RMRS - Post Fire Treatment Efectiveness

Post-fire Treatment Effectiveness for Hillslope Stabilization

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Moscow Forestry Sciences Laboratory 1221 South Main Street Moscow, ID 83843 (208) 882-3557 7:30-4:30 M-F

Effectiveness of PAM and Other Polymers

The effectiveness of PAM (polyacrylamide) has been documented for use in agricultural irrigation and in disturbed but not burned areas; however, only a few of these studies involve the types of soil and water control needed in post-fire hillslope stabilization. In the post-fire studies that have measured the effectiveness of PAM in reducing post-fire runoff and/or erosion, the results have not been conclusive. After the 2000 Bobcat Fire in CO, a test using simulated rainfall on small (11 ft² [1 m²]), high burn severity hillslope plots in the northern Colorado Front Range found some initial erosion reduction that disappeared after the first 30 minutes of the 1-h rain simulation (Benavides-Solorio and MacDonald 2000). Following the 2002 Williams Fire in southern CA, sediment yields from a pair of watersheds (2 and 6 ac [0.75 and 2.4 ha])–one treated with aerially-applied PAM and one untreated–were compared for one year and no significant difference was found (Wohlgemuth 2003). After the 2002 Schoonover Fire in CO, PAM was tested over three years on paired hillslope swales where PAM treatments reduced sediment yield during lower, less intense rainfall periods, but was not effective when rainfall amounts and intensities increased.

After the 2004 Red Bull Fire in central UT, PAM was one of four treatments (PAM, straw mulch, PAM + straw mulch, and an untreated control) evaluated on aerially seeded sites. Erosion bridges (3 per treatment) were used to measure soil movement over three years. No rainfall data were reported and the small differences in net soil movement were not significant (Davidson and others 2009).

[chemical soil surface treatments] [references]

Post-fire Treatment Effectiveness for Hillslope Stabilization
Peter R. Robichaud, Louise E. Ashmun, Bruce D. Sims

USDA Forest Service - RMRS - Moscow Forestry Sciences Laboratory
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