A Model to Study Fire Effects on Cultural Resource Studies of Mesa Verde
Floyd-Hanna L, Romme WH, Loy A, Hanna DD. 1995. A Model to Study Fire Effects on Cultural Resource Studies of Mesa Verde. Pages 171-177. In Van Riper C (ed): Proceedings of the Second Biennial Conference on Research in Colorado Plateau National Parks. Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona. 25-28 October 1993. National Park Service. Denver, Colorado. Proceedings of the Biennial Conference of Research on the Colorado Plateau
On 8 July 1989, lightning struck the dry terrain of Long Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park and ignited a 2-week bum that scorched 1,200 ha. As a result, park management initiated studies of the effects of high-intensity fire on cultural resources. Mesa Verde National Park was established to protect works of prehistoric humans including pit-houses and cliff dwellings of the Anasazi. Later, park management was charged with the preservation of historic buildings and wood structures of 20th-century Americans. Our research will provide the necessary background information to predict specific fire effects on cultural sites. We mapped the vegetation communities, reconstructed the prehistoric fire history of half of Mesa Verde, and will document post fire succession. These data sets, incorporated into spatially explicit layers in the park's Geographic Information System, will be used to model the risk and specific effects of fire as related to particular classes of cultural resources.
- Type
- Conference Proceeding Paper
- Authors
- Floyd-Hanna, Lisa; Romme, William; Loy, Allan; Hanna, David
- Units
- HIST , IMR
- Keywords
- Anasazi, Buildings, Cliff Dwellings, Cultural Resources, ehistory, FIRE, Fire Effects, Fire History, GIS, High-Intensity Fire, History, Mesa Verde, Pit-Houses, postfire, postfire succession, Prehistory, sites, Structures, Vegetation Communities, Vegetation Mapping