Once The Fire Is Out - What Next

120,000 Acres of Douglas fur and ponderosa pine are burning more than 2,000 men and women are spread out over this immense area working to bring the fire under control from overhead specially equipped aircraft attack the fire line with thousands of gallons of flame the forest service protects and manages more than 187 million Acres of national forests and grasslands and Wildfire strikes more than 13,000 times a year on the average [Music] some fires are small easily brought under control others are not it can take weeks of massive effort before a large fire is totally out [Music] we feel that fire is inevitable in the forest it's part of the ecological sequence even though the forest service has a very strong fire prevention program there are still going to be fires caused by lightning the carelessness of campers and by malicious deliberate burning sometimes the aftermath of a fire can be worse than the fire itself particularly when critical watersheds are involved for that reason the forest service watershed management staff has the leading role in what follows Paul Ledger an Environmental Management specialist on this staff is the man in charge of the emergency rehabilitation program even when the fire is out the battle to restore the Watershed has just begun there's an ecological balance here that has to be restored but restoring the balance takes time the question question is will there be time enough the weather is sometimes cruel and destructive bringing more rain than bare burned over slopes can stand and there's real potential for disaster where homes are built too close to vulnerable drainage [Applause] [Music] areas 300 acres of this Watershed were burned in the fall of 1979 the following winter winter and spring brought more rainfall to this area than ever recorded in more than 200 years and soils that had not been Disturbed in thousands of years sloughed from the steep slopes and swept through surrounding waterways overflowing the catchments basins and flood prevention measures that in normal times hold back the mud the results were devastating [Music] d every fire that occurs within the national forest system is different each one leaves its own destructive imprint on the land the fire that stripped these slopes burned to the banks of a creek endangering the water supply for a town of more than 15,000 people until the slopes are once again covered with protective vegetation they will be vulnerable to erosion every time it rains you get this debris coming down the canyon it could completely fill that diversion Pond the debris could even take the pond right out intake building Dam and all depending upon the severity of the flood in the Chalan country of central Washington modest lakeside homes barely escaped a forest fire that came to their doorsteps the fire ran uphill very rapidly fan by a wind behind it the worst danger is posed by the very steep slopes the amount of sediment that could come following a rainstorm 6 weeks earlier these steep chaparal slopes just above the city of Los Angeles burned chat cash District fire management officer explains immediately after the fire was out we started seeding the fire brakes and fire lines and we plan to continue some receding but how long does it take for the vegetation to come back you start to receive a minimal measure of protection in 5 years and it may take as long as 15 years for this chaperel to recover to the point that it's doing the protection job it was before the fire the first few years following any fire are always critical even though nature alone can heal the scars and restore an area there are times when natural revegetation cannot do the whole job fast enough since time is a critical factor and the element of risk can be very high diversion channels and debris basins are sometimes built in anticipation of eventual flooding to provide some measure of protection for homes and communities that could be threatened during normal rainy Seasons these measures can usually handle the mud and debris that washes down from above but these basins must be cleaned out periodically to restore their usefulness during a heavy rainy season they may have to be cleaned out several times wildfires that burn thousands of Acres of national forests and grass l lands are no respector of boundaries other federal state and private lands are often involved and when valuable Watershed and forage values are at stake immediate Rehabilitation is foremost in the minds of all concerned in fact the forest service Works closely with all land managing [Music] agencies each National Forest has a team of Specialists on call so that when Wildfire strikes no time is lost in getting a survey party out to to assess the damage and estimate emergency Rehabilitation needs burer rehab team is composed of many disciplines soil science hydrology fish and wildlife biology Timber management Specialists range people depending upon the location of the fire the resources that have been destroyed and the proposed management future management direction for that particular area by Monday we should have this burer report completed so we can get a request to the Washington office for funding the rehabilitation team has about 3 days in which to do all their work and write up their report and send it in for further action wildlife and range resource Specialists check the condition of ground cover they look for the effects that fire may have had on the roots and crowns of the residual vegetation in this particular area I figure they're going to get some resprouting from the root so the fire wasn't of enough magnitude to cause any particular damage to the root the condition of the soil following a fire is critical from the standpoint of stability and also its capacity to absorb and hold water by applying water to a piece of the soil you can determine how quickly it's going to fall apart when wet that helps determine the mount and rate of sedimentation they also are determining whether the soil has a water repellent characteristic which sometimes occurs under brush following wildfire and the influence fire can have on water quality is directly related to the amount of Ash and debris that eventually winds up in the waterways in preparing its Rehabilitation plan it is essential that the burn area survey party develop a background profile for all of the affected streams subsequent samples can then be taken to help determine the effectiveness of selected measures what they're determining is the condition of the stream prior to any rainfall so they can get a kind of a background condition for the stream Forest Service policy is to have physical rehabilitation underway within 5 days after the fire out once the survey team has prepared recommendations for the rehabilitation that will be needed their report is sent to the regional office for approval and funding if the prescribed Rehabilitation will require more money than is available at the regional level the report must be forwarded to the Washington office for final approval Tuesday we received notification that the Washington office had approved the uh allocation of special uh burn Rehabilitation funds once funds have been approved the rehabilitation work crews are given their specific assignments the preliminaries have all been taken care of and as soon as men and materials can be assembled the actual Rehabilitation will get underway Grand do you want to kind of take it from there the area basically was uh 90% uh heavily burned and we ended up splitting the area into two seed mixes and um figured we'd put the same amount of fertilizer on both at the upper and lower [Applause] elevations I think the main objective in any burn Rehabilitation is to immediately get a protective vegetative cover on the ground this is most effectively accomplished by seating by aerial methods fertilizing is also done generally by aircraft so it's cheaper to do it by aircraft than it is by hand [Applause] the other possibilities for reaing or do some specialized seating for specialized purpose like for Wildlife Rehabilitation this is over and above the standard uh emergency revation we sometimes do selected irrigation following FL receding these water lines are hooked to a pump in the creek and they're periodically moved by hand every 30 40 minutes further on down slope when possible the forest itself provides the materials used in [Applause] [Music] Rehabilitation damaged trees are used to Terrace the bare slopes a snag Terrace is log barrier set up on slope to stop material stop settlement from running Overland and this settlement builds up Behind These logs creating a flat spot called a Terrace they have to be laid in on the slope on Contour dug in so that no water runs underneath them if any water runs underneath them or you're going to lose everything you've gained so they have to be done very carefully steep Rocky slopes also provide their own raw material to create check dams that will slow down runoff and help keep the soil in place these raw structures are laid in small channels on the ground surface to form a barrier for collect sediment behind them they break up the erosion pattern slow the waters that comes through the channel [Applause] the aftermath of a wildfire is more than scorched soil and dead Timber it is also clogged streams blockages that seriously impede the flow of water and create both hazards and Watershed control problems all we're trying to do is get the heavy debris out and clear those channels so that if we get a sudden influx of water it'll get away fast helicopters are very good because you don't cause any disturbance in the Watershed from from Wheel vehicles or track vehicles in the [Music] streams following a fire we have two forces actually going on in the rehabil ation effort we have our measures that we install like reeding the structural measures simultaneously with that uh nature is trying to heal that area and sometimes the first things we see are the natural sprouting of brush and ferns this is followed very closely by the sprouting of the vegetation that we seow by aircraft left to its own devices the forest will recover in time but there are many values that hang in the balance water quality wildlife habitat Recreation and a thriving and productive Forest so we cannot wait for nature alone to heal the scars of fire it is through man's efforts in concert with nature that we can best restore damaged watersheds and protect homes and communities Downstream all too often it is a race against the clock with the pinched hope that the weather is going to hold oh