VPS Script
Pocatello, Idaho
BLM_ISU Fall 2015

Opening 0:00 – 0:07

Jenna Williams 0:08- 0:18 
The southeast Idaho disasters team partnered with land management agencies to examine the encroachment of juniper species throughout Idaho and the intermountain west as it relates to changing wildfire regimes.

Chris Burger 0:21 – 0:36
So juniper is a species that is expanding in range due to habitat conditions, climatic conditions and it can be very difficult to control fire in juniper.

Jenna Williams 0:37 – 0:51
As society continues to move into the wildlands managing risk around these areas is becoming a greater task for our land managers. As the wildland urban interface expands it puts more humans at risk and increases the chance for a wildfire occurrence.

Zach Simpson 0:52 – 1:04
The Charlotte Fire ignited on June 28, 2012. According to a report published by the Idaho Conservation League this fire burned around 1,000 acres destroying 66 homes and cost Idaho taxpayers an estimated 2 million dollars

Chris Burger 1:05 – 1:29
The high concentration of juniper in and around the charlotte fire area definitely added to the intensity kept residence time with the heat, it burned a lot hotter. In a straight grass fuel type you're going to have a quick moderately hot fire as far as fires go. But when you start adding that heavy fuel loading of juniper canopies and limbs and the dead and down and duff that comes with it you have a lot of residence time a lot of extra heat that is produced.

Sara Ramos 1:30 – 1:56
The study area consisted of Landsat 8 path 39 row 30 and 31. A focused study area provided by the Bureau of Land Management was analyzed to determine juniper density
To identify areas with a high concentrations of juniper the Southeast Idaho Disasters team took a multi-scaled approach. 30 meter Landsat 8 imagery and 1 meter 2011 NAIP imagery a juniper distribution map was produced and subsequently a fire severity model was created.





Zach Simpson 1:57 – 2:31
A decision-tree approach was used to create a classified fuel model. 925 classification sites were fed into the classification tree to distinguish between the four vegetation types. 
The classified fuel model produced a kappa coefficient of 83%. This model combined with topographic variables produced a wildfire severity map that identify heavy fuel loads. This map shows fire severity on a per pixel basis and estimates areas that will burn hotter and longer due to fuel type. Communities that are at higher risk of wildfire were identified using BLM risk assessment data.

Sara Ramos 2:32 – 2:51
Object based classification was performed on the southern portion of our study area to differentiate between different phases of juniper. This model produced an overall kappa coefficient of 88%.  From these results the team was able to identify phase one, phase two, and phase three juniper density for the area surrounding the Curlew National Grassland.

Jenna Williams 2:52- 3:07
This study demonstrates the usefulness of a multi-scale approach when identifying phases of juniper density. 30 meter landsat 8 data offers quick analysis in identifying phase three juniper stands, while the 1 meter Object based model identifies phase one and two.

Chris Burger 3:08- 3:23
“Juniper density maps are going to be advantageous for us in the pre planning stages as far as fire suppression goes. The will help us identify areas of high density.  It will give us time sensitive information. So I think there is a lot of advantages suppression-wise to juniper density maps.”

End credits 3:25-3:50