Ecological impacts of the Laguna Wildfire using dynamic mapping

Abstract

In 2009, the Fire Executive Council released an updated guideline that restricted the classification of wildland fires to two categories: prescribed fire and wildland fire. In removing the historic wildland fire category, “Wildland Fire Use,” the Fire Executive Council removed an important wildland fire classification that could help researchers answer questions posed by the September 2022 National Prescribed Fire Program Review. This study demonstrates the importance of using additional wildland fire categories by evaluating the environmental data obtained from a dynamic mapping of a single wildland fire event. In this case study, satellite data was used to parse the 2025 Laguna Wildfire into three categories: Origin, Wildland Fire Use, and Escaped Fire. Satellite data was then employed to evaluate the severity of the wildland fire and the debris flow through the Rio Gallina originating from each category of the fire. A Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) analysis of the Laguna Fire demonstrates that the Laguna Fire burned with a primarily very low to low severity. The Escaped Fire had the highest percentage of moderate severity and severe fire, resulting in the largest impacts to the Rio Gallina watershed.