California's 2009 Station Fire and Foraging Areas

The 2009 station fire of California, the largest in Californian history, could impact the foraging capacity of California’s Indigenous Peoples. I chose to look at the fire boundaries in comparison to reservation land, overall burn length, the overall change of basal vegetation, and percent change of canopy cover.

Overall, the intensity of the burn greatly affected the vegetation composition within the boundaries of the 2009 Station fire. Although no federally recognized reservations exist with the boundary, indigenous people such as the Serrano, would have utilized the area heavily for foraging.

Fire, especially catastrophic fire, such as the Station fire, generally allow for the spread of invasive plants. In looking at the map, the overall change in composition of plants is striking.  The native plant community at the Station fire site is now at exponentially increased risk for invasion from non-native plants. Hopefully, indigenous communities in California will work with local, state, and federal agencies to restore the Station fire area to promote native ecosystems and potential for foraging traditional food plants.

The Boundaries of the burning areas was measured numerous times by the attending agencies. I used the multiple boundaries at 50% transparent to appreciate the length each area burned (less transparent=burned longer)