BSU Student Analyses Wildfire impacts on Snowpack

Master’s student Mason Bull recently won the Boise State University three-minute thesis competition and placed third at the state competition. Mason was partially funded by a research initiation grant from the Idaho Space Grant Consortium (Idaho NASA EPSCoR). His research is using the Landsat record to classify landscape composition and quantify landcover and vegetation change in one watershed in the Kenai Mountains of south-central Alaska and the Sawtooth Mountains of southwest Idaho. He is finding that places in Idaho that have not had wildfire are experiencing a shift in vegetation type and density. Generally, trees are encroaching on riparian areas, and forests are moving upslope into talus and previously sparsely vegetated areas. This shifting vegetation distribution will impact how snowpacks accumulate and melt, how water is stored in the landscape and how much water will be available for streamflow from our headwater watersheds, which are critical water supplies for downstream populations and agricultural water users.