Time is flying by and this month was mostly spent inventorying the different types of vegetation and fire-related mapping that already exists.  There is a lot of data and information out there from a number of different organizations and groups of organizations that work together.  Knowing what already exists is important to take advantage and use what is available and also to not duplicate any work that has already been done.  For example, it’s helpful that long-term fire perimeter data already exists for many areas.  Each tool has its own methodology so I’ve also been looking at the advantages/disadvantages of the different methods of classification.  To better understand these methods, I have been working my way through some of the courses that are available through the National Interagency Fuels, Fire, and Vegetation Technology Transfer.  Feeling a bit behind at the moment but hoping to get some key components in place so I can start the actual analysis.   

It’s crazy to think it’s already July and that the Chicago trip was three weeks ago.  I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and to those who were just beginning their internship after the training, that they’re settling in well.

My current work for the CLM Internship program is developing a lit review to support my project looking at post-fire vegetation recovery over long-term periods using remote sensing.  For anyone not familiar with remote sensing, on the broadest level, it just means collecting information about something using an instrument that does not have physical contact with what you’re studying.  It could be acquiring aerial photography from a plane or imagery from a satellite, but it could also apply to the medical field using x-rays to get an image of a broken leg.  For my internship, I’ll be sticking to whatever is free of cost and publicly available — so primarily satellite imagery.

Right now I’m sifting through a lot of articles.   My computer screen is often drowned in the number of tabs open because one article leads to another article which leads to another. To help break up the monotony of articles, I’m also cataloging websites that have vegetation data which may be useful further down the line.  Below is an image of one of the more common land cover products, the National Land Cover Database – 2006, produced through the work of a consortium of 10 government agencies.

“National Land Cover Database.” USGS Publications. Feb. 2012 <http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3020/fs2012-3020.pdf>