I assessed avian communities of Gam bel oak (Quercus gambelii) woodland and surrounding habitats at Camp W. G. Williams State Military Reservation , Utah, during summer of 1993-1998. I used point counts and incidental observations to compile an avian checklist. I observed 100 species, accounting for one third of all birds known from Utah. Overlap in species composition among habitats was considerable, yet each habitat supported a distinct complement of common species. I compared bird species composition, abundance, richness, and diversity before and after fire in burned and unburned Gam bel oak woodland using point counts. I also investigated how similarity of the Gam bel oak avian community to surrounding communities changed after fire. Post-fire changes in individual species abundances reflected a shift from a woodland to a grassland/shrubland community. However, this shift occurred through elimination rather than addition of species, i.e., the post-fire Gambel oak avifauna was a subset of the pre- fire avifauna. Species richness and diversity on burned plots decreased significantly after fi re; unburned plots experienced significant increases in richness and diversity. I also used point counts to evaluate recovery of the Gam bel oak avian community by comparing species composition, abundance, richness, and diversity in different-age burned and unburned Gambel oak woodland. Total abundance, richness, diversity, and similarity to the unburned community increased with post-fire age. I observed significant differences in the abundance of 10 species. Fire did not result in sequential invasion and replacement of bird species assemblages; rather, species found in burned plots were a subset of the avifauna in unburned plots. Return of individual species was related to recovery of preferred nesting and foraging substrates. Over 25% of species found in unburned plots were still absent 11 years post-fire. I conclude that fire had pronounced effects on avian community composition and structure in this habitat. The contention that almost all bird species associated with Gambel oak woodlands are tolerant to fire is not substantiated by the results of this study. Due to the lack of spatial replication in this study, a comparison of avian response to fire in several sites across Gambel oak range would be desirable.

Every year, millions of acres of forest and rangeland are burned in prescribed burns as well as wildfires. The costs associated with wildfires may be some of the largest we face as a society both in material goods and in life. The importance of managing fire fuels has increased with the development of the wildland-urban interface. With this increased emphasis has come the development of tools to assess, map, and simulate fuel maps at a landscape level. These fuel maps are then input into computer-aided wildfire simulation models that are used by land managers in the planning process. A current challenge for land managers is to find efficient ways to measure the amount and structure of fire fuels on a landscape level. Fuel models are one of the required inputs for software that mathematically computes wildfire rate of spread. Various methods have been used to develop fuel maps. It is the objective of this thesis to develop a method by which fuel models can be predicted and mapped on a landscape level through utilization of remotely sensed data. The proposed process for this method is: 1) develop landcover classification, 2) assess data analysis approaches for use in creation of predictive regression models, 3) correlation of data results to Natural Fuels Photo Series, and 4) translate Natural Fuels Photo Series classifications into fuel models described by Scott and Burgan.