Final Lab: the LA Station Fire and its Affect of Critical Habitat in LA

How the Los Angeles Station Fire Destroyed Critical Habitat

In 2009, the highly destructive Los Angeles Station Fire burned through areas of the Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains. The overall destruction of the fire was an extremely large section of the National Forest, decimating a large portion of the region. Beginning in August of 2009, the fire wasn’t fully contained until late October of the same year. The fire burned more than 160 thousand acres of land, and a total of over two thousand fireman and other workers were in the fight to stop the fire (instaweb.org2009). The fire was soon discovered to be arson, and with the combination of the dryness of the land and extensive undergrowth from a lack of fires over several years, this caused the fire to grow and become uncontrollable. Becoming one of the largest wildfire in California (O’Connor2009). 

The two maps above show a different version of the fire. One shows the recorded extents of the fire: the first recorded extent of it, the middle extent of the fire, and the final extent-before the fire was one hundred percent contained. The second map shows two layers: one layer is the full extent of the fire, showing the area that was decimated by the blaze, while the second layer that is dictated in blue shows critically endangered habitats in Los Angles and surrounding areas that are home to numerous species of animals. Therefore comparing the two layers shows that the fire and the critical habitat do have an overlap. Therefore, one can hypothesize that if the fire and the critical habitat do have an overlap, then the fire would have a detrimental effect on the animal species that live in the area, which greatly effects their populations. Thus, in my analysis I will prove that the fire significantly decreased animal populations.

 The fire took place in the Angeles National Forest, which was established in 1892 by and Executive Order from the President. The National Forest Spans over 650,000 acres of land. The forest is a vital part of Los Angeles because it acts as the sol watershed management system for the LA Area. Therefore providing countless gallons of water to the city through the water cycle (USDA.gov2013). This is not even the most important feature of this area, some small areas, as demonstrated by the map, are critically important to the whole ecosystem of the forest. In California there are 359 species listed as endangered or threatened, with a number of these species residing in the Angeles National Forest (UCAgrculture2009). Just some animals that call the forest home are the Black Bears, Bobcats, Mountain Lions, deer, small mammals and numerous bird species. They are all are critical to the habitat, and any decrease in their numbers is detrimental to the ecosystem.

There are no specific numbers on how many animals were lost in the 2009 Station Fire, but it was reported that an abnormal number of large specie animals were found; more than would normally be found in a wildfire. While large animals normally have the ability to escape the fire, in this case the fire progressed so quickly, because of its uphill path, that the animals couldn’t outrun the rapidly advancing fire. While we know the fire had a negative effect on the populations of many species of plants and animals, there has never been a study on how many were lost (Barstow2009). However, on record there is a small account of scientist recordings that there three bears, twelve deer, two coyotes, and one bobcat died in the fire (Barstow2009). Numerous birds also died, not from the flames, but from the toxic gas that came from the smoke. Another reason for why most animals were not able to escape from the flames was because of how thick the brush was in certain areas in the forest, which hindered them from escaping and fueled an accelerated speed of the fire (Barstow2009).

After evaluating research of the Los Angeles Station Fire and its effect on the animal and plant populations I can accurately say that I was wrong in my hypothesis. According to the map that I generated, only small fragmented areas that are labeled critically important to endangered habitat. Therefore, the fire would not have a great effect on the populations of animals based on my assumptions. Scientists who studied the aftermath of the fire said that one lasting effect the fire may have on animal populations is that many small rodents died in the fire, because they naturally burrow in fires and died as a result of their natural instinct. As a result, there may be a lack of food source for predators in the future (Barstow2009). However, many animals that had the ability to escape the fire didn’t perish and the vegetation is now flourishing, as plant and shrub life recovers fastest after wildfires.  

 Works Cited

"About the Forest." Angeles National Forest -. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2013.

Barstow, Donna. "Rare Big-animal Deaths in Angeles National Forest's Fast-moving Station Fire." LA Weekly [Los Angeles] 21 Oct. 2009: n. pag. Print.

"Endangered Species and Habitat." University of California Agricultural Issues Center (2009): 32-34. Print.

"InciWeb - Incident Information System." InciWeb the Incident Information System: Station Fire News Release. N.p., 27 Sept. 2009. Web. 16 Mar. 2013.

O'connor, Anahad. "Huge Los Angeles Fire Was Arson, Officials Say." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Sept. 2009. Web. 16 Mar. 2013.

"Bing Maps Hybrid Base Map." Map. ArcGIS Online Base Map. Bing, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.

Greninger, Mark. All Sation Fire Perimeters As of September 2, 7:02. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS, 2 Sept. 2009. Zip File.

Project, Landscape. "All Critical Habitats in California." Map. ArcGIS Online. USFWS Critical Habitat Portal, 24 May 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.

LAB 7- Census Data

The map based of the total “Some other” population by county was clearly showing the Latino population in the United States. The map shows that most of the Latino population in the United States is located in the Southwestern part of the Nation. The population mainly lives in the states: Texas, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. These states make since for why they have such a large Hispanic population because they are close to Mexico, therefore many of the people who emigrated from the country stayed relatively close to the border. Some interesting phenomenon’s that I noticed about the map were, that there is a large Latino population in Northern Washington State, which I have no explanation for. Another aspect of the map that I thought was very interesting was the fact that the Latino population was mostly clustered in the part of Texas that touched Mexico and that most of the Northeastern part of the state had a very minimal population of Latinos. Another aspect of the map that was extremely interesting to me was the fact that the Midwest and states like Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming has the lowest populations of Latinos, this does make sense though because these are the farthest places from Mexico.

                The map based off of the total “Asian” population demonstrates that most of the Asian population in the United States is mostly on the West Coast, and mostly in California. There is still some significant numbers of the population on the East Coast, more centered in the northern part of New England. What I found most interesting was that Orange County has one the great Total Asian populations in the nation. This makes sense to me because Orange County is home to places like little Saigon, and that a lot of refugees from various wars fled to Southern California. Overall I was shocked at how little the Total Asian population was spread out over the entire United States, and that the population is only concentrated into a couple small areas, basically only on opposite sides of the country

The map that shows the total “Black” population by county shows that most of the African American population is concentrated in the South. The states were most of the population is located is Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina. This makes since to me because of the history of African American culture with the south. Historically African Americans were forced to the United States through the slave trade, and they were brought to the south. Therefore many of the former slaves after being freed remained in the south. Therefore the population that lived there today is the descendants from the African Americans that were forced to be slaves. A few things that I found interesting about the map are the fact that the African American Population is small in Florida, but the surrounding states near Florida have a high African American population. The map shows such a high concentration of African Americans in the south that it’s hard to read the map, and to see the individual county lines.  Another aspect of the map that I found very interesting what that a major part of the African American population follows the southern half of the Mississippi river

                Overall this lab was very interesting, and easy to work with. It was very interesting to see how different populations of races are in the nation. On my map my only challenge was that the color scheme I picked to demonstrate the percent’s of the different populations made it very confusing to see the different percent’s based off color. Another problem in the creation of my maps was removing Alaska and Hawaii, but I did this by just zooming into continental US and leaving Hawaii and Alaska outside the Layout view. My overall impression of GIS has changed over the quarter and first I was very frustrated with ArcGIS and found it very hard to operate, but now I find it very easy to use and manage. Also I think that GIS is making individuals who work in Census date, jobs very easy now, because they can easily create maps like the one I just did.

Lab 6-Week 7

Overall I was really amazed by this lab, and for the first time I felt like I was doing real GIS work. I was really impressed on how it all came together in the end, and how easy it was to manipulate the maps and show the different features of them so easily. The pitfall to spatial analysis as it pertains to the lab was that if I was someone who has never worked with GIS before, I would be very confused what I was looking at. I was very confused what I was looking at, because I didn’t really have an understanding of what I was doing with the maps, or what they were showing. Also I think another pitfall of this was that I think that maps were kind of limited in what they could do, how each one only had one function. I think that they’re a lot of potential for this subject and for this lab. Therefore you could use this subject to describe anything I feel like. Because in the original direction said your were supposed to kind a subject that interest you, therefore showing that you could use this for any subject out there.  To me the potential are that I really enjoyed working with this kind of maps, and that it made me excited to work with this kind of system more. Also this was probably one of the most straight forward labs we have done, therefore making the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. 

Lab 5- Map Projections

 I think this lab demonstrated very well how maps could easily be distorted and changed to reflect something completely different then the three dimensional earth that the maps are trying to represent. My overall experience of this lab was that I was amazed of how easily ArcGIS can change between the different map projections. Also I was impressed by how many different projections there are in general, and how all of them demonstrate the world in a different way.   What I think of map projections is that I am surprised there is not a standardized one that has the least amount of distortion and is a better representation of the earth then the maps we have now. Also what surprised me was how much some of the maps distorted the earth, for example my Azimuthal map projection didn’t even look like the earth to me, and the lines of latitude and longitude were almost impossible to decipher from. 

The significance of map projections is that we need them. In my opinion geography, science, history, and every other subject would not exist or would not be nearly complete without them. Therefore they are vital to the study of anything that involves: location, distance, and space. Lets be honest Geography would not exist if someone didn’t discover the calculations necessary to create these projections. Map projections are so important because they allow someone to carry large amount of information in a small space, because someone can’t carry around a globe in their pocket. Globes are to big and the smaller they are the hard it is to read them therefore a paper map helps the easy access of information.

            The perils of map projection are that they distort information, and some are not as good of a representation of length related to scale on the earth then others. For example on my Mercator map, length from Washington DC to Kabul was completely off from the real length. This shows that some projections cannot be trusted to judge distance. Therefore this can bring up many problems when it comes determining the location of something. This could be a problem when using a map projection to fly somewhere, because if one map projection is off and you use it, the pilot may over shoot the location. Or the pilot could possible underestimate the distance and run out of gas before they reach the destination. Another problem with some map projection is that they distort shape and size of the continents. For example my Mercator map projection made some land masses appear much larger then they are, for example Greenland on the map was twice the size of Africa. Therefore this is a peril of map projection because it could give people learning about the world and maps the wrong impression, and they could grow up thinking that Greenland is the largest landmass in the world.  Another peril of map projection is there use in the military and warfare. Again with the problem with distance is that if someone is using a certain map projection, for example a Lambert one, that distorts distance, and they shoot a missile and calculate the distance wrong they could hit the wrong target.

            The potentials of map projections are that each map has a unique attribute and can be used for many different cases. For example one would use one that preserves size to look at the shape of landmasses, and be used for such things of navigation of the coastline. While others preserve distance and can be used for the actually size of a landmass or to determine accurate distance from certain locations. Therefore map projections can be used for a variety of problems, but one has to be careful on what projection they use, and be knowledge able of what projections do what. Another great potential of map projection is the fact that it has lead to the development of greater technology. For example map projections had lead to the creation of digital maps, ones that are a true representation of the earth without any distortion. Therefore map projections have lead to the development of Google maps and ArcGIS; therefore we are now converting map projections to their digital form. 

GIS LAB week 4 and 5: introduction to ArcGIS

Pitfall and potentials of ArcGIS

            My experience of the ArcGIS map software system was a love hate relationship. The potential of this technology is astounding. The ability to quickly update and modify the maps was one of the greatest advantages of this technology.  The potential of the maps and what they were able to do with data as well as the ability to change from layer to layer easily was by far one of the most beneficial aspects of this technology.  I think that the potentials of this technology are endless.  I love the fact that you can use it for anything and that you can create hundreds of maps based off the idea of how noise will effect the populations around an airport.  Overall I was impressed on what the technology could do and was amazed on how it can create maps out of data like the one we were using. However, being a first time user, I felt it was very frustrating and difficult to figure out how to use the software. 

Overall from my brief experience with the technology I cannot find many other positive aspects of the software other than what we already discussed in class.  Personally I felt it was very difficult to like the software. However, I can see how it may be easier to use once you understand the software.  Overall I am actually excited to learn more about the software and actually learn how to create maps on my own without having step-by-step instructions. I am also excited to see the advantages that the software will have in my future career, working in conservation. 

            Overall I had a very difficult time with the software and still feel like I do not understand much of it. I do not think the software is very user friendly, and I think someone who has no experience or very little will not have a clue on how to use the technology without a detailed description on how to do it every time. Also the software is not self-explanatory.  I felt like there were many useless steps and that some items were placed in such a way that made it very difficult to locate.  For example, the tutorial kept saying to use the draw tool bar, but there was not such thing.  Every time I logged onto the software I would have to customize my tool bar and add the drawing tool to it, which was very inconvenient since this was a feature that was used frequently when making maps.  I understand that the tutorial was giving us a broad overview therefore we were doing basically a small sample of everything we did.  However, I thought a lot of the steps were worthless, and very repetitive especially when it would make you change something that you did before, making the whole project very frustrating.

            The downside of the technology was the overall look of the system. For the leading software in GIS I wasn’t very impressed about the layout of it. It looked very outdated and I felt as though it could have been made to look more professional and overall easier to navigate. It seemed to resemble an older version of Microsoft.  Another drawback of the software is that it is too sensitive.  For instance, if you do one tiny thing wrong it could potentially destroy your map causing you have to spend numerous hours deleting fixing and redoing another map. This happened to me with the steps about the calculations, when I entered the data what I thought was correctly, my map was distorted and was not correct. So this was very frustrating to me and proved that the technology is too sensitive. 

UCLA Lab 3- Creating my own map

View UCLA geography 7-Lab 3 in a larger map

Pitfalls, Potential, and Consequences of Neogeography

Of the many pitfalls of Neogeography, one of the greatest I think is the reliability of the information that is being put out there. What’s stopping someone from putting up information on a map that has false information? Therefore how can we trust the information being put out there if any person could create it? Anyone could make their map look professional, I made a map in about 15 minutes that looks somewhat like a real map someone skilled could make, but my map was made up, based on a fictional location; therefore, mine is not a good source that could be used in the writing of a research paper. Another pitfall of Neogeography is that I feel like the technology is not one hundred percent glitch proof. When I was creating my map I had to re-due it two times because I kept having issues with placing markers. In my map somehow one marker was placed about fifty times, and I tried to delete them all but for some reason it wouldn’t let me and I was forced to restart my map. The technology has many bugs that make it a burden to work with sometime, therefore limiting Neogeography greatly in my opinion. Repressing people’s ideas because the technology can’t keep up with what the users want it to do.

            The potential of this technology is great. I feel like Neogeography is slowly going to take over the old ways we do geography, and that many of the techniques or technology we use now to create maps or study subjects will be replaced with the techniques that Neogeography uses, becoming the standard for the daily practices of the field. I think one of the greatest potentials of Neogeography is the access to information we have now. The ability to open any webpage and have an interactive map that allows you to access information is something that is a great way to get information to the public. Therefore, the greatest potential of the technology is that a large percentage of the global population has access to this, and that you don’t have to be a geographer or a GIS minor to cerate these simple maps that provide tons of information that anyone can access. I think there are many consequences to Neogeography. One example is how some people might abuse this technology. In Orange County, which is where I’m from, there were cases of people robbing houses by using Google maps and scouting out houses that seemed to be wealthy. Therefore they would scope out neighborhoods that had large houses, using the maps to find the address and then rob the houses. 

7.5 Map- Week 2

1. What is the name of the Quadrangle?
 -Beverly Hills Quadrangle, California-Los Angeles CO. 7.5-Minute series (topographic)

2. What are the names of the Adjacent Quadrangles?
-Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Venice, and Inglewood

3. When was the quadrangle first created?
-1995

4. What datum was used to create your map?
-NAD 27 (North American Datum of 1927) and NAD 83 (North American Datum or 1983

5. What is the scale of the map?
-1:24,0000

6 At the above scale, answer the following:
A)1200 meters on the ground
B)1.89 miles
C)2.64 in
D)12.50 cm

7. What is the contour interval on your map?
-20

8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/ minutes/ seconds and decimal degrees of:
A) Public Affairs Building:
 - 34 degrees 3' 31" N 118 degrees
B) The tip of the Santa Monica Pier
- 34 degrees 00' 26" N
C) The Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir
34 degrees 07' 12 N"

9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:
A) Greystone Mansion
-520 feet/158.50 meters
B) Woodland Cemetery
-140 feet/42.672 meters
C) Crestwood Hills Park
-700feet/213.36 meters

10. What is the UTM Zone of the map
-11

11. What are the UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of your map?
 - 3763000'N and 366200' E

12. How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines?

1,000 X 1,000= 1,000,000 ft^2 convert to meters 92,903.04 meters.

13. Obtain elevation measurements, for west to east along the UTM northing 3771000, where the eastings of the UTM grid intersect the northing. Create and elevation profile using these measurements in Excel (hint: create a line chart). Figure out how the label the elevation values to the two measurements on campus. INsert your elevation profile as a graphic in your blog.

14. What is the magnetic declination of the map?
-14

15. In which direction does water flow in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and stone canyon Reservoir?
-North to South

16. Crop out (i.e., cut and paste) UCLA from the map and include it as graphic on your blog

UCLA Campus map