JFSP_research_product_search

Project ID:

24-2-03-17

Year:

2024

Date Started:

09/01/2024

Date Completed:

Title:

Effects of Repeated Prescribed Burning on Stream Water Quantity and Quality in Piedmont Watersheds in North Carolina

Project Proposal Abstract:

Prescribed fires have been widely used in the Southeast to enhance ecosystem resilience (Vose et al., 2021) and improve wildlife habitats while augmenting water availability to aquatic ecosystems (McLaughlin et al., 2013; Brantley et al., 2017). However, there are increasing concerns about elevated stormflow and sedimentation load to water bodies following repeated fires and intensified forest floor disturbances during fire controlling activities in the hilly Piedmont region where impacts of legacy land use and cumulative sedimentation on water quality remain. Rapidly developing literature suggests hydrologic effects of wildland fires vary across the U.S. due to inherent ecohydrological settings (Hallema et al., 2018), and local information is needed to make sound assessments and decisions (Vose et al., 2021; Ebel et al., 2023).
This proposed study takes advantage of the long-term (2008-now) Paired Watershed Project in central North Carolina (Boggs et al., (2013; 2015). The study watersheds in the basin have been used to quantify the effects of forest management (prescribed burning, tree species conversion, best management practices) on stream water quantity and quality since 2008 Boggs et al., 2013; 2015). We seek funding to build on our prescribed burning/hydrology experiments that were initiated in 2015 for three more years. The fire in 2015 was a low intensity burn. This time we plan to have a more intense burn than the last burn by waiting for weather and fuel moisture conditions required for a more intense prescribed fire. This work compares fuel loading and hydrology data across burns and focuses on the following research needs by the JFSP: 1) Watershed-Scale studies that evaluate the impacts of prescribed fire on water budgets and water quality, as it pertains to municipal water supplies; 2) Studies that evaluate how prescribed fire influences water budgets and water quality; and 3) Empirical studies that evaluate the potential benefits of prescribed fire and develop a relationship between fire intensity (and severity) and water quantity and quality. We anticipate this is a long-term project that will continue beyond this 3-year project and last for a full 10-year fire return cycle that gives the watershed time to restore the natural vegetative midstory and understory on the recovery. We propose to conduct a prescribed fire (Rx Fire) on one of the paired watersheds. The baseline conditions for the Rx Fire are: 10-hour fuel moisture should be at most 15%, with relative humidity of at most 40%, and between a high category 2 and a medium category 4 day. In both control and burned watersheds, fine and coarse woody debris will be measured before and after the burn on a set of marked plots using the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis protocol, water yield will be monitored every 10 minutes, and water quality samples will be taken during baseflow and stormflow conditions. We will also observe fire conditions moving over each plot for flame length and rate of spread.
Objectives. Our primary goal for this study is to quantify the prescribed burning effects on water quantity and quality in a headwater stream that has been periodically burned. Specifically, our primary objective is to quantify the impacts of fire intensity on watershed hydrology using a paired watershed technique. The data will be used to parameterize a simulation models (e.g., MIKE SHE, SWAT) and verify another watershed simulation model, PFHydro (Wang et al, 2020).
The benefits of this project will be enhanced understanding of relations between Rx Fire intensity and severity to water quantity and quality, improved watershed parameters for simulation models, and better water resource management in municipal supply basins. We will make this information known by providing watershed management results to the public by fact sheets, webinars, watershed tours, workshops, Prescribed Fire Council Meetings and refereed publications.

Principal Investigator:

Joseph P. Roise

Agency/Organization:

North Carolina State University-Raleigh

Branch or Dept:

College of Natural Resources

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Agreements Contact	Christine Epps	North Carolina State University-Raleigh	College of Natural Resources
Budget Contact	Christine Epps	North Carolina State University-Raleigh	College of Natural Resources
Co-Principal Investigator	Ge Sun	Forest Service	SRS-Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Ctr
Co-Principal Investigator	Johnny L Boggs	Forest Service	SRS-Forestry Sciences Lab-Research Triangle Park