Site Implementation Plan: Macao and Gois, Portugal

Table of Contents

1. Site Information
2. Summary
3. Site 1 (Caratão catchment)
4. Site 2 (Vale Torto catchment)
5. Site 3 (Camelo catchment)
6. Site 4 (Moinhos catchment)
7. Stakeholder information
8. Land use
9. Conservation measures and experimental setup
   1. Wildfire remediation
   2. Wildfire prevention
   3. Small-scale monitoring/experimentation
10. Monitoring activities

Wildfire remediation

This is being carried out at Moinhos catchment (Site 4) The objective is to determine whether and to what extent certain feasible remediation measures that are (a) relatively easy to implement, (b) acceptable to the stakeholders in fire-prone forest plantations, and (c) effective in reducing post-fire erosion. Monitoring to date (early November 2009) comprises the following:

• On burnt eucalyptus terraces, installation of erosion pins on 'treads' and 'risers' has been carried out to monitor changes in ground level through time. Treatments will be applied after a 'run-in' period.
• Sediment fences have been installed downslope of (a) several terraces and (b) a similar area of unmodified burnt slope, to assess the degree to which terracing causes higher post-fire soil losses than occurs on unmodified slopes.
• On an unmodified burnt slope, two small bounded plots (4 x 2 m) have been installed. At their downslope ends are sediment fences. Soil losses will be monitored for a 'run-in' period after which pine needles (representing the amount of needles available from a scorched pine canopy) will be applied to one of them. Monitoring of both the control and treated plots will then allow an assessment of the impact of this 'passive' mitigation measure to be made. The needles may prove sufficiently effective at reducing post-fire erosion. Allowing a sufficient time before tree-felling to elapse for needlefall to occur may be all that is needed to provide good post-fire mitigation of soil losses.
• A suitable unburnt eucalyptus terrace will be selected for installing erosion pins in order to compare erosion rates with the burnt terraces. It has proved difficult to find a comparable site to date (early November 2009).
• Installation of a rainfall gauge in the Moinhos catchment

At Sites 2 and 3, the following additional tasks are ongoing:

• Measurements of infiltration using portable infiltrometers and rainfall simulators at regular intervals - At Camelo site, the rainfall simulations where done immediately after the fire and 1 year after; at Vale Torto, there were done 4 rainfall simulations periods.
• Repeat measurements of surface and subsurface soil water repellency measurements are being made at c. 54 points on two grids inside and outside the prescribed fire burnt area using the Molarity of Ethanol Droplet (MED) technique. In addition, soil moisture measurements are being made at each point. Sets of measurements are being made to monitor how repellency changes as conditions become increasingly wet and how it changes as conditions become increasingly dry.
• Measurements have been made of biomass to determine fuel loads at the Vale Torto and Camelo sites, and repeat photography of ground vegetation and soil surface changes during pre- and post-fire conditions at Vale Torto and in the post-fire period at Camelo.
• At Vale Torto, the density and heights of shrubs have been measured, together with flame temperature (i.e. to make a map of fire temperature, of the entire catchment) and soil temperature changes (using thermocouples and temperature sensitive paintings) during the prescribed fire. Since the fire was carried out in a controlled manner in strips at the boundaries, it was possible to be close to the site, and therefore flame temperatures at defined points could be determined with a handheld GPS, leading to the production of a detailed map of fire temperature derived.