Chapter 2 Abstract

Wetlands occupy only a fraction of the mountainous landscape in Colorado but provide a vital service against fires by often serving as a barrier to their spread. With the increasing frequency and severity of fires in the Colorado Rockies, wetlands could also serve as a potential tool for mitigating the impacts of fires on vegetation recovery. This analysis uses GIS to contextualize vegetation recovery in a post-fire landscape. Like many other publications this analysis utilizes a regional scale with several wetlands in the Hayman fire serving as areas of study. Using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), this study investigates the significance of the distance from a wetland as well as wetland type on vegetation recovery over time. The results of this analysis indicate that wetlands are significantly linked to vegetation recovery after a fire. NDVI values in wetland areas were consistently higher and recovered much quicker than those in non-wetland areas throughout the study period. Furthermore, distance from the wetland showed significance in recovery as well with areas closest to the wetland experiencing faster rates of recovery. While the impacts of climate change on the post-fire rates of recovery were not fully considered, these results have important implications for wetland conservation and management strategies in Colorado. Further analysis of wetland hydrology, biogeochemical cycling, and vegetation composition in post-fire landscapes would provide a better understanding of the role of wetlands in post-fire vegetation recovery.