Wildfire, Forests, and Water in the Colorado River Basin

Scientific understanding of how wildfire affects water resources has advanced rapidly over the last several decades. At the same time, important gaps remain between emerging research and the questions water and forest managers need answered in practice. Those gaps are becoming more consequential as wildfire and drought place increasing pressure on western water systems. Fire can affect both water quality and water quantity, but those effects vary widely among ecosystems and regions. Forest management is also changing as land managers expand efforts to reduce wildfire risk, yet uncertainty remains about how those treatments may affect water resources.

AGCI is bringing together research and practitioner perspectives to make fire–water science more relevant and accessible to managers in the Colorado River Basin, while identifying the questions that should shape future research across the western United States. This project is conducted in partnership with the Western Fire and Forest Resilience Collaborative (WFFRC), a program of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.

Project Goals

Identify the most important science and information needs at the intersection of wildfire and water.
Understand where existing research does and does not support management decisions.
Identify barriers that make fire–water science difficult to use in practice.
Improve connections between researchers and fire, forest, and water practitioners.
Use practitioner needs to help shape future research across the western United States.
Synthesize science on fire-water interactions in accessible formats, including research briefs and webpages.

Methodology

The project combines physical science research with a two-stage social science study focused on the people who manage at the intersection of water, forests, and wildfire risk.

The first stage is a series of group interviews with water and forest managers. These conversations allow the research team to explore in depth the challenges managers face, the information they currently rely on, and where important knowledge gaps remain. The second stage uses interview findings to design a follow-up survey for a larger group of practitioners. The survey helps determine whether the needs identified in the interviews are shared more broadly and where experiences differ across organizations or management settings.

The project is also synthesizing existing science at the fire-water nexus by contributing fire–water content to the Colorado River Science Wiki and developing research briefs on fire and fuel treatment effects on water supply. We will share research findings with practitioners through additional engagement and virtual forums.

What We Are Learning: Turning Research Into Usable Information

Early findings show that practitioners often struggle not because there is no science available, but because the available information does not always match the scale, timing, or context of the decisions they need to make. Interviewees also identified gaps in knowledge about how wildfire and forest treatments affect water downstream, where management actions should be prioritized, and how managers can make decisions when evidence is incomplete or highly place-specific. Together, these findings can help focus future research and decision-support efforts on the kinds of information managers need to make place-specific decisions under uncertainty.