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International Journal of Wildland Fire International Journal of Wildland Fire Society
Journal of the International Association of Wildland Fire
RESEARCH ARTICLE

The influence of wildfire extent and severity on streamwater chemistry, sediment and temperature following the Hayman Fire, ColoradoA

Charles C. Rhoades A D , Deborah Entwistle B and Dana Butler C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 240 W Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA.

B USDA Forest Service, Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA.

C USDA Forest Service, Pike and San Isabel National Forests, Pueblo, CO 81008, USA.

D Corresponding author. Email: crhoades@fs.fed.us

International Journal of Wildland Fire 20(3) 430-442 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF09086
Submitted: 8 August 2009  Accepted: 2 September 2010   Published: 5 May 2011

Abstract

The 2002 Hayman Fire was the largest fire in recent Colorado history (558 km2). The extent of high severity combustion and possible effects on Denver’s water supply focussed public attention on the effects of wildfire on water quality. We monitored stream chemistry, temperature and sediment before the fire and at monthly intervals for 5 years after the fire. The proportional extent of a basin that was burned or that burned at high severity was closely related to post-fire streamwater nitrate and turbidity. Basins that burned at high severity on >45% of their area had twice the streamwater nitrate and four times the turbidity as basins burned to a lower extent; these analytes remained elevated through 5 years post-fire. In those basins, the highest post-fire streamwater nitrate concentrations (23% of USA drinking water standards) were measured during spring, the peak discharge period. Summer streamwater was 4.0°C higher in burned streams on average compared with unburned streams; these persistent post-fire stream temperature increases are probably sufficient to alter aquatic habitat suitability. Owing to the slow pace of tree colonisation and forest regrowth, recovery of the watersheds burned by the Hayman Fire will continue for decades.

Additional keywords: Colorado Front Range, montane forests, nitrate, turbidity, wildfire effects.


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