Hi Glenn,

You're right on at least two levels: fast runoff, flooding and debris flows will result from these fires, made worse by the hilly and mountainous terrain. IIUC where fire has been super-hot it glazes the soil and makes it impervious to water. Doesn't that sound fun? They'll send in crews this fall once its safe to perform erosion control but with millions of acres already burned it won't have much impact--simply too much area to tackle.

Long-term, as the west shifts to less snow and more rain over winter, the whole system of snow serving as our primary water storage reservoir degrades significantly. Snow is a great mechanism for impounding and slowly releasing water and our historically "average" snowpack cannot be replicated by artificial storage.

Recent research is finding mountain meadows have important role in water retention, as well as cleaning and filtering runoff. Centuries of logging and grazing have degraded and even eliminated alpine meadows and restoration, along with restoring streams to more natural channels might be one way to counter faster runoff and help retain water later in the season.

[Editorial aside: we were hiking alongside cattle in the Sierra wilderness just two weeks ago. Why are we still doing this?]

The next few decades are a time of reckoning for land and water use schemes. They will be drastically different, or will fail on a grand scale.

Stay safe!