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Watershed-Scale Assessment of Forest Fuels Treatments
Background And Approach
Ponderosa pine forests in the western United States are undergoing harvesting and prescribed fire treatments on an unprecedented scale to reduce the risk of catastrophic, stand replacing wildfires. The Fire and Fire Surrogates Project (FFSP) was funded in 2000 by the Joint Fire Sciences Program. Its objective was to quantify the initial effects of fire and fire surrogate treatments (thinning) on a number of specific ecosystem components. Individual treatment plots were about 10 ha (25 ac). The small size of the FFSP plots precluded making measurements of ecosystem responses to the treatments at a watershed-scale. The project described here is one to measure watershed-scale responses of an operational fuels treatment on the Coconino National Forest, Arizona. The ecosystem variables to be measured are a subset of the FFSP ones, namely water yield, peak flood flows, vegetation, soils and forest floor, coarse woody debris, and wildlife. The study will utilize the existing watersheds of the Beaver Creek Experimental Watersheds south of Flagstaff, Arizona. Five watersheds (76 to 722 ha in size) were instrumented with stream gage recording instruments and weather stations in the spring of 2006. The streamflow gaging weirs on these watersheds are still mostly intact since the original study was terminated in 1981. There is over 20 years of hydrologic, climatic, vegetation, fuels, soils, and wildlife data from the 1960s through the 1980s and beyond which provide background for the study. Complete background information can be
obtained from the web site: http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/watershed/ The watersheds involved are Beaver Creek 9, 11, 12, 13, and 14. Each watershed has a gaging weir, and 200 permanent vegetation plots. Vegetation, fuels, and wildlife data were originally collected in the mid 1960s, and re-measured again in the mid-1970s. Some of the watersheds were re-measured in the early 1990s. The treatments to be carried out by the Coconino National Forest include 2 watersheds 100% thinned and 50% burned (WS 9 & 14), one 100% burned (WS 11), and one 100% thinned. Watershed 13 is the control watershed. The study proposed here would augment the existing FFSP plots near Flagstaff by providing information on fuels treatment effects at a watershed-scale not done elsewhere. This type of information has been identified as being critical for continued fuels treatment in Arizona and the Southwest. Watershed research done previously in the region never addressed the combination of thinning and burning to reduce wildfire hazard
Practical Application
This study augments the existing FFSP plots near Flagstaff by providing information on fuels treatment effects at a watershed-scale not done elsewhere. This type of information has been identified as being critical for continued fuels treatment in Arizona and the Southwest. Watershed research done previously in the region never addressed the combination of thinning and burning to reduce wildfire hazard
Publications & Websites
Complete background information can be obtained from the
web site: http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/watershed/ More information can be found in
Baker, M.B. Jr. 1999. History of watershed research in the central Arizona highlands. USDA Forest Service, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-29. 56 p.;
Desta, A.; Tecle, A. 2006. Restoration capability of the former Beaver Creek Watersheds. Hydrology and Water Resources in Arizona and the Southwest 35:1-6.
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