The Soda Fire was a devastating 280,000 acre wildfire that burned a large portion of the Reynolds Creek watershed in August of 2015. While the Soda Fire destroyed everything in its path and left many local ranchers with hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, its location in part of the Reynolds Creek watershed was a small silver lining from the fire. The amount of historical data already collected at Reynolds Creek meant scientists were uniquely positioned to track how a sagebrush steppe ecosystem recovers from wildfire. In this video, Jason Williams discusses how scientists at Reynolds Creek are using the Soda Fire as a case study to monitor runoff and erosion in rangeland ecosystems post-wildfire.
