Mechanical thinning impacts on runoff, infiltration, and sediment yield following fuel reduction treatments in a southwestern dry mixed conifer forest.(Report)

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, September, 2007 by Baker, T.T.; Cram, D.S.; Fernald, A.G.; Madrid, A.; Rummer, B.

Increasing tree densities experienced since the early 1900s throughout forests in the western United States are associated with numerous ecological problems (Dieterich 1983; Covington and Moore 1994a; Covington and Moore 1994b; Kolb et al. 1994). These problems include, but are not limited to conversion from high-frequency, low-intensity fire regimes to low-frequency, high-intensity fire regimes (Swetnam 1990; Sackett et al. 1993; Swetnam and Baisan 1996); reduced water quantity (Trimble and Weirich 1987; Stednick 1996; MacDonald and Stednick 2003; Meixner and Wohlgemuth 2004); and reduced understory vegetation production and diversity (Cooper 1960). Changes in these forest ecosystem processes and characteristics have combined in recent decades to negatively impact the...

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