RAPID: An Integrated Study of Post-fire Wind and Water Erosion in Western Rangelands

ABSTRACT

A non-technical description of the project, which explains the project's significance and importance

The environmental and human costs of wildfires in the western United States are great and they are increasing as populations grow into areas farther away from urban centers. These fires affect the landscape in many ways, including an increase in erosion by both wind and water. This project will take advantage of an existing monitoring network, the Reynolds Creek Critical Zone Observatory, to examine dust generation and erosion rates following the Soda fire in southwestern Idaho in August, 2015. These new data can be compared to the pre-storm measurements in order to evaluate the extent of fire effects on the land surface that can be generalized to many other fire-prone regions.

A technical description of the project

This RAPID project will integrate the influence of post- fire wind and water erosion following a large rangeland fire on the Idaho-Oregon border. The Soda fire recently burned over 280,000 acres of rangelands along the Oregon Idaho border, including ~25% of the watershed in the Reynolds Creek Critical Zone Observatory (CZO). Smoke and dust from this fire produced dust storms and hazardous air quality conditions for Boise and other regional communities. Further erosion by both wind and water is expected to increase in the coming months. The research will measure post-fire erosion of sediment and carbon in this watershed. An extensive array of monitoring equipment at the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed, plus ongoing synergistic studies with federal collaborators, provide an opportunity to examine the dual roles of wind and water in generating post-fire erosion from the hillslope to the regional scale.