Remote Sensing to Quantify Woodland Canopy Cover on the San Carlos Apache Reservation

According to the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of community Elders, grasslands used to be more widespread, fires more frequent, and woody plants less abundant and larger than they are today. This knowledge is supported by tree ring data that indicate frequent low-intensity fires were important for maintaining grasslands, savannas, woodlands, and forests. The San Carlos Apache Forest Resources Program (SCAFRP) aims to restore the land they manage to the conditions they were in before the establishment of the reservation in 1872. SCAFRP recently completed an analysis of the earliest available aerial photographs, taken in 1935, and remote sensing data from 2017 to help understand the extent and composition of historical grasslands and savannas. This has helped refine restoration and management goals as well as evaluate the effectiveness of past and current management strategies.