Single Publication

BAER SPECIALISTS ASSESS THE CERRO PELADO BURNED AREA

Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) specialists are currently evaluating National Forest System (NFS) road infrastructure and soil burn severity within the Cerro Pelado burned area.

In the 1st photo, BAER Hydrologist Kyle Paffett is checking a culvert on Forest Service Road FSR270. The BAER hydrology team reviewed all road drainage and stream crossings on FSR270 and the northern portion of Forest Service Road FS10 because of its access to a Forest Service Lookout and Communications Tower. They inventoried over 80 culverts as part of this effort.

The BAER team needs to determine whether road culverts have sufficient capacity to pass post-fire modeled increased water and debris flows—in particular, they look to see if they are clogged, collapsed, or could get clogged after major rainstorm events.

In the 2nd photo, BAER Soil Scientist Tom Giambra testing hydrophobicity (water repellency) in the burned area near Forest Service Road FSR270. Testing to see if the soil is hydrophobic – aka repels water is important because the amount of hydrophobicity is an important component in determining how much increased water runoff we can expect after a fire. This information and data assist the team in evaluating the different levels of soil burn severity of the burned watersheds.

The 3rd photo shows a view of the burned area near top of Forest Service Road FSR270 and shows a range of soil burn severity from high, changing into moderate, and then a low soil burn severity.

And the last photo shows BAER Hydrologist Kelly Mott-Lacroix documenting her soil burn severity assessment data downstream and outside the fire perimeter of the Cerro Pelado burned area at the Soda Dam off of Highway SR4. BAER hydrologists document at all potential BAER critical values within watersheds with moderate and high soil burn severity.