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Our findings suggest that the biotic-to-abiotic shift and amplified cross-scale erosion occur where encroachment-induced bare ground exceeds 50–60% and bare gaps between plant bases frequently extend beyond 1 m. The trigger for amplified cross-scale erosion is formation of concentrated flow within the degraded intercanopy between trees. Burning in this study decreased ecohydrologic resilience of the late-succession woodland through herbaceous recruitment 2 years post-fire. Increased intercanopy herbaceous productivity decreased connectivity of bare ground, improved infiltration, and reduced erosion, but the study site remained vulnerable to runoff and erosion from high-intensity rainfall. We conclude that burning can reduce woodland ecohydrologic resilience and that woodland encroachment-induced structural and functional ecohydrologic attributes may persist during high-intensity storms for an undetermined period post-fire. We cannot conclude whether wildfire reverses the woodland-induced soil erosion feedback on sagebrush rangelands. However, our results suggest that wildfire may provide a restoration pathway for sagebrush steppe by reducing woodland ecohydrologic resilience over time. Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.