This watershed has a population of chinook salmon. A high priority for land managers is protecting the aquatic ecosystem. The study site is generally underlain by the Clover Creek Greenstone formation which is composed of metamorphosed lavas and pyroclastic rocks capped by glacial till. Slopes vary from 10 to 80 percent. 2015 m. Surface soils are predominately derived from residual bedrock and glacial till.
Steeper slopes are overlain with less ash and contain greater rock fragment contents.
Southern aspects have an ash thickness of 0.2 m to 0.3 m on slopes less than 60 percent. Steeper slopes have less than 0.2 m of ash and 35 percent or greater rock fragment. The fire consumed all fuels larger than 75 mm diameter and killed all standing trees. Criteria for site selection were size and uniformity of slope and sediment contributing areas. Study site characteristics are described in Table 1 .