Cataloging Information
Ecological - Second Order
Water
On September 11 and 12, 1973 a severe forest fire burned over a number of watersheds in the area west of Salmon Arm, B. C. The hydrologic effects of this forest fire were assessed using streamflow data for one stream draining a small watershed with more than 60% of its area burned by the fire, and a nearby control stream draining a larger unburned watershed. The results indicate that changes in the hydrology of the burned watershed following the fire are characterized by: higher and earlier annual peak flows, the advancement in time of the major snowmelt runoff, and increases in total April-August water yield and monthly water yield during the late summer and fall period. Some increase in watershed erosion and stream sedimentation was also observed.