MILK RIVER, Alta. — The effects of a large grass fire can be significant and long lasting.
Last year’s 2012 prairie fire near Milk River is now a site for studying those effects.
Kevin Bladon, a research associate in renewable resources at the University of Alberta, is part of a team collecting data on how the 16,000 acre grass fire will affect water quality.
Members of the Milk River Watershed Council heard some of the details April 11 at their annual general meeting.
“It was a very devastating fire. It was quite a slow burning, very hot, hot fire,” council chair John Ross said when recalling that windy day last fall. “It ran over the top quickly but then it burned a lot of the roots down into the soil. I’ve never seen cactus burned up to nothing before.”
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The watershed council has been compiling data in the region for years, which Bladon said makes his project an ideal case study. He said it is rare to have detailed data from a region before a fire occurs.
“It allows us right away to make some comparisons, make some inferences about the effects of that fire,” he said.
Preliminary data on only one site show that suspended sediments in the Milk River were 17 times higher than the seven year average, and phosphorus levels were 66 times greater.
However, Bladon said a more intense study of samples will provide more reliable results.
Researchers have also found that ash and other burned organic matter from the fire have blown into low-lying areas and coulees, which also accumulate snow. That has implications for runoff.
“Those are potential hot spots in terms of sediment, (production) limiting nutrients and well as heavy metals,” said Bladon.
Water quality in the Milk River will be sampled above the fire, at several points in the fire area and below coulees this year to gauge effects. Bladon said he will also work with officials at the local water treatment plant to see what challenges are presented by water quality.
The fire occurred upstream of the treatment plant, and not all plants are designed to remove materials that might now be moving into the river.
