Assessing Forest Fire and Vegetation Recovery in the Black Hills, South Dakota

Abstract

After 110 years of sustained fire suppression, the 2000 Jasper fire consumed about 33,785 ha (83,500 acres), or 12% of the Black Hills National Forest. We mapped the severity of the Jasper fire using Landsat imagery and then investigated post-fire vegetation regeneration conditions using field data, Quickbird imagery, and regression modeling. We found that fire scar and severity could be delineated and mapped accurately based on remotely sensed and field-acquired data. Results also revealed that vegetative recovery relative to burn severity, topography, and soil factors could be modeled effectively using local geographically weighted regression (GWR). Further regeneration assessment revealed that severely or heavily burned areas were more rapidly re-vegetated with grasses, forbs, and woody shrubs in the short term. The field survey showed that prescribed burns retard crown fires and that after eight years ponderosa pine seedlings have not re-established.