Single Publication

Airport Post-Fire BAER Soil Burn Severity Map Released

October 2, 2024

USDA Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) specialists recently completed their data gathering and analysis for the Airport Fire burned area to produce a post-fire Soil Burn Severity (SBS) map. 

The BAER SBS map and data display categories of unburned/very low, low, moderate, and high soil burn severity in different colors for the different categories. Of the 23,688 acres burned by the Airport Fire, 21,401 acres are National Forest System (NFS) lands. Approximately 20% of the total 23,688 acres analyzed by the BAER team are either unburned/very low or low soil burn severity, while 77% sustained a moderate soil burn severity, and about 3% were identified as having high soil burn severity.

The BAER assessment team used initial remote sensing imagery with their field-validated soils data, to develop and produce a map showing soil burn severity levels for the burned area. The SBS is broken into four different classes: unburned/very low (green), low (blue), moderate (yellow), and high (red). For more information on these different SBS classifications, see the BAER Information Brief at: Cabdf Southern California Postfire Baer 2024 - | InciWeb (wildfire.gov).

There are several types of fire severity and intensity maps that you may see. Each map represents different information.  Fire severity or intensity are different measures of the fire effects on a specific resource such as soils, tree canopies, vegetation or wildlife habitat. Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) maps are primarily measures of fire effects on soils.

The BAER team uses the final soil burn severity map in their subsequent modeling to estimate  post-fire runoff, erosion, and sedimentation. The BAER team, the US Geological Survey (USGS), and the California State Watershed Emergency Response Team (WERT) all utilize the soil burn severity map in their analysis to estimate post-fire watershed response to precipitation events. In specific areas that experienced moderate to high soil burn severity, there could be increased runoff from steep hillslopes which could result in increases of post-fire soil erosion, sedimentation, and potential debris flows.

The Airport Fire SBS map can be downloaded at the Airport Post-Fire BAER InciWeb site: Cabdf Southern California Postfire Baer 2024 Information | InciWeb (wildfire.gov) under the “Maps” tab.

BAER SAFETY MESSAGE: Everyone near and downstream from the burned areas should remain alert and stay updated on weather conditions that may result in heavy rains and increased water runoff. Flash flooding may occur quickly during heavy rain events--be prepared to act. Current weather and emergency notifications can be found at the National Weather Service website: www.weather.gov/lox/.

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