Station Map Fires

     This assignment was interesting because it allowed you to explore your own personal interest on the assignment. Since most people in our class come from different backgrounds in their schooling and interest the assignment have had a wide variety. With that in mind my background is in biology and more important in fisheries, so that is where my mind tends to go when thinking on this project. Since there was a variety of data that could be imputed from the L.A. GIS portal website, working with and choosing some data was problematic while other data seemed to be easier to manipulate.
    On the first map there is a multiple of a layers that are represented. Since this map was supposed to cover the L.A. county fires and how they impacted areas, I chose to show the relevance from mostly a biological standpoint. Fires are good for forest and can help renew them by inputing nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorous back into the soil from the burning of organic material. This can also help the forest as well because it burns the undergrowth areas and allows the main species of trees to grow because they receive more nutrients that was being utilized from the smaller vegetation. Since most forest are near urban areas, burning is restricted and so the forest are not able to rid itself of the main fuel for fires. Instead the areas collects major amounts of fuel for fires and once the ignite they burn at rapid rates. If fires were allowed to start and run there course, or area rangers could use prescribed burns, the major fires would not cause as much damage.
    Fires are good for forest, but there are a number of other biological processes that fires negatively impact. Fires cause major damage to riparian areas and streams as well. In areas of headwater streams, such in those areas that were burned in the L.A. county fire, the habitat around streams and the streams themselves are essential for many wildlife species as well as fish. Fires that are major cause that riparian areas to burn, which cause a increased stream temperature since the shading around the stream is reduced or non-existant. This long term increase in stream temperature can majorly impact species of fish that rely on cold water, like; rainbow trout, redband trout, cutthroat trout, and a variety of other species that in habit the mountain reaches of California. Fires can also cause the stream temperature to increase to such a high temperature that it causes fish kills within the stream itself. Another aspect of fires to streams is the increased nutrients, such as those mentioned above, which can cause increased algal blooms and changes in ph levels. These changes can be deadly to the stream communities as well, since the algal bloom chokes the stream of oxygen and the change in ph level cause a deadly shift to water that the fish can no longer reside in.
   For the first map that is shown in the blog, there are a variety of layers. This map shows the relevance between where the fire occurred and where the most protected ecological areas of the county are. It also shows the areas where the is the highest rate of fire severity. Since most of these areas are all synonymous, the ability for the fire to spread to areas that are have the highest significant ecological areas shows the impact on the wildlife community. The map shows that the county is mostly rural, and therefore the ability to fight the fire is less. This makes it a significant difficulty as well because the fire has the highest severity in the areas that burned as well.
   The second map shows mostly watershed data and how it interacts with the surrounding area that the fire occurred in. Since most of the areas that the fire occurred in areas where there are the majority of class 1 to class two streams, which then drain into class three streams, the amounts of ash and sediment in these streams is a very large issue. The amount shows how much debrie and sediment flow there is in these specific area around the fire and also on the downstream slopes from the fire. Another aspect the map shows, although not listed in the legend is the groundwater table. The groundwater is outlined in the larger, outlined in black, shapes in the lower half of the map. Since groundwater can be recharged by streams that flow into these areas, showing where the majority of the ground water table resides is important. Also, another aspect of the ground water is that most wells, i.e. fire hydrants, come from the groundwater or aquifer so showing how far away the groundwater was relevant.