Lab 7

Location of 2009 Los Angeles County Station Fire with Neighboring Citie

The 2009 Los Angeles County Station Fire was one of the most devastating and and detrimental fires to happen in Southern California. It has been classified as the 10th largest fire in the history of California and the largest in the history of Los Angeles County. Many lives and habitats were threatened by the fire and unfortunately two firefighters were lost in battling the massive and engulfing flames. Beginning August 26, 2009 and ending October 16, 2009, the fire burned primarily on Mount Wilson destroyed approximately 160, 577 acres, 209 buildings, and 89 homes. The fire was started in the Angeles National Forest near the areas of La Cañada Flintridge, Glendale, Acton, La Crescenta, Littlerock, and Altadena and as seen in the above map provided by the Incident Information System Organization. Officials stated the probable cause of the fire was indeed arson and a chemical substance was found at the location of the fire's ignition source that may have caused an exponential growth of the fire's flames.

Using data from the Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS website, the boundaries of the fire from August 29 to September 2. The above map indicates the extent of the fire on the initial date of the fire (August 29, 2009 at 2:48 AM) in yellow shading, the median date (August 31, 2009 at 2:34 AM) in blue, and the terminal date (September 2, 2009 at 7:02 AM). The fire, starting from its original extent of,

    West: -118.211222;

    East: -118.147167;

    North: 34.271518;

    South: 34.224312 decimal degrees

expanded to the north, west, and east to end at

    West: -118.339177;

    East: -117.972885;

    North: 34.438232;

    South: 34.210177 decimal degrees.

To analyze the damage done by the Station Fire, I have chosen the Significant Ecological Areas surrounding the Angeles Mountains as defined by the Los Angeles County of Regional Planning.  All of the Significant Ecological Areas have been denoted in a pinkish color, whereas those areas denoted in spotted orange in the map shown above, show where there has been fire damage or was at risk of damage. However, in order to begin our analysis, we must first define what a "Significant Ecological Area" or "SEA" is. Taken from the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Enviornment's website, a SEA contains the following characteristics:

1. Is the habitat of rare, endangered, or threatened plant or animal species.
2. Represents biotic communities, vegetative associations, or habitat of plant or animal species that are either one-of-a-kind, or are restricted in distribution on a regional basis.
3. Represents biotic communities, vegetative associations, or habitat of plant or animal species that are either one-of-a-kind, or are restricted in distribution in Los Angeles County.
4. Is habitat that at some point in the life cycle of a species or group of species, serves as a concentrated breeding, feeding, resting, or migrating grounds, and is limited in availability
5. Represents biotic resources that are of scientific interest because they are either an extreme in physical/geographical limitations, or they represent an unusual variation in a population or community.
6. Is an area important as game species habitat or as fisheries.
7. Is an area that would provide for the preservation of relatively undisturbed examples of the natural biotic communities in Los Angeles County.
8. Is a special area, worthy of inclusion, but one which does not fit any of the other seven criteria.

The Significant Ecological Area layer was superimposed upon the Digital Elevation Model of Los Angeles County to give an overview of the fire's path.  One can clearly see two SEAs in which the fire caused some destruction and two more areas in which had the fire continued to burn, would have surely been affected by the Station Fire:  The Santa Clara River to the northwest of the fire boundary and the Tujunga Valley/Hansen Dam to the southwest were affected.  Consequently, the Kentucky Springs, directly north of the fire's center and the Verdugo Mountains south of the Tunjunga Valley were both at risk.    

In these areas, the following biological organisms were affected:

•  The Santa Clara River and the stickleback fish habitat.  This river represents the last major unchanneled river in Los Angeles County.
• In the Tujunga Valley/Hansen Dam Area, the dam and many publicly owned equestrian ranches.
• The Joshua Trees of the Kentucky Springs.
• Many California native plants such as the oak woodland plant community, the chaparral, oak woodlands ecoregion.  

One might hypothesize that the Santa Clara River helped retard the growth of the fire in the north direction.  A same allegation can also be said for the Hansen Dam of the south where the Tujunga Wash River flows. 

Currently three forms of rebuilding are in place:

 

• Fire Suppression Repair
• Burned Area Emergency Response
• Long-term Recovery (BAER). 

Bibliography

"Chapter 6.  Open Space and Conservation."  Department of City Planning.  Web.  22 Nov.  2010. <http://cityplanning.lacity.org/cwd/framwk/chapters/06/06.htm>.

"InciWeb the Incident Information System: Station Fire."  InciWeb, the Incident Information System.  Web.  22 Nov. 2010.  <http://inciweb.org/incident/1856/>.

"Significant Ecological Areas."  Santa Clarita Organization for Planning The Environment.  Web.  22 Nov. 2010.  <http://www.scope.org/sea/index.html>.

Wikipedia contributors.  "2009 California wildfires."  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 1 Nov. 2010.  Web.  23 Nov. 2010.

Wikipedia contributors.  "Verdugo Mountains."  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,  20 Oct. 2010.  Web.  23 Nov. 2010.