{"id":2453897,"date":"2020-01-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=320142"},"modified":"2020-01-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T07:00:00","slug":"hydrologist-basalt-mountains-broken-landscape-mitigates-post-fire-hazards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/hydrologist-basalt-mountains-broken-landscape-mitigates-post-fire-hazards\/","title":{"rendered":"Hydrologist: Basalt Mountain\u2019s \u2018broken\u2019 landscape mitigates post-fire hazards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Liz Schnackenberg, a hydrologist with the US Forest Service, explains initial assessments of the soil burn severity during a tour of the Lake Christine Fire burn area in August 2018. Schnackenberg speaks Thursday at 6 p.m. at Hallam Lake in Aspen as part of the Naturalist Nights speaker series.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The charred landscapes that wildfires leave behind are susceptible to erosion, flooding and debris flows, like the mudslides that blocked roads in Basalt the summer following the Lake Christine Fire.<\/p>\n

Liz Schnackenberg, a hydrologist with the U.S. Forest Service who analyzed the Lake Christine burn area, is in the Roaring Fork River valley this week for the Naturalist Nights speaker series, discussing how wildfires change watershed conditions.<\/p>\n

She has looked at maps of watersheds from across the country and world as she helps local communities plan for hazards after wildfires, but maps of the south side of Basalt Mountain threw her for a loop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first looked at the topographic map for that portion of the fire, I was like, \u2018I\u2019m a hydrologist and I cannot figure out which way the water\u2019s flowing. I can\u2019t tell where it\u2019s going, I can\u2019t tell where the streams are, and it\u2019s like, this is weird, I\u2019ve never had this problem before,\u2019\u201d Schnackenberg said.<\/p>\n

Once she flew above the burn area in a helicopter, she could see why those topo maps were so befuddling. The terrain on Basalt Mountain is all broken up, with steep slopes draining into flats where it isn\u2019t totally clear where water might flow out.<\/p>\n

Now, lessons from Lake Christine are a staple in presentations that she gives about how fires can affect watersheds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a great contrast of what I\u2019ll call more traditional fire effects or more traditional landscapes versus a varied landscape,\u201d she said, explaining that local terrain has a significant influence on the types of hazards that a wildfire leaves behind.<\/p>\n

When wildfires burn through vegetation and scorch soils, it leads to increased risk of erosion, flooding and debris flows. The soil holds clues about how communities need to prepare for those post-fire hazards. Badly burned soil doesn\u2019t absorb water; it acts more like pavement, repelling rain so it runs downhill.<\/p>\n

But on Basalt Mountain, the unusual topography added a new layer to the hydrology. Flat areas help to slow the momentum of flooding or debris flows.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s not a continuous flowpath, it\u2019s just not going to keep building on itself,\u201d Schnackenberg said.<\/p>\n

While that made it harder to predict exactly where future flooding might occur, this terrain likely helped protect the town of Basalt during some of last summer\u2019s intense rain storms.<\/p>\n

As the vegetation regenerates after the Lake Christine Fire, the potential for extreme flooding in Basalt recedes. Regrowth is key to preventing flooding and debris flows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat can be your grasses and forbs, it doesn\u2019t have to be trees,\u201d Schnackenberg said.<\/p>\n

Those ground-covering plants help stabilize the soil and encourage the earth to start soaking up water again which, in turn, reduces erosion.<\/p>\n

Grasses started growing back in the burn area within weeks after the flames from the Lake Christine Fire died down, and in three to five years, Schnackenberg predicts that much of the burn area will be green again.<\/p>\n

For now, she said, it\u2019s important to minimize any more disturbances that might give noxious weeds a chance to outmuscle the native plants. The best thing people can do now is \u201cjust give those plants a chance to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

These ecosystems evolved with and adapted to wildfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re generally pretty good at bringing themselves back unless there were really substantial effects to the soil,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Schnackenberg and her colleagues who assessed the severity of the soil damage on Basalt Mountain rated most of the area closest to town as moderately burned, meaning up to 80% of the ground cover was consumed by the fire in that area. Even as vegetation is returning and the terrain catches some of the fast-moving water, there\u2019s still a chance for more flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly would expect some to occur,\u201d Schnackenberg said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like just because it\u2019s a broken landscape, nothing will happen. It\u2019s just a matter of extremes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schnackenberg discussed how wildfire can change watershed dynamics Wednesday in Carbondale as part of the Naturalist Nights speaker series; she speaks again Thursday at 6 p.m. at Hallam Lake in Aspen.<\/p>\n

Aspen Journalism collaborates with Aspen Public Radio and The Aspen Times on coverage of water and the environment. More at aspenjournalism.org.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liz Schnackenberg, a hydrologist with the US Forest Service, explains initial assessments of the soil burn severity during a tour of the Lake Christine Fire burn area in August 2018. Schnackenberg speaks Thursday at 6 p.m. at Hallam Lake in Aspen as part of the Naturalist Nights speaker series.Courtesy photo The charred landscapes that wildfires […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 18:23:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}