Week 8 Lab Station Fire

For this weeks lab I chose to display the Los Angeles county parks with their names and a small map on the bottom displaying the County parks buffer zone and target area of the station fire. I outlined the main park burned in the station fire. This map clearly displays the extent of the Angeles National Forest that was burned in the fire. The fire was almost all within the Angeles National Forest perimeters.
This fire was the largest in Los Angeles County history and destroyed 250 square miles. Two firefighters were also killed during the blaze. It was the ninth largest fire in California since 1933. the are was drought dry forst and the fire spread quickly. the burn area covers much of the San Gabriel MOuntains north of Los Angeles, most of which is within the Angeles National Forest.
The fire burned many recreation areas including hiking trails and campsites. Some campsites were spared but the surrounding areas were still burned. Among the burned areas in the Angeles National Forest are Switzer Falls, LAUSD's Clear creek camp spread, Eaton canyon Park, Gould Mesa campground, Cogswell reservior, Magic Mountain Wilderness, Pleasant View, Millard Campgrounds, Horse Flats, Camp Colby, Hidden Springs cafe in a popular hiking area, Devil's Canyon/ San Gabriel Wilderness, and Angeles Crest Ranger station.
So much of the wilderness areas off the Angeles Crest highway in the Angels National forest was burned. This area was covered with amazing hiking trails and campgrounds. These areas have been closed to the public since the Station fire in September 2009. The area of the burn has been considered very dangerous due to possibility of landslides and severe run-off from the vegetation cover being destroyed. The soils were left bare after the fire, increasing the chance of collapse in a rain or even a slight disturbance. the organic oils left in the soils from the vegetation reduces infiltration capabilities of the soil and increases run-off. this can be vert dangerous to down slope communities.
As of May 26. 2010 some of the areas within the burn perimeter have been re-opened to the public. Only areas that weren't actually burned but surrounded ny burn have been re-opened. it is predicted that it could take years for some of the ares to be re-opened to the public because of the amount of instability and environmental degradation in the burn areas.

refernces

1. www.latimes.com/news/local/la me firemap
Lin Gong Rong. Los Angeles Fire map sept. 11, 2009
2. www.gis.lacounty.gov/egis
All station fire perimeters data. sept 2, 2009
3. www.glendalenewspress.com
Wells, Jason. forest area back in service. may 26, 2010
4. Geology.com/new/2009/stationfire burnarea
sept. 10,2009
5. earthobservatory.nasa.gov/naturalhazards
Allen, Jesse. NASA image.2009