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4 CapitalPress.com January 29, 2016 Software aids wildfire recovery plans Keith Weber uses satellite photos to help planners develop strategies Keith Weber Age: 49 Family: Wife, Soo, and son, Dustin Hometown: Chubbuck, Idaho Occupation: Director of Idaho State University’s GIS Training and Research Center By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press POCATELLO, Idaho — Thanks to an advanced map- ping system called RECOV- ER, fire recovery specialists were already developing re- habilitation plans for Idaho’s massive Soda wildfire while it was still burning. Keith Weber, director of Idaho State University’s Geographic Information Sys- tem Training and Research Center, was the lead inves- tigator in developing the cloud-based software, which quickly assembles satellite imagery and informational “layers” from several sources to overlay on a fire map. RECOVER’s 21 existing datasets cover critical top- ics for fire restoration such as soil type, wildlife habitat, vegetation and topography. Weber started work on RECOVER in 2012 with a grant from NASA’s applied sciences program, which seeks to find practical uses for its satellite and comput- er technology to benefit the public. Working closely with the Bureau of Land Man- agement and the Idaho De- Education: Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, field biology and ecology from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in wildlife biology from the University of Montana Innovation: The RECOVER mapping system, used by the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies to more quickly assess wildfire dam- age so rehabilitation plans can be developed John O’Connell/Capital Press Keith Weber, Idaho State University’s Geographic Information System director, shows maps of the Soda wildfire using RECOVER computer mapping technology he developed for use by agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management in more quickly developing fire recovery plans. The technology was funded by a NASA grant. partment of Lands, he tested RECOVER on six Idaho fires in 2013. Last summer, in the first season of a three-year NASA grant to further refine RECOVER, Weber’s system was used on its first large wildfire, the 283,000-acre Soda fire in Western Idaho. “What we’ve learned is even with a fire of that size, RECOVER can easily handle that,” Weber said. On such large fires, he es- timates RECOVER can save land managers up to four days of work assembling data and maps from a host of different sources, making certain all of the information is up-to-date and in a common format. Michael Kuyper, a BLM supervisory natural resource specialist in southeast Ida- ho, said his agency has three weeks to submit a rehabilita- tion plan and make funding requests after a fire is extin- guished. Kuyper, who has worked closely with Weber on fine-tuning RECOVER, said the technology stands to help the agency meet report deadlines more easily and more quickly get seed and straw on the ground in pri- ority areas. Kuyper hopes Weber will add additional RECOVER layers for grazing allotments and rangeland improve- ments. He’s particularly ea- ger for Weber to complete a reporting function, which should provide land manag- ers instant statistics, such as miles of fence line and num- bers of cattle troughs with- in a burn area, simply by checking boxes, rather than cutting and pasting from GIS images to obtain figures manually. Kuyper said hav- ing access to RECOVER on hand-held devices will also enable BLM workers to up- date recovery maps while in the field, rather than taking GPS data back to the office to be uploaded. Kuyper said RECOVER maps upload much faster than the current system, can be used by employees who aren’t experts in GIS soft- ware and can be accessed from the “cloud” — the term computer experts use to describe applications and data kept on large computer servers linked to the Internet — by devices without down- loading software. Weber said RECOVER will also be used to evalu- ate fuel loads in burn areas during the months preceding fires and for longterm moni- toring of rehabilitated areas. John L. Schnase, Weber’s co-investigator at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Cen- ter, said RECOVER was developed for fire rehabilita- tion, but agencies have rec- ognized it has applications before, during and after fires. “Right now, we’ve been focusing on Idaho, but over the next three years we want to use this in other Western states,” Schnase said. Schnase emphasized RE- COVER fills a niche and will likely be among many data systems used by fire manag- ers. Schnase also hopes to use climate model data in RE- COVER to predict precipi- tation, temperature and soil moisture over time. This story first appeared Sept. 18, 2015. Plant materials center shifts focus to sage grouse Derek Tilley and his staff look for ways to help sage grouse thrive across West By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press ABEDEEN, Idaho — Der- ek Tilley and his staff at the USDA’s Aberdeen Plant Ma- terials Center have an over- riding goal in their efforts to select hardy wildflower seed and improve practices for cul- tivating native plants. In 2014, they shifted their research focus toward im- proving sage grouse habitat to help avert an endangered spe- cies listing for the native bird. A listing of the sage grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act would lead to sig- nificant restrictions on many industries, including livestock grazing. Tilley, who joined the center’s staff in 2004 as a range conservationist and was promoted to manager in October, said he and his staff spend a couple of weeks each summer in the mountains seeking sources of native plant seeds. At the center’s farms and greenhouses, they select for the plants that es- tablish easily and withstand Derek Tilley Age: 42 Job: Manager of the USDA Natural Resources Conserva- tion Service’s Aberdeen Plant Materials Center Family: Wife, Amber, and children, Nathaniel, 13, Logan, 11, Andelin, 7. Hometown: Aberdeen, Idaho Education: Bachelor’s de- gree in botany, master’s de- gree in plant taxonomy from Brigham Young University. John O’Connell/Capital Press the elements, giving small amounts of their improved seed to the University of Idaho’s Foundation Seed Joyce Capital, Inc. In agriculture, nothing is certain. Your interest rate should be. 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A secondary priority in Aberdeen is developing cover crops, which are plants cul- tivated on agricultural land solely for soil health benefits. The center also increases seed collected from national parks for park restoration projects. In the past, each center strove to address general re- gional resource concerns, but that spread their efforts too thin, Tilley said. “Each region now has just a few areas of focus,” Tilley said. “Even though we’ve only been focused on sage grouse for this past year, a lot of our work in the past is di- rectly applicable.” A few years ago, Tilley’s program released Maple Grove Lewis flax, a native flower to replace Europe- an-derived flax in seed mixes. This fall, the program released seed of hoary tansyaster, a na- tive purple aster. The center is building a supply of a native grass, world buckwheat. The plants support insects con- sumed by sage grouse chicks, which also feed on some of the vegetation. Chris Colt, a U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist, said protecting and restor- ing habitat is among the best ways to help sage grouse. “One of the biggest is- sues for sage grouse is loss of habitat from wildfires,” Colt said. “Wildfire is really spurred by exotic grasses — mostly cheatgrass and Medu- sahead.” In Eastern Idaho’s Curlew National Grassland, Colt said the center has planted test plots for the past five years, seeking plants that benefit sage grouse and compete well with invasive species. Tilley has also applied for a Forest Service grant to in- vestigate ways to effectively plant wildflowers and forbs in the field for the benefit of sage grouse. He hopes to ex- periment with snow fencing, which could trap snow and bolster growth of plants that like cool, moist conditions, and fabric, which would trap heat and moisture and stim- ulate growth much like in a greenhouse. 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