Update and Maps of Sedona's Slide #Fire #wildfire

The Slide Fire burning 7 miles north of Sedona is still 0% contained, growing, and headed in many directions. One arm of the fire burned all the way up West Fork Canyon and over the rim of the canyon. Its now moving west along the plateau above, into what is mainly USFS land south of Flagstaff. Another arm of the fire is still threatening homes and businesses in Oak Creek Canyon and prompting more evacuations. Aircraft fighting the fire have been grounded due to crazy high winds.

Evacuations have been ordered for West Fork, Pine Flat, Butterfly Inn, Garland's Junipine Resort, Halfway, Cave Springs and other campgrounds and day-use areas in the upper canyon, though one business has already miraculously been saved. Communities south of Flagstaff -including Forest Highlands and Kachina- have been issued a pre-evacuation notice. Another source reports that it reached Pump House Wash, which may prompt evacuation of Kachina village. For the latest news updates on the Slide Fire, check out this video. 

True to my mapping nature, I'm posting the collection of maps I've come across below.

This is a live public information map from ESRI and WildlandFire.com

The location of Garland's, the miraculously saved structure, from Google Maps

The smoke plume from the fire was visible on satellite imagery this a.m.

Watch as one of the Seven Wonders of the World Burns- Sedona's Oak Creek Canyon is going up in Flames

Flames are raging through Oak Creek Canyon just north of Sedona near a popular recreation area known as Slide Rock State Park. The flames are taking out Ponderosa Pines in a flash, backed by strong winds and stoked by dry forest conditions. The wildfire started on Tuesday afternoon May 20 with reports being released around 4pm. It immediately prompted evacuations and road closures along Arizona State Highway 89.

The Slide Fire is not contained at all as of this posting (11 am May 21 2014). Its raging about 7 miles north of Sedona in the revered Oak Creek Canyon, home to one of Arizona's rare creeks that contains water year round and riparian habitat, as well as Arizona State Highway 89, a well traveled scenic route lined with campgrounds, state parks, restaurants, lodges, upscale resorts, luxury homes and trailer parks. I'm writing this article from my home on Oak Creek in Sedona, about 8 miles south of the fire, where I can see air tankers and helicopters flying overhead.

For a few hours on Tuesday evening, there was a live stream of the fire raging through the canyon available here, coming from a news camera circling over the area. The footage was absolutely stunning. Not only could you see the fire spreading in various directions along the western side of the canyon, flames shooting up ponderosa pines, and helicopters dropping buckets of water in real time, but you could see the dramatic red rock plateaus and all the wonders of the landscape surrounding Sedona. Some of it is recapped this video, and the latest news camera coverage is here, but I haven't seen the live webcam feed today.

I Feel the Earth Move....Mapping Recent Alaskan Earthquakes Using ArcGIS Online

Lately I've been wanting to get more experience creating web maps. For those of you who don't know what a web map is, you do know, you just don't know you know. Its a map. On the web. More than that, web maps are often interactive, meaning the user has the ability zoom in and out, pan, and perform inquiries to do things like get directions to a new restaurant, find the nearest hiking trail, or look up their old address on Google Street View....

So I decided to take a massive online open course in geospatial technology and mapping, aka a MOOC, which is not only fun to say, but seriously all the rage right now. There are MOOCs available - for free - on, like, every subject imaginable. Underwater basketweaving? Yep, there's a MOOC for that. This week in my mapping MOOC, my homework was to map earthquakes using ArcGIS Online.

I made a map of recent earthquakes along the southern coast of Alaska. My brother has lived on the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage, for many years, and he told me that just last week they had the strongest earthquake he's felt to date. Using data provided by USGS, I found the big mamma jamma that shook my brother's house. It occurred just west of the Kenai peninsula (southwest of Anchorage) on May 10th, with a magnitude of 5.6 on the Richter scale.

Checking out the map, I was surprised by how many earthquakes there were in the past 30 days. There were over 1200 worldwide, and I only mapped the earthquakes that came in with a magnitude over 2.5. I didn't count Mother Earth's smaller rumbles. So according to my calculations, we had an average of about 40 earthquakes of magnitude over 2.5 per day in the last 30 days.  Dude, earthquakes are scary. Luckily mapping them is not. 


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How Geospatial Technology is Saving Endangered Species #ESday

It's that time of year again, endangered species day. A day when countless people and organizations involved wildlife conservation promote, publicize, tweet, and otherwise try to draw attention to their favorite endangered animals. The internet is awash with photos of ferrets, bears, wolves, owls, elephants, tigers, and maps. Wait, maps? What do maps have to do with wildlife conservation?

I get asked that question a lot in my line of work. People seem to have an antiquated notion of wildlife researchers roaming vast savannahs and thick jungles on foot in search of their subjects. Yes, its true that wildlife research began with people spending countless hours in the field armed with the most modern tools available to them at the time- including pencils, paper, binoculars, large brimmed hats, and khaki cargo pants. But the times they are a changin.

Conservationists today have a wide variety of high tech tools to help them identify and understand the issues facing endangered species today from the comfort of their air conditioned offices. We can monitor the condition of forests and deserts from space using satellite technology. Remotely sensed imagery, such as that we see on Google Earth, reveals habitat conditions on the ground instantly. GPS collars deployed on wild animals collect thousands of scientifically valuable wildlife locations everyday, and location data an be gathered and shared by virtually anyone with a handheld mobile device. The cloud is a massive repository of field data, basemaps, and imagery used to map wildlife and their habitats worldwide. And our ability to share maps with people all over the world in the click of a button is unparalleled. The video below illustrates how the Jane Goodall Institute is using a suite of mapping tools and software to monitor and conserve Chimps in Gombe.


We are using cutting edge technology to monitor and conserve species across the globe, and more tools are being developed every day. Let's hope that they can help us learn to better manage our resources and bring lots of endangered species back from the brink of extinction.

GIStribe chat no. 9

For those of you who missed the chat, or just want to review it, we talked about professional development in GIS, attending user groups, cartographic inspiration, and, you guessed it, more...

An Interactive Map of Sedona's Vortexes - A Review of the Google Maps Engine Lite User Experience

I know what you're thinking. You're wondering "What is a Vortex?" Well, I find that question a bit tricky. I think the answer may vary, depending on what people choose to - or not to - believe. But the question "Where is a Vortex?" Now, this I can answer.

In fact, I decided to create an interactive map of Sedona's vortexes using Google Maps Engine Lite.