According to a senior resource consultant, a long -term recovery of the landscape of the great damage caused by two forest fires in Rio Blanco County can require one to five years of repair efforts by nature, landowners and several agencies.
Water, soil erosion and land health are the top priorities after the fire, which are currently determined by the members of the resource consultant on site, said Wendy Parker, Team Lead and Us Bureau of Land Management Fire and Fuel Archaeologist.
The factors of water, soil erosion and country health can “have an impact on life, property, environment and economic drivers such as ranching and cattle and oil and gas industry, as buried lines and facilities can be influenced by such natural forces,” said Parker.
Resource consultants of the BLM and other agencies helped in the forest fires near Meeker to give advice on the endangered sensitive and critical resource values that were most susceptible to the effects of suppression activities, said Parker.
In addition, an Emergency Resource Team or Baer Sanker fire area mobilizes additional support and damage assessment as second eyes to help the exhausted local resource consultants, said Parker.
The experienced Interagecy Baer team is expected to publish a final report in three weeks in order to forward local employees and teams for recovery steps in order to bring the landscape back to a healthy ecosystem. The Baer teams usually include a hydrologist, biologist, ecologist, archaeologist, GIS card specialist and others.
The work for immediate stabilization and repair of fire suppression effects such as damage caused by bulldozer, the fire broken, push cermon pushed up, streets that have deported dry vegetation or the fences are in full swing. Other necessary restoration work can be repaired by running through, the installation of water sticks, placing wadding or depletion of damaged trees for erosion control and renewed saturation with locals such as Indian rice grass to prevent invasive weeds from taking over the landscape.
According to Parker, recommendations for recovery also cover the properties that “live best next to the fire parameters,” best protect life business and environmental problems “.
“The cumulative effects, soil erosion and the sedimation flow can affect the fire downstream from the area,” remarked Parker.
On her own trips in the forest area, the BLM specialist said that she identified six small groups of escalated cattle and found a llama more than 3 miles from home and tried to find her way back.
After a large running fire, the damage to the water can be negative effects to cattle-reservoirs to deposits from silt and rubble in streams or in some cases of water that is derived from natural channels, as Parker stated. Soil erosion and sludge conductor have already been reported, including a sludge slide closure of the Rio Blanco County Road 5 on August 27th.
The schedule for pasture areas to recover in a healthy state depends on the specific environment and the severity of the burning of burns, Parker said and noticed: “If it is burned, it takes a while for nutrients to return to the floors.” Prairie Sagebrush and grassy areas could recover in about a year, she said.
Parker said structural protection crews did a “fantastic job” during the forest fires.
“The structure team did an incredible work to save houses and real estate,” Parker noted. “There were several cases in which there were several people around the properties of several people. The structure team kept the fire on their fence lines and managed to save many structures.”
As an archaeologist, she emphasized a specific success story for protection in her specialist knowledge. She informed the firefighters about the historic Elk Creek Schulhaus along the Rio Blanco County Road 8 in the elkfire east of Meeker, and the firefighters were able to stop the forest fire on the fence line of the rural school built in 1921.
Another success story came with the combined efforts of the cattle breeders, parishioners and resource consultants who worked to get animals out of the way that kept deaths on a minimum, said officials.
“One of the key roles of the reads (resource consultant) that were played during these efforts was to identify permits that graze the cattle in public countries, contact information for the connection of the Incident Management team and notify them that they know that their property/ownership of risks is made easier to enable.
Parker said additional problems related to the forest fire damage in Rio Blanco County and included: reach of the concerns about grazing and ranching of cattle; possible effects on the operation of the oil and gas industry; Ecological concerns, including wild animals, vegetation and fish ecosystems; Public land use for hunting and relaxation; And cultural resources such as historical places.
From 6:00 a.m. on Monday, the FDNY Incident Management team handed over the forest fire management to local agencies when the containment of the 137,758 hectare of Lee fire fire, according to incident commander Kyle Demasters, rose to 99%.
“While this is making enormous progress, there is still work,” said Demasters. “Local agencies will command the incident and continue to manage a smaller group of resources to carry out repair work.”
For future questions, Demasters pointed out the residents to contact Rio Blanco County's Sheriff or the Bureau of Land Management.
“According to the disaster guide” of the CSU extension, also contains significant advice and district-specific resource information online at https://rbc.us/documentcenter/view/6079/after-disaster-Guidbook_extension-rio-blancotemplate.
Rio Blanco County's public information coordinator, Lynn Lockwood, said that the County Community Partners had convened in the past few weeks to form “Rio Blanco Recovery”, a roof man team for several lanes of recovery efforts. The district plans to commission a recovery manager in order to act as a central coordination point for Rio Blanco's restoration, “align the work areas and to support internal and external stakeholders during the entire recovery process,” said Lockwood.
“According to the fires, several agencies and organizations are used according to the fire and damage assessment instruments such as Baer (Baer Area Not Emergency Response) to inform the recovery and reduction strategies in both public and private countries,” said Lockwood.
According to Lockwood, several subgroups focus on certain aspects of recovery. For example, a natural resource and agricultural group of federal and regional agencies works on programs to support land owners in fences, cattle, drought, restoration of habitats and water problems according to the fire.
This group includes authorities such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Farm Service Agency, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the US Geological Survey, the Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District, the cities of Meeker and Rangely and Douglas Creek Conservation Districs.
For example, the USGS mapping of ruins, and the staff of the nature conservation district lead to leadership and education to help landowners understand the options, said Lockwood.
According to Lockwood, the district collects data through a questionnaire for damage and losses from agricultural manufacturers, equipment and rural landowners who are affected by the fires.
The combined efforts are important to steer resources and implement projects that protect property and infrastructure from potential floods and other dangers after the fire as well as for the use of federal financing options such as the NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection Program said.
According to Lockwood, other efforts are an economic recreation group and district employees in six departments that work with industrial and business representatives to meet critical needs.
People who want to donate to help affected residents can donate to the “Lee & Elk Wildfire Recovery Fund”. So far, according to the foundation, the fund has collected around 70,000 US dollars.