Outdoor Recreations and Anthropogenic Wildfires: The Example of San Juan National Forest

Keywords: Anthropogenic Wildfire, Outdoor Recreation, Case-control Logistic Regression, Multivariate Regression, GIS
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 16

Abstract

A wildfire is an unplanned fire that burned in a forest, grassland, or prairie. Depends on the leading causes, a wildfire can be called a lightning wildfire or an anthropogenic one. Public lands in the United States were created to properly manage natural resources, however, throughout the twentieth-century outdoor recreation became increasingly prevalent, providing even greater human access to large volumes of forested public lands. This research analyzes the influence that outdoor recreation and human accessibility have on anthropogenic wildfire occurrence and size on public lands in the Mid-West, using San Juan National Forest as an example. The statistical methodologies of case-control logistic regression analysis, multivariate regression analysis, and descriptive statistics are applied in this research. Geographic variables are also analyzed to gain a greater understanding of the anthropogenic wildfire regime in this region. Analysis results demonstrate that outdoor recreation is very influential on anthropogenic wildfire occurrence but not on its size. Specific activities associated with outdoor recreation play a major role in directing the pattern of anthropogenic wildfire. The results indicate that anthropogenic wildfires occur because of activities such as overnight camping in remote portions of the forest, day usage on vehicle trails, and where there are clusters of designated campsites. It is also demonstrated that anthropogenic wildfire pattern is influenced by the geography of the landscape: more anthropogenic wildfires occur at lower elevations areas and southern facing aspects of slopes.