Evaluating rehabilitation efforts following the Milford Flat Fire—Data

The focus of the study, associated with these data, is a 540-km2 area at the low-elevation northern end of the 1460-km2 Milford Flat Fire in west-central Utah, and includes burned and adjacent unburned areas. Uncontrolled wildfire in arid and semiarid ecosystems has become an increasing concern in recent decades. Active rehabilitation of fire-affected areas is often quickly initiated to minimize long-term ecosystem damage. However, the complex soil-geomorphic-vegetation patterns and low and variable moisture conditions in these regions makes restoration challenging. To further inform these post-fire management decisions, we present results from 5-years of vegetation and sediment flux monitoring following the Milford Flat Fire in west-central Utah, USA. Our sampling design includes monitoring plots in areas not burned, areas burned but where no rehabilitation was attempted, and burned areas where various rehabilitation approaches were implemented. At each of the 25 plots, vegetation cover and composition data were collected annually, and wind-driven sediment flux was measured using passive dust traps.