Prescribed Fire as a Watershed Sediment Management Tool: An Example from Southern California

Land managers in southern California have speculated that prescribed burning could reduce the soil erosion generated by catastrophic wildfires. A unique opportunity to test this notion arose when a wildfire swept over an ongoing field experiment measuring hillslope erosion from a prior prescribed burn. Results indicate that 1) fire severity may directly affect erosion response, 2) postfire hillslope erosion levels may return to normal within three years, and 3) prescribed fire may reduce the erosion produced by subsequent wildfires. These results suggest that prescribed fire may be an effective sediment management tool in southern California chaparral brushfields.