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<br />studies done to assess the effects of wildfires on watershed hydrology have been for chaparral vegetated <br /> <br />areas (dense, low evergreen oaks) in southern California (e.g., Florsheim et aI., 1991; Weise and Martin, <br /> <br />1995). Fewer studies have been done for other forest ecosystems and most focus on sediment runoff <br /> <br />(e.g., White and Wells, 1981; Parrett, 1987; Meyer et aI., 1995; Cannon et aI., 1995; Ewing, 1996). <br /> <br />Because southern California differs from vegetation and soil types in other forested areas in the United <br /> <br />States, study resuhs may not be transferable or may need to be modified for different forest ecosystems. <br /> <br />Hydrophobic (water-repellent soil) conditions often develop after a wildfire from the combustion of <br /> <br />vegetation and decomposing organic matter, which produces aliphatic hydrocarbons that move as a vapor <br /> <br />through the soil and substantially reduces infiltration (USFS, 1979a). Hydrophobic soils, decreased <br /> <br />vegetation cover, and reduced surface storage following wildfires dramatically increase the potential for <br /> <br />extreme flooding, sediment transport and deposition (USFS, 1979b). Fire-suppression activities also <br /> <br />make it difficuh to estimate the natural frequency of fires from historical fire records and for ecosystem <br /> <br />management. <br /> <br />One goal of state and federal (e.g., USFS, BLM, and NPS) forest managers is to maintain a balance <br /> <br />between maintaining healthy forest ecosystems and minimizing hazards to the public and property. In the <br /> <br /> <br />late 1950s, after more than han a century of active fire suppression, which increased the threat of <br /> <br />catastrophic wildfires, greater emphasis was placed on prescribed burning in forest lands to reduce the <br /> <br />buildup of fuelwood (Weise and Martin, 1995). Since 1984, prescribed burning has been used on an <br />average of 1,200 km2 per year in about 773,000 km2 of US national forests (USFS, written commun., <br />1997). The effects of fire intensity on water and sediment rUnoff and the ecosystem are poorly <br /> <br />understood for varying intensities of wildfires and prescribed burns. <br /> <br />Study Area <br /> <br />The community of Buffalo Creek is located in unincorporated Jefferson County in the foothills of Jefferson <br /> <br />County within Pike National Forest near the confluence of Buffalo Creek and North Fork (NF) South Platte <br /> <br />River (fig. 1), The community, at an elevation of about 2,012 m, consists of several hundred residential <br /> <br />5 <br /> <br />I <br />, <br />