APPENDIX R: 

RECENT BURN 

PROJECTED VEGETATION 

MAPPING PROTOCOL 
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Jarbidge Draft RMP/EIS Appendix R 

APPENDIX R: RECENT BURN PROJECTED VEGETATION 

MAPPING PROTOCOL 

Introduction 

After the 2007 fire season, the Jarbidge Existing Vegetation Map had over 500,000 acres of vegetation 

mapped as Recent Burn, which are depicted in the Unvegetated Vegetation Sub-Group (VSG; see 

Appendix Q and Map 9). These areas were re-mapped at the community level during the 2009 field 

season; however, these data were not available to be used for the impact analysis in the Draft Resource 

Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (RMP/EIS). Since these Recent Burn areas are 

ephemeral and will have changed significantly when the Jarbidge RMP is implemented, a Vegetation 

Interdisciplinary Team (Veg ID Team) used Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, best 

available data, and professional judgment to project what the vegetation in the Recent Burn areas would 

most likely be in 2017. The projected vegetation is not existing vegetation and will not be used as a 

substitute for existing vegetation except for the purpose of analyzing and comparing impacts in the Draft 

RMP/EIS. The updated information collected during the 2009 field season will be incorporated into the 

Proposed RMP/Final EIS. The Veg ID Team included the following Jarbidge staff: 

 Sheri Hagwood, Botanist 

 Jim Klott, Wildlife Biologist 

 Bonnie Ross, GIS Specialist 

 Danelle Nance, Natural Resource Specialist 

The methodology and draft results of this projected vegetation project were presented to the Jarbidge 

RMP Interdisciplinary Team on December 3, 2007. Questions were asked and answered, but no 

substantive comments were received on the methodology, data used, or draft results, and no changes 

were made to the methodology. 

Data 

Best available data used by the Veg ID Team included the spatial data in Table R- 1, listed using the 

most recent file name. 

Table R- 1. GIS Data Layers Used for Recent Burn Projected Vegetation Mapping 

GIS Data Layer Description 

ESI_point Vegetation cover data at ESI points within or adjacent to the fire or Recent Burn 

jar20060418 Past Existing Vegetation mapped in 2006. 

JFOVeg_Existing.shp Existing Vegetation prior to the 2007 wildfire season 

JFOVeg_Potential.shp Potential natural vegetation communities from the SSURGO data for Elmore, 

Owyhee, Twin Falls, and Elko Counties 

proposed_ER_seeding Emergency Rehabilitation proposed seedings areas 

proposed_ES_seeding Emergency Stabilization proposed seedings areas 

Rehab_point Vegetation cover data at fire rehabilitation points within or adjacent to the fire or 

Recent Burn 

veg_mortality.shp Vegetation Mortality, based upon field verification and aerial images 

Veg_point Vegetation cover data at biological soil crust (BC) points within or adjacent to the 

fire or Recent Burn 

Wildfires Queried for the 2007 wildfires in the Jarbidge FO 

Methods 

In November 2007, the Veg ID Team began data analysis of the Recent Burn areas by creating an 

ArcMap project with the data layers described in the Data section. The GIS Specialist merged, 

intersected, unioned, and clipped data as needed to assist the Veg ID Team. The Murphy Complex Fires 

were addressed first, since these areas had the most associated data. The proposed_ES_seeding and 

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Appendix R	 Jarbidge Draft RMP/EIS 

proposed_ER_seeding layers were looked at, then the unburned islands, followed by the vegetation 

mortality layer for the 2007 wildfires and the 2006 Recent Burn polygons in the Existing Vegetation layer. 

A new layer was created, 10_Year_edits.shp, to spatially display the projected vegetation for data 

analysis. Assumptions established by the Veg ID Team for each set of data prior to use are discussed in 

each of the following sections. 

2007 Wildfires 

Proposed Seedings 

The proposed_ES_seeding and proposed_ER_seeding polygons were incorporated into the 

10_Year_edits.shp. Seeding treatments were primarily within high severity burn areas. Assumptions 

associated with the seedings data analysis included: 

 All seeding treatments will be completed. 

 All graminoid species seeded will establish successfully or will be reseeded with dominance of 

seeded species reached by 2017. 

	 Although sagebrush, bitterbrush, and mountain mahogany seedings are expected to establish, the 

required cover threshold will not be reached by 2017. Vegetation mapping protocol requires 10% or 

greater shrub cover for shrublands and 25% cover of tree species for woodlands. 

The Veg ID Team determined the dominant grass species from each seed mix to be bluebunch 

wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata). All drill and harrow seed treatment polygons associated with the 

Murphy ES&BAR plans were labeled Bluebunch wheatgrass (10510). 

Vegetation Mortality 

Unburned 

The Veg ID Team assumed that all mapped unburned islands were vegetated as mapped in the 

JFOVeg_Existing.shp. All unburned islands 20 acres or greater in size were selected from the 

veg_mortality layer. Unburned islands less than 20 acres were not selected from the veg_mortality layer 

in order to meet vegetation mapping criteria regarding the minimum mapping unit. The selected unburned 

islands in the veg_mortality layer were then intersected with the existing vegetation layer and merged into 

the 10_Year_edits.shp. All unburned islands greater than 20 acres in size then had the same vegetation 

attributes as before the fire. Areas mapped as Recent Burn (155) prior to the 2007 fires are addressed 

separately (see Recent Burn (2006) below). 

Low Severity 

The Veg ID Team made several assumptions for the low severity burn areas in order to project what the 

vegetation would be in 2017: 

 All grasslands, Breaks (134), Barren (103), Rabbitbrush, Semi-wet Meadow (118), and Aspen (158), 

Juniper (160), and Mountain mahogany (159) woodland vegetation communities that burned at low 

severity would recover to their pre-burn vegetative state by 2017. 

	 Sagebrush areas were assumed to become grasslands dominated by the pre-burn dominant grass 

species. This is based on 100% mortality of sagebrush within the low severity areas, and while 

sagebrush may reseed itself or be re-seeded, it will not reach 10% or greater cover by 2017. Fire 

rehabilitation data from five to ten year old burns in the Jarbidge FO showed less than 10% shrub 

cover on the majority of the burns. 

	 Rabbitbrush would survive a low severity burn and would be expected to increase following the burn. 

Therefore, all pre-burn vegetation communities with significant rabbitbrush cover (greater than 10%) 

were projected to be rabbitbrush-dominated communities by 2017. 

 Evergreen mountain brush (114) communities dominated by ceanothus (Ceanothus velutinus), a fireadapted species, would fully recover post-fire. 

 All 2007 wildfires outside of the Murphy Complex Fires were assumed to be low severity and were 

projected to become grasslands based on the pre-burn dominant grass species. 

10 Vegetation community coding 

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Jarbidge Draft RMP/EIS Appendix R 

Low severity vegetation mortality areas were selected from the veg_mortality layer and intersected with 

the JFOVeg_Existing.shp. This allowed the Veg ID Team to use the vegetation data from before the burn 

to assist in projecting what the vegetation would be in 2017. Other data layers used were the ESI_point, 

Rehab_point, and Veg_point cover data to refine and support the JFOVeg_Existing.shp data. Also, the 

potential vegetation by plant community layer was used to analyze the Evergreen (114) and Deciduous 

(117) mountain brush communities, which had limited information on what overstory and understory 

species were present in specific areas. Field-verified Evergreen and Deciduous mountain brush polygons 

with comments on actual vegetation composition, as well as the potential natural vegetation from the 

JFOVeg_Potential.shp, were used to project the condition of these polygons by 2017 if no ESI or BC data 

were available. Projected vegetation for these areas was incorporated into the 10_Year_edits.shp. 

Moderate Severity 

The Veg ID Team made several assumptions for the moderate severity burn areas in order to project 

what the vegetation would be in 2017: 

 Juniper (160) and Mountain Mahogany (159) woodlands that were moderately burned are not 

expected to attain the 25% shrub cover necessary for woodlands within 10 years, but were mapped 

to the dominant grass, typically bluebunch wheatgrass. Aspen woodlands (158) would recover 

without issue. 

	 Sagebrush areas were assumed to become grasslands dominated by the pre-burn dominant grass 

species, as with the low severity burn areas. 

	 Rabbitbrush would survive a moderate severity burn and would be expected to increase following the 

burn and spread to previously sagebrush-dominated areas in close proximity. Therefore, all 

vegetation communities with significant pre-burn rabbitbrush cover (greater than 10%) were projected 

to be rabbitbrush-dominated communities by 2017. 

 Wyoming sagebrush/bluegrass (123) and Wyoming sagebrush/Thurber’s needlegrass (125) sites are 

expected to regenerate as Bluegrass (106) communities. 

 Bluebunch wheatgrass dominated sites previous to the Murphy Complex were assumed to return as 

Bluebunch wheatgrass (105) communities, assuming optimum conditions for regrowth would occur. 

 Annual (101) communities will remain the same. 

 Evergreen mountain brush (114) communities dominated by ceanothus would recover fully post-fire in 

moderate severity burns. 

 Certain canyons have a high potential for annual invasion, as witnessed by previous fires. 

 Shadscale is removed in moderate severity fires and is not expected to regenerate. Burned 

shadscale (73) communities were projected to become grasslands dominated by the dominant preburn grass. 

Moderate severity burn areas were selected from the veg_mortality layer and intersected with the 

JFOVeg_Existing.shp. This allowed the Veg ID Team to use the vegetation data from before the burn to 

assist in projecting what the vegetation would be by 2017. Other data layers used were the ESI_point, 

Rehab_point, and Veg_point cover data to refine and support the JFOVeg_Existing.shp data. As with the 

low severity areas, the potential vegetation by plant community layer was used to analyze the Evergreen 

and Deciduous mountain brush sites. Field-verified Evergreen and Deciduous mountain brush polygons 

with comments on actual vegetation composition, as well as the potential natural vegetation from the 

JFOVeg_Potential.shp, were used to project the condition of these polygons by 2017 if no ESI or BC data 

were available. Projected vegetation for these areas was incorporated into the 10_Year_edits.shp. 

High Severity 

The Veg ID Team made several assumptions for the high severity burn areas in order to project what the 

vegetation would be in 2017: 

 The majority of these areas will be treated within five years to a native seed treatment and are 

covered under the Proposed Seeding section. 

	 If a high severity burn site is not proposed for ES or BAR seeding, it was projected to be at an early 

seral stage in 2017, either as an Annual (101) or a Bluegrass (106) community. An exception would 

be if, prior to the fire, a site had bluebunch wheatgrass present at greater than 30% cover and annual 

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cover less than 5%. These sites were projected to become Bluebunch wheatgrass (105) grassland 

assuming that, with no additional disturbance from seeding and pre-burn high species cover, 

Bluebunch wheatgrass would recover and dominate the site by 2017. 

	 Aspen (158) and Semi-wet meadow (118) are assumed to have no issues with regeneration following 

a high severity burn. 

The majority of high burn severity areas was included for treatment through the ES and ER plans and is 

covered under the Proposed Seeding section above. In untreated areas, ESI_point and Veg_point data 

was used to determine vegetation cover pre-burn. Projected vegetation for these areas was incorporated 

into the 10_Year_edits.shp. 

Recent Burn (2006) 

Limited data were available for the areas mapped as Recent Burn in 2006. Assumptions made with the 

Recent Burn (155) polygons from the JFOVeg_Existing.shp regarding the projected vegetation were: 

 The Sailor Cap Fire burned with low to moderate severity. Sagebrush would have 100% mortality and 

would not re-establish to 10% or greater cover by 2017. Also, the dominant pre-burn grass would 

survive the burn and would dominate the vegetation community. 

	 The jar20060418 layer showed pre-burn areas mapped with Thurbers needlegrass as the dominant 

grass in the Sailor Cap Fire. These were projected to become Bluegrass (106) sites, since Thurbers 

is not a fire-tolerant species and these communities had burned twice within one year. 

	 The Crested wheatgrass (107) community at the north end where the Sailor Cap and Murphy Fires 

intersected would remain crested wheatgrass, since it was a very light back-burn and the community 

had been field verified pre-burn. 

	 Sagebrush areas were assumed to become grasslands dominated by the pre-burn dominant grass 

species. This is based on 100% mortality of sagebrush within the low severity areas, and while 

sagebrush may reseed itself or be re-seeded, it will not reach 10% or greater cover by 2017. Fire 

rehabilitation data from 5-10 year old burns in the Jarbidge showed less than 10% shrub cover on the 

majority of the burns. 

 Crested wheatgrass (124) and Annual (101) communities remained the same. 

 Wyoming big sagebrush/Crested wheatgrass (124) became Crested wheatgrass (107) and Wyoming 

big sagebrush/Thurbers needlegrass (125) communities regressed to Bluegrass sites (106). 

Projected vegetation in the Recent Burn (155) polygons from the JFOVeg_Existing.shp was incorporated 

into the 10_Year_edits.shp and analyzed. The Grassy Hills 2006 fire was interpreted to become a 

Bluebunch wheatgrass (105) community, due to known light burn severity and previous field-verified site 

composition by Veg ID Team members. The 2006 Sailor Cap fire was determined to be mostly bluegrass, 

based upon data from the ESI_point layer, which included points read in 2006 before the fire, and data 

from the Rehab_point layer, which included 2007 Fire Rehabilitation plots established after the Sailor Cap 

Fire. Within the 2006 Saylor Cap fire, a large polygon of bluegrass was split to become Crested 

Wheatgrass (107) in the northern portion and Bluegrass (106) to the south, based upon 2006 ESI points. 

Surrounding vegetation type was used to infer what the smaller fires would transition to where no data 

were available. Projected vegetation for these areas was incorporated into the 10_Year_edits.shp. 

Breaks 

Vegetation communities mapped as Breaks (134) were addressed over the entire 10_Year_edits.shp. 

Most of these areas were assumed to be at a high risk for cheatgrass invasion, given the difficult terrain, 

available sources, and historical infestation of these types of areas following fires. 

Summary

The GIS Specialist reviewed the final 10_Year_edits.shp for consistency with GIS mapping protocols. 

Slivers, or small polygons created through joining of several data layers, were absorbed into an adjacent 

polygon of greater than 20 acres in size. Unburned islands less than 20 acres were also absorbed into 

the surrounding projected polygon. The 10_Year_edits.shp and the JFOVeg_Existing.shp were analyzed 

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to reflect the attributes of the projected vegetation replacing the Recent Burn polygons in the 

JFOVeg_Existing.shp. 

After completion of this exercise, it was decided that the projected vegetation would be more useful for 

analysis purposes if a five-year timeline was used, rather than the initial ten-year projection. The Veg ID 

Team felt that the projection for five years would generally be the same as the projection for ten years. 

The major assumptions that all seeding treatments will be completed and the required cover threshold of 

10% for shrubs will not be met at ten years are still valid at five years from burn. Assumptions that may 

not be accurate at five years include: 

 Rabbitbrush having 10% cover within ten years may not be true within five years. 

 All graminoid species seeded will establish successfully or will be reseeded with dominance of 

seeded species reached by 2017. However, graminoid species seedings that were not successful 

and needed re-treatment may not have obtained dominance at the end of five years, or by 2012. 

 Juniper and Mountain mahogany woodlands may not reach the minimum 25% woody cover within 

five years. 

The projected vegetation layer was renamed the JFO Veg_fiveyr_Projections.shp and is the final product 

for this exercise. The vegetation composition resulting from this exercise, referred to as the 2012 

projected vegetation composition, is depicted in Map 10 and is used as the baseline for comparison and 

analysis throughout the RMP. 

This exercise was completed for analysis purposes only for the Jarbidge Draft RMP/EIS. Map 10, based 

on the JFOVeg_fiveyr_Projections.shp, is representative of what the Veg ID Team expects the Recent 

Burn vegetation to be by 2012. This projected vegetation mapping exercise is based upon the most 

recent studies, field observations, available data, and professional judgment. This layer should not be 

used as an existing vegetation map at any point in time. Recent Burn polygons in the Existing Vegetation 

map (post-2007 fires; Map 9), including the Murphy Complex, were field mapped during the 2009 field 

season, two years after burning, following the vegetation mapping protocol. The updated vegetation 

information will be incorporated into the Proposed RMP/Final EIS. 

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