Biomass utilization operations on forest hydrologic and soil erosion processes in the northwest United States

Early in the first part of this century, an initiative was undertaken to investigate the effects of biomass reduction on forested areas. Funding for these investigations was made available through the National Fire Plan (NFP), and President Bush’s Wildfires and Healthy Forest Initiative. Several years later another initiative was instated known as the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) which targeted studies involving the utilization of the biomass offsite, for feedstock or other energy needs. Our BRDI research, targeted the surface processes where the biomass was reduced or removed for utilization. These goals examined whether biomass reduction/removal indicated a significant increase in soil erosion, decrease in infiltration or otherwise adversely impact water resources, compared to control sites. To explore these objectives, we installed research sites in Idaho (Smokey Boulder), Montana (Cyclone Reid) and Washington (Summit Pierre) and studied biomass utilization management at the small plot scale. The research design for these biomass utilization studies set up replicate silt fence plots on different management treatments and monitored the soil loss activity. This data publication contains ground cover and bulk density measurements obtained on plots for all three research sites from roughly 2011-2015. Soil loss data were also collected from 2012-2014 for the Smokey Boulder sites. Also included are recorded infiltration rates from an in-house customized permeameter (infiltration analysis performed on trails, off trails, treated and control sites) from 2013-2015. Daily temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, windspeed, and runoff measurements for the same time period are also provided from weather stations (with a rain gauge) installed at each site.
The BRDI research, targeted the surface processes where the biomass was reduced or removed for utilization. These goals examined whether biomass reduction/removal indicated a significant increase in soil erosion, decrease in infiltration or otherwise adversely impact water resources, compared to control sites.