfire Preliminary Debris Flow Hazard Assessment for the Area Burned by the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in North-Central New Mexico
    Postwildfire Preliminary Debris Flow Hazard Assessment for the Area Burned by the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in North-Central New Mexico Open-File Report 2011–1308 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Postwildfire Preliminary Debris Flow Hazard Assessment for the Area Burned by the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in North-Central New Mexico By Anne C. Tillery, Michael J. Darr, Susan H. Cannon, and John A. Michael Open-File Report 2011–1308 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior KEN SALAZAR, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Marcia K. McNutt, Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2011 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment—visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1–888–ASK–USGS For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod To order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Suggested citation: Tillery, A.C., Darr, M.J., Cannon, S.H., and Michael, J.A., 2011, Postwildfire preliminary debris flow hazard assessment for the area burned by the 2011 Las Conchas Fire in north-central New Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011–1308, 11 p. Frontispiece: Satellite view of Las Conchas Fire (photos by NASA), canyon slopes burned in Bandelier National Monument (photo by National Park Service), valley floor of areas burned in Bandelier National Monument (photo by National Park Service).
    [Show full text]
  • Final Report, Project Number 06-2-1-05
    ARCBURN: LINKING FIELD-BASED AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS TO QUANTIFY, PREDICT, AND MANAGE FIRE EFFECTS ON CULTURAL RESOURCES ArcBurn: Quantify, predict, and manage fire effects on cultural resources ArcBurn: Linking Field-Based and Experimental Methods to Quantify, Predict, and Manage Fire Effects on Cultural Resources JFSP Project ID: 12-1-04-5 Principal investigator: Rachel Loehman, USGS Alaska Science Center, [email protected], (907) 786-7089 Co-Investigators: Bret Butler, US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Lab Jamie Civitello, National Park Service, Bandelier National Monument Connie Constan, US Forest Service, Santa Fe National Forest, Jemez Ranger District Jennifer Dyer, US Forest Service, Six Rivers National Forest Zander Evans, Forest Stewards Guild Megan Friggens, US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Grassland, Shrubland, and Desert Ecosystems Rebekah Kneifel, US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Lab Jim Reardon, US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Lab Madeline Scheintaub, National Park Service, Valles Caldera National Preserve Anastasia Steffen, National Park Service, Valles Caldera National Preserve Front cover-Top: Fire spread during the Pino Fire, August 2014, Santa Fe National Forest. The ArcBurn project conducted in-field monitoring at archaeological rubble mound sites as part of the Southwest Jemez Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project. Left: Rubble mound, post-fire. Center: Ceramic artifacts, post-fire. Right:
    [Show full text]
  • Biological Opinion on the Sand Fire Emergency Suppression And
    United States Department of the Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2321 West Royal Palm Road, Suite 103 Phoenix, Arizona 85021-4951 Telephone: (602) 242-0210 FAX: (602) 242-2513 In Reply Refer To: AESO/SE 22410-2006-FE-0381 December 14, 2006 Ms. Elaine J. Zieroth Forest Supervisor Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest Springerville, Arizona 85938-0640 Dear Ms. Zieroth: Thank you for your request for formal emergency consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) pursuant to section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531- 1544), as amended (Act). Your request for emergency consultation was dated July 11, 2006, and received by us on July 14, 2006. Your completion of the Emergency-Fire Documentation form fulfills the requirements necessary to initiate emergency consultation typically provided in a biological assessment and evaluation (BAE). At issue are impacts on the Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) (MSO) and its critical habitat associated with suppression and emergency stabilization activities on the Sand Fire in Coconino County, Arizona. Your Emergency-Fire Documentation concluded that the suppression and emergency rehabilitation actions likely adversely affected the Mexican spotted owl and its critical habitat. This biological opinion is based on information provided in the Emergency-Fire Documentation form (signed July 7, 2006), and telephone and email conversations between Ryan Gordon of my staff and Herbert Ray of the Black Mesa Ranger District (Forest). Literature cited in this biological opinion is not a complete bibliography of all literature available on the species of concern, or on other subjects considered in this opinion.
    [Show full text]
  • Report 0-6735-1
    September 2012 Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation Best Practices for TxDOT Best Practices for TxDOT on Handling Wildfires on Handling Wildfires Phillip T. Nash, Sanjaya Senadheera, Micah Beierle, Wesley Kumfer, Dannia Wilson Texas Department of Transportation Report #: Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation 0-6735-1 Texas Tech University | Lubbock, Texas 79409 Report #: 0-6735-1 P 806.742.3503 | F 806.742.4168 www.techmrt.ttu.edu/reports.php September 2012 NOTICE The United States Government and the State of Texas do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of this report. Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No. FHWA/TX-12-0-6735-1 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date Best Practices for TxDOT on Handling Wildfires August 2012 6. Performing Organization Code 7. Author(s) Phillip T. Nash, Sanjaya Senadheera, Micah Beierle, Wesley 8. Performing Organization Report No. Kumfer, Dannia Wilson 0-6735-1 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) Texas Tech Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation 11. Contract or Grant No. Texas Tech University 0-6735 Box 41023 Lubbock, TX 79409 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Texas Department of Transportation Interim Report Research and Technology Implementation Office June 2011-September 2011 P. O. Box 5080 Austin, TX 78763-5080 14. Sponsoring Agency Code 15. Supplementary Notes Project performed in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration 16.
    [Show full text]
  • Multi-Agent Geospatial Simulation of Human Interactions and Behaviour in Bushfires
    Multi-agent geospatial simulation of human interactions and behaviour in bushfires. Lyuba Mancheva, Carole Adam, Julie Dugdale To cite this version: Lyuba Mancheva, Carole Adam, Julie Dugdale. Multi-agent geospatial simulation of human interac- tions and behaviour in bushfires.. International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, May 2019, Valencia, Spain. hal-02091660 HAL Id: hal-02091660 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02091660 Submitted on 11 Jun 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Mancheva et al. Multi-agent geospatial simulation of human interactions and behaviour in bushfires Multi-agent geospatial simulation of human interactions and behaviour in bushfires Lyuba Mancheva Carole Adam Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LIG, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LIG, F-38000 Grenoble, France F-38000 Grenoble, France [email protected] [email protected] Julie Dugdale Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LIG, F-38000 Grenoble, France [email protected] ABSTRACT Understanding human behaviour and interactions in risk situations may help to improve crisis management strategies in order to avoid the worst scenarios. In this paper we present a geospatial agent-based model and simulation of human behaviour in bushfires.
    [Show full text]
  • Influences of Prior Wildfires on Vegetation Response to Subsequent Fire in a Reburned Southwestern Landscape
    Communications Ecological Applications, 26(2), 2016, pp. 346–354 © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America Influences of prior wildfires on vegetation response to subsequent fire in a reburned Southwestern landscape JONATHAN D. COOP,1,3 SEAN A. PARKS,2 SARAH R. MCCLERNAN,1 AND LISA M. HOLSINGER2 1Western State Colorado University, Gunnison, Colorado 81231 USA 2Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Missoula, Montana 59801 USA Abstract. Large and severe wildfires have raised concerns about the future of forested landscapes in the southwestern United States, especially under repeated burning. In 2011, under extreme weather and drought conditions, the Las Conchas fire burned over several previous burns as well as forests not recently exposed to fire. Our purpose was to examine the influences of prior wildfires on plant community composition and structure, subsequent burn severity, and vegetation response. To assess these relationships, we used satellite- derived measures of burn severity and a nonmetric multidimensional scaling of pre- and post- Las Conchas field samples. Earlier burns were associated with shifts from forested sites to open savannas and meadows, oak scrub, and ruderal communities. These non- forested vegetation types exhibited both resistance to subsequent fire, measured by reduced burn severity, and resilience to reburning, measured by vegetation recovery relative to forests not exposed to recent prior fire. Previous shifts toward non- forested states were strongly reinforced by reburning. Ongoing losses of forests and their ecological values confirm the need for res- toration interventions. However, given future wildfire and climate projections, there may also be opportunities presented by transformations toward fire-resistant and resilient vegetation types within portions of the landscape.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessment of Vegetation Response to Wildfire at Bandelier National
    University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Geography ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Winter 12-19-2017 Assessment of Vegetation Response to Wildfire at Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico: Case Study of the Las Conchas Fire Gladys Valentin-Gonzalez University of New Mexico Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/geog_etds Part of the Environmental Sciences Commons, and the Other Forestry and Forest Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Valentin-Gonzalez, Gladys. "Assessment of Vegetation Response to Wildfire at Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico: Case Study of the Las Conchas Fire." (2017). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/geog_etds/38 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Geography ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gladys Valentin – Gonzalez Candidate Geography & Environmental Studies Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Thesis Committee: Caitlin L. Lippitt, Chairperson Christopher D. Lippitt Craig D. Allen i ASSESSMENT OF VEGETATION RESPONSE TO WILDFIRE AT BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT, NEW MEXICO: CASE STUDY OF THE LAS CONCHAS FIRE BY GLADYS VALENTIN-GONZALEZ B.A. in Geography, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras 2014 THESIS To be Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Geography The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2018 ii © 2018 Gladys Valentin-Gonzalez iii Dedication To my beloved nieces and nephews, my little beams of sunshine, Mandy, Vanchi, Kike, Kini, Nico, Vivi and x To my parents, Julian and Gladys, and my siblings Vanessa, Julio E.
    [Show full text]
  • Abstracts and Presenter Biographical Information Oral Presentations
    ABSTRACTS AND PRESENTER BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ORAL PRESENTATIONS Abstracts for oral presentations and biographical information for presenters are listed alphabetically below by presenting author’s last name. Abstracts and biographical information appear unmodified, as submitted by the corresponding authors. Day, time, and room number of presentation are also provided. Abatzoglou, John John Abatzoglou, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Idaho. Research interests span the weather-climate continuum and both basic and applied scientific questions on past, present and future climate dynamics as well as their influence on wildfire, ecology and agriculture and is a key player in the development of integrated climate scenarios for the Pacific Northwest, US. Oral presentation, Wednesday, 2:30 PM, B114 Will climate change increase the occurrence of megafires in the western United States? The largest wildfires in the western United States account for a substantial portion of annual area burned and are associated with numerous direct and indirect geophysical impacts in addition to commandeering suppression resources and national attention. While substantial prior work has been devoted to understand the influence of climate, and weather on annual area burned, there has been limited effort to identify factors that enable and drive the very largest wildfires, or megafires. We hypothesize that antecedent climate and shorter-term biophysically relevant meteorological variables play an essen- tial role in favoring or deterring historical megafire occurrence identified using the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity Atlas from 1984-2010. Antecedent climatic factors such as drought and winter and spring temperature were found to vary markedly across geographic areas, whereas regional commonality of prolonged extremely low fuel moisture and high fire danger prior to and immediately following megafire discovery.
    [Show full text]