By ED WALDAPFEL
Sawtooth National Forest
The rehabilitation process is now under way for the approximately 40,000-acre area burned by the recent Valley Road Fire, southeast of Stanley in the White Cloud Mountains.
According to Ruth Monahan, forest supervisor for the Sawtooth National Forest, more than $1.7 million dollars has been approved for rehabilitation activities.
"I am pleased to announce that our burned area report has been approved and funded," Monahan said. "Actions are now under way to implement the various activities recommended by our Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team. Local residents and visitors will begin seeing activity within the next week or so in the burn area."
Timing is critical. "We need to accomplish as much of the rehabilitation work as possible this fall before significant rain and snow storms occur," said Monahan. "We plan to start immediately, but we know that there will be some work that will have to wait until next year."
Meanwhile, the Forest Service has scheduled a community meeting in Stanley next week to discuss its efforts to rehabilitate the burned area. The meeting has been set for Monday, Oct. 10, at 6 p.m. in the Community Center building in central Stanley.
Some rehabilitation work was accomplished by the team that managed the fire-suppression activities. This included rehabilitation work to repair areas affected by suppression efforts, such as hand- and bulldozer-constructed fire lines, fire camp locations and bases used for helicopter operations.
The primary work activities recommended in the BAER report focus on reducing threats to human life and safety by removing hazards in areas of concentrated public use, stabilizing drainages that were severely burned, treating and preventing the spread of noxious weeds and establishing monitoring activities to determine the effectiveness of the various rehabilitation treatments.
The BAER report addresses four types of treatments: land, roads and trails, structures and monitoring.
Forest Service officials have started the process of purchasing materials and contracting for equipment to begin on the land treatments. Approximately 1,900 acres are scheduled to be treated with straw mulch, dropped from helicopters in the Warm Springs, Fisher, Fourth of July and Champion creek drainages. Some 2,000 pounds-per-acre of straw will be applied to provide a protective mulch layer for reducing soil erosion by providing a surface to reduce impacts from rain.
Twenty-five acres of known noxious-weed infestations in the burn area will be treated. Preventing future spread of these weeds is considered key. Monitoring the use of weed-free straw and the use of washing stations for vehicles entering the burned area will help to accomplish this.
Road work will include installation of new culverts and improvements and maintenance to existing drainage structures along the 11 miles of roads in the burn area. Existing culverts are too small to handle the expected increase in runoff from the burned area. Maintenance and improvement of drainage structures and dips will be done on 26 miles of trails. Activities in and around trailheads will be directed towards minimizing visitor exposure to hazards that exist as a result of the fire.
One mile of range fence will be constructed on the Warm Creek cattle and horse allotment to prevent livestock grazing in key areas, allowing the burned vegetation to recover. One-tenth of a mile of fence will be constructed at the Aztec Mine/Fisher Creek Trailhead to replace the burned trees that provided a barrier to motorized vehicles prior to the fire. Thirty road and trail hazard warning signs will be installed throughout the burn area warning recreationists of hazards.
A plan to monitor the effectiveness of the rehabilitation activities will be developed. The areas and activities to be monitored include the aerial straw mulch, road storm patrols, trail drainage and cultural resources. Most monitoring activities will be conducted over a three-year period, however, some monitoring, such as for noxious weeds, may occur over a five-year period.
The fire started Sept. 3 and burned rapidly through forested areas. It was not put out until after it had scorched 40,838 acres.
Public Meeting
The U.S. Forest Service has scheduled a community meeting in Stanley next week to discuss its efforts to rehabilitate the area burned by the Valley Road Fire. The meeting has been set for Monday, Oct. 10, at 6 p.m. in the Community Center building in central Stanley.
