Watershed & Hydrology Archives - Southwest Fire Science Consortium

Water flowing through the Lower Gila River with scattered trees and bare earth.

Tamarisk Removal along the Lower Gila River – COMING SOON!

by swfscVideos March 4, 2024August 23, 2024No Comments

Part of the Southwest Fire Science Consortium and AZ Wildfire Initiative‘s SW Fire Stories wildfire documentary video series, this video raises awareness about wildfire on the Lower Gila River and surrounding communities and the work being done by the Lower Gila River Collaborative to reduce wildfire risk and to inform people about the habitat and importance of restoration on the Lower …

Post-Wildfire Recovery Through Principles of Engineering with Nature Cover Photo

Post-Wildfire Recovery Through The Principles of Engineering with Nature

by swfscWebinars February 2, 2024August 23, 2024No Comments

In a nutshell: Following a severe wildfire, recovery efforts can benefit from using “Engineering With Nature” principles to utilize existing materials on the landscape for slope stabilization, erosion control, and stream restoration. Learn about the successes and lessons learned with these techniques in Santa Clara Canyon, NM after the destructive Las Conchas Fire. Recorded on: …

A group of people stands at a lookout point gazing into the fire footprint. They see many burned trees and the vegetation greening up.

Hermit’s Peak Calf Canyon Fire: One Year Later

by swfscField Trips, Story Maps October 15, 2023February 12, 2024No Comments

The Hermit’s Peak Calf Canyon Fire was a devastating event for New Mexico. Many communities were affected, and while this fire was unique, it will not be for long. Climate change and the effects of a century of fire exclusion mean that fires like this one are increasingly likely. We must understand what happened in …

Geomorphic Recovery and Post-Fire Flooding Implications from Museum Fire

by swfscWebinars December 22, 2022February 12, 2024Comments are Disabled

Research on post-fire debris flows and geomorphology of Museum Fire, Flagstaff, AZ with implications across the Southwest.

A large lake surrounded by a pine forest, beneath a blue sky.

Protecting Denver’s Water Supply

by swfscWebinars May 11, 2022February 12, 2024No Comments

Presenter: Dr. Kelly Jones, Associate Professor of Ecological Economics with Colorado State University, Human Dimensions of Natural ResourcesDate: June 22, 2022 11am AZ/12pm MDT Collaboratively-funded fuel treatments are becoming more common in the western U.S. to proactively address wildfire impacts. Water utilities often play an important role in these collaborations and are motivated by the …

Post-fire flooding showing sand bags and a street that looks like a river, it is full of muddy water.

Post-fire Flooding: The Museum Fire

by swfscStory Maps March 25, 2022November 13, 2024No Comments

The Museum Fire in 2019 burned 1,961 acres and a record monsoon season in 2021 caused post-fire flooding from the burn scar, which affected many homes and businesses. The Story Map aims to outline the full timeline of the fire, the aftermath and flooding, and considerations for the future. Topics include the Flagstaff Watershed Protection …

Wildfire, Fish, & Water Resources in the Western US

by swfscWebinars January 20, 2022February 12, 2024No Comments

Presenter: Dr. Patrick Belmont, Utah State UniversityDate: February 15, 2022 12pm Mountain Wildfire has increased 20-fold in the last 30 years in the Western U.S., partly due to climate change and partly due to forest and fire management practices. At the same time, many water resources are drying up. And fish populations throughout the western …

Mitigating Postfire Runoff and Erosion

by swfscScience Synthesis January 21, 2021March 8, 2024No Comments

Wildfires in the southwestern US are getting larger, more frequent, and more severe due to changing climatic conditions like rising temperatures and prolonged drought (Singleton et al. 2018, Mueller et al. 2020). Catastrophic wildfire events directly impact communities, ecosystems, and cultural resources—and can pose continuing hazards long after the fire is extinguished. Flooding and erosion …

Watersheds and Waterfunds

by swfscPodcasts July 28, 2020March 8, 2024No Comments

Hot and Dry Podcast Series EPISODE SUMMARY Cally and Collin talk with Laura McCarthy and Bill Armstrong about how folks pulled together to restore the forest in the municipal watershed of Santa Fe, NM. From there Laura went on to start the Rio Grande Water Fund which covers 7 million acres in New Mexico. In …

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Fire and Soils in Frequent-Fire Landscapes of the Southwest

by swfscScience Synthesis April 29, 2020March 8, 2024No Comments

Working Paper 43 by Dan Binkley, Adjunct Faculty, School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University Forests and soils interact so strongly that any major change in one of them leads to a reshaping of the other. Fires consume fuels in a few hours that it took vegetation years or decades to produce. Forest soils are both …