Incident Media Photographs

Map based on Sentinel-2 satellite imagery from August 3, 2024 and partially ground-truthed by our team in portions of the southern and western edges of the burn scar, but access to a considerable amount of the Alexander Mountain Fire has proven difficult. Based on what we were able to ground-truth, we believe this BARC map is a reasonably accurate representation of fire impacts and the burn severity of soils.

Moderate and high soil burn severity can alter or damage physical, chemical, and biological soil properties, resulting in increased runoff, erosion, and negative effects to soil productivity. These soil properties include but are not limited to soil cover (effective litter), soil organic matter content, hydrophobicity (water repellency), soil pore space, and soil structure. Changes to these soil properties determine the degree of soil burn severity. Loss of effective ground cover, especially on steep slopes, greatly increases the probability of soil erosion and increased runoff.