Some maps of the Wallow fire in Arizona

The Wallow Fire in Arizona has now burned more than 300,000 acres and is 0% contained. This makes it the third largest wildfire in Arizona history so far. The smoke plume is spreading past the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico.  Visibility in Albuquerque has been reduced to 1 mile or less several times during the last week. Here are some of the more interesting maps I've seen recently.

From AZ Central.com here's a fire progression up to June 6th.  You can click on the link go directly to the site.

From NASA here is a MODIS satellite image from June 4th showing the smoke plume spreading far into New Mexico.  Click on the image to go directly to this NASA site. 

From Wildfire Today here is a map of fire danger across the lower 48.

Society for Conservation GIS Agenda Posted!

The agenda for the SCGIS 2011 Annual Conference is online.  This years conference will be held at Northwoods Resort in Big Bear Lake, California (July 16 -19).

Highlights include a keynote address by ecological niche modeling expert Dr. Richard Pearson (AMNH), and a special symposium on Wildlife Habitat Connectivity.  

The symposium includes talks and technical presentations by Dr. Paul Beier (NAU), Dr. Dave Theobald (CSU) and Dr. Carlos Carroll (Klamath Center for Conservation Research ).  Each of these researchers is on the leading edge of connectivity research for wildlife. If you're interested in this topic this symposium is not to be missed!

The remainder of the agenda is full of great talks and workshops including topics like, climate change, aquatic and marine GIS, technology tips and tricks, collaboration, habitat modeling, and sustainable development. 

I hope to see you there!

A day of hiking and birding after a long week of GIS

Embudo Canyon HikeAfter a long week at the computer, today I was able to get out and do some hiking in the Sandias! I started out early and headed up the Embudo trail. The trail was quiet and when I reached the seeps from Embudo Spring there were birds everywhere. The assortment of birds included some of the most colorful the Sandias has to offer. The highlights included a both Black-chinned and Black-throated Sparrows, a flock of Western Tanagers, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, an American Redstart, a Plumbeous Vireo and the ubiquitous Spotted Towhees.  Also heard were lots of Canyon and Rock Wrens.  Photos below.  NOTE:  I can't take credit for the bird photos.  I found redistributable photos off of the internet just to pass on the beauty of today's birding trip. 

American RedstartPlumbeous Vireo

Western Tanager

Black-throated SparrowBlack-chinned Sparrow

Will the real Osama Bin Laden compound please stand up.

In the hours after the announcement of Bin Laden's death people scrambled to Google Earth to find the location of Abbottabad, Pakistan and the compound. There were several incorrect guesses, like the example I found below, and posted Sunday night.

Part of the issue was that until yesterday the imagery Google had for the area was acquired in 2001, years before the compound had been built.  Yesterday Google updated their imagery to data acquired on June 14, 2005 (ZDNet).  In the 2005 data (below) the compound can be seen in an unfinished state.

Below is an image of the compound in it's current state from the CIA.

Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan is already on GoogleEarth!

Where to Live to Avoid a Natural Disaster

With all of the extreme weather and natural disasters occuring, where are the safest and least safe places to live? Here's a great set of maps from the NY Times showing risk levels nationwide. It looks like the Pacific Northwest wins, but Albuquerque is not too bad.