Cameron Peak Fire Study

How do wildfires affect water quality and algal growth in high elevation reservoirs, and are those changes propagated downstream?

Background Information:

The 2020 Cameron Peak wildfire (CPF) was the largest wildfire in Colorado history at over 200,000 acres. The CPF burned a large proportion of the Cache la Poudre watershed, in particular areas surrounding high elevation reservoirs. This work is funded to support ongoing source water protection programs by the City of Fort Collins, Greeley, Thornton and Northern Water. In collaboration with the Rocky Mountain Research Station (USFS, RMRS), we are sampling various reservoir, tributary, and mainstem sites of the Cache la Poudre watershed. This field campaign allows us to analyze trends in water quality focusing on nutrients and other key constituents mobilized post-fire. The goal of this project is to understand how these nutrients affect algal growth in reservoirs and how those changes are propagated downstream. The reservoirs studied are the following: Barnes Meadow Reservoir, Chambers Lake, Comanche Reservoir, Hourglass Reservoir, Joe Wright Reservoir, Long Draw Reservoir, and Peterson Lake. Historical data (prior to 2021) was collected by the Rhoades Lab at the USFS' Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Folder Structure:

src: Main project files live here

• Primary analysis file is: 01_analysis_and_figs.rmd.
• Analysis functions live in \analysis_fxns\ to create plots and grab data

scratch: old project files live here

Data Description:

Version: v2023.10.18

Data is published at this link: https://zenodo.org/records/10019749

The majority of this dataset is water chemistry grab sample data collected post-Cameron Peak Fire in the Cache la Poudre Watershed between the years of 2021 and 2023. This dataset also includes historical data collected pre Cameron Peak Fire by the Rhoades lab at the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. These data are focused on basic water quality parameters, as well as cations and anions. Data were collected at various reservoirs in the Cache la Poudre watershed as well as the mainstem of the Cache la Poudre River. This project is ongoing and additional data will be released as it is analyzed.

Sample Collection:

Samples were collected and processed using the Rocky Mountain Research Station's Biogeochemistry Lab, overseen by Timothy Fegel and Charles Rhoades, according to the methods described in rmrs_procedures.png

Primary ROSSyndicate Contributors:

• Sam Struthers
• Katie Willi