Geospatial Model of the Universal Soil Loss Equation for Fremont County, Colorado and the Universal Soil Loss Equation Applied to Fuels Reduction Treatments A Master’s Thesis Presented to the Faculty of The College of Science and Mathematics Colorado State University-Pueblo Pueblo, Colorado In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Master of Science in Applied Natural Science By Annie Thayer Merriam Colorado State University-Pueblo May 2005 Certificate of Acceptance This thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Applied Natural Science by Annie Thayer Merriam Has been accepted by the Graduate Faculty of the College of Science and Mathematics Colorado State University-Pueblo. Approval of Thesis Committee: Graduate Advisor (Dr. Brian Vanden Heuvel) Date Committee Member (Dr. Neal Osborn) Date Committee Member (Dr. Moussa Diawara) Date Graduate Director (Dr. Mel Druelinger) Date Dedication For Butch, my nightlight in a strange house, For without you I would be sitting in the dark with a stubbed toe. Acknowledgements Foremost I would like to thank my supervisor at the Bureau of Land Management, John Smeins. John is responsible for giving me the opportunity to complete this research and he also helped refine my focus of this research to what it is today. John has also taught the true definition of fuels reduction: “eliminating small, weak, trees, so that, few, large, strong, ones may grow.” I would also like to thank everyone else who supported me at BLM. To my committee, the deepest thank you. To Dr. Neal Osborn who was the first to show me the wonderful world of botany and is the reason I have the profession that I do. He has also made me the botanist I am today. To Dr. Brian Vanden Heuvel who became a part of my committee before he even started as a professor at Colorado State University-Pueblo. He has greatly contributed to the efforts of this thesis and has over the past year made me a better teacher. To Dr. Moussa Diawara who has taught me a great deal about environmental management, toxicology and has been a great mentor and foremost taught me that you can forget to bring a lot of things to class, just don’t forget a sense of humor. I would also like to acknowledge Jennifer Dillon who is one of my best friends and someone who has been through thick and thin with me professionally and personally. I will always remember the trials and tribulation of fieldwork and all the good times. Because of you I still can’t look at a Cholla or Grandmother’s Peanut Butter Cookies without laughing. Along with Jennifer I would like to thank Sara for always being there. iv I would like to thank everyone at the BLM who has contributed to this research and supported me as well as contributed. A special thank you goes to John Shaw who performed numerous canopy calculations for me and without his work this thesis would not be the same. Finally I would like to thank everyone else who made this work possible, my friends, my family and last but certainly not least Butch Berlemann. Who, after all this still wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Your support and patience still amazes me. v Geospatial Model of the Universal Soil Loss Equation for Fremont County, Colorado and the Universal Soil Loss Equation Applied to Fuels Reduction Treatments Annie Thayer Merriam Colorado State University-Pueblo, 2005 Fuels reduction treatments have been practiced by the Bureau of Land Management, Royal Gorge Field Office since 1998 and have been monitored since 2002. The purpose of these treatments is to eliminate or reduce some of the unnatural fuel loading that has occurred in the west with over zealous fire suppression. Currently fuels reduction treatment areas have been placed in the Urban/Wildland Interface as directed by the United States congress. The goal of this research was to examine soil erosion by utilizing the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) on fuels reduction treatments in, and create a geospatial model to qualitatively predict erosion risk of Fremont County to aid in further planning of fuels reduction treatments. It is hypothesized that certain soils will have an increase in erosion due to fuels reduction treatments. The results of this research show that only two soils of 17 studied had a significant difference in soil erosion from pre-treatment status to post-one-year and post-two-year status. It was found that in the two soils, the Bronell and Boyle series, there was a statistically significant decreased in soil erosion due to the reduction of fuels. The other soils indicated that erosion risk was improved but not significantly. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………...iv Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….vi List of Tables…………………………………………………………………..……..ix List of Figures…………………………………………………………………..……..x Introduction………………………………………………….……………..………….1 Background and Mission of the Bureau of Land Management………...……..1 Standards for Public Land Health……………………………………….…….2 National Fire Plan……………………………………………………………..4 Ecological Dynamics of Fremont County, Colorado…………………….……5 Historical Rangeland Improvements…………………………………….…….9 Current Fuels Reduction Management………………………………………11 Types of Soils………………………………………………………………..12 Types of Treatments…………………………………………………..……..17 Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE)…………………………………...…..29 Objectives…………………………………………………………………....32 Materials and Methods……………………………………………………………….34 Sampling Methods…………………………………………………………...34 Understory Analysis and Species Diversity………………………………….35 Canopy Sampling…………………………………………………………….36 Photographic Points………………………………………………………….36 Universal Soil Loss Equation...………………………………………………36 vii Statistical Analysis…………………………………………………………...38 Geographical Information Systems Modeling……………………………….39 Data Storage Management…………………………………………………...41 Results………………………………………………………………………………..42 USLE of Fuel Reduction Projects by Soil Series…………………………….42 USLE Comparative Analysis of Treatment Type……………………………49 Geospatial Model of the USLE for Fremont County, Colorado……………..52 Discussion……………………………………………………………………………53 Review of Objectives………………………………………………………...53 USLE of Fuels Reduction Projects by Soil Series…………………………...53 USLE Comparative Analysis of Treatment Type……………………………55 Geospatial Model of the USLE of Fremont County, Colorado…………..….56 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….. 57 Appendix A. Geographical Information System…………………………………….59 Appendix B. Universal Soil Loss Equation………………………………………….67 Appendix C. Tabular data for soils and monitoring plot information……………….95 Appendix D. Plot data………………………………………………………………104 References………………………………………………………………………..…303 viii List of Tables Table 1: Calculations used to determine percent canopy………..………………….38 Table 2: Boyle Soil Series one-way ANOVA output……………………………….42 Table 3: Bronell Soil Series one-way ANOVA output……………………………...43 Table 4: Bundo Soil Series one-way ANOVA output……………………………….43 Table 5: Libeg Soil Series one-way ANOVA output………………………………..44 Table 6: Pendant Soil Series one-way ANOVA output……………………………...44 Table 7: Raleigh Soil Series one-way ANOVA output……………………………...45 Table 8: Resort Soil Series one-way ANOVA output……………………………….45 Table 9: Rogert Soil Series one-way ANOVA output……………………………….46 Table 10: Tolex Soil Series one-way ANOVA output……………………………....46 Table 11: Summary table of a one- way ANOVA analysis of statistical significant differences between soil series……………………………..…….47 Table 12: Plot information that lacks sufficient data for statistical analysis………..48 Table 13: Pre Treatment Comparison one-way ANOVA output…………………….49 Table 14: Post One-Year Comparison one-way ANOVA output…………………....49 Table 15: Post Two-Year Comparison one-way ANOVA output…………………...50 Table 16: Summary table of a one- way ANOVA analysis of statistical significant differences between treatment types and status of treatment…….51 ix List of Figures Figure 1: Map depicting the location of Fremont County and Canon City, Colorado……………………………………………………………………….6 Figure 2: Map demonstrating the area that the Royal Gorge Resource Area manages in relation to Colorado……………………..……………….……….7 Figure 3: Map depicting the land status of Fremont County…………………………8 Figure 4: Schematic and photograph demonstrating the chaining technique………...9 Figure 5. Rollerchop at North Cotopaxi project. Photo by A. Merriam October 2002…………………………………………………………………………..20 Figure 6: Rills caused by Roller Chopper, North Cotopaxi project. BLM, November 2002……………………………………………………..………..21 Figure 7: Photo illustrating the influx of exotic species, North Cotopaxi project. Photo by A. Merriam, June 2004…………………………………………….21 Figure 8: Rollerchop project before treatment. BLM, July 2002…………………...22 Figure 9: Rollerchop project one year after treatment. A. Merriam, July 2003……..22 Figure 10: Rollerchop project two years after treatment. A. Merriam, June 2004….22 Figure 11. The mower type head of a Hydroaxe. BLM, North Cotopaxi, October 2002………………………………………………………………………….24 Figure 12. A Hydroaxe removing selected trees. BLM, North Cotopaxi October 2002…………………………………………………………….…………….24 Figure 13: Hydroaxe project before treatment. BLM, July 2002…………………..25 Figure 14: Hydroaxe project one-year post treatment. BLM, July 2003…………….25 x Figure 15: Hydroaxe project two years post treatment. A. Merriam June 2004…….25 Figure 16: Hand thinning with a chainsaw. BLM, Poverty Mountain September 2002…………………………………………………………………………..26 Figure 17: Hand Thinning and Pile Burning project. BLM, August 2002………….27