Alert Public to Post Fire Hazards
Extreme wildfires have both immediate and long-term impacts
on OHV recreation. They can destroy trail delineators, signs, viewsheds, kiosks, and
campground facilities. Costly soil
erosion and water quality-related trail structures can often be obliterated by
dozers blading fire lines around the blaze.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, “… many
lands sustaining wildfire are naturally stimulated and recover to healthy
conditions, some catastrophic fire can damage the land, causing threats to
human life, property, and biological and cultural resources downstream. In
these situations, land managers may decide to apply "first-aid" immediately
after the wildfire to help stabilize and repair the landscape.
The USDA Forest
Service and Department of the Interior (DOI) agencies use Burned Area Emergency
Response (BAER) to manage post-fire response actions within a year of a
wildfire being contained. These efforts, also known as Emergency Stabilization,
prevent further degradation of natural and cultural resources, and protect life
and property.
In some cases, DOI
may provide additional funding to improve burned areas and achieve desired
conditions for up to 3 years after containment. "Burned Area
Rehabilitation" (BAR) supports the healing process and provides a
"bridge" to long-term recovery. Allocation of BAR funds involves a
rigorous and competitive process to evaluate projects. This ensures the needs
of greatest concern on DOI lands are addressed first.
Further
rehabilitation and maintenance of healthy conditions are the responsibility of
local land managers through agency natural resources programs.
Caution Signs - Post Fire Management Tool
A recent main stream media story (see link below) also illustrates
that loss of road and trail access can have a devastating impact to the local
community’s culture and economy.
LINK TO ROADS ARE MONEY ARTICLE
QWR understands that land agencies are faced with a lot
of difficult decisions on how to recover the land after the wildfire has been
put out and that temporary closures can be an important tool for when a bridge or
road is washed out.
Post Fire Trail Management Tool
However, given the important role that outdoor recreation
has as a critical economic driver in many rural areas, QWR believes that land
agencies should avoid - if possible - landscape level closures of the burn area and
work with various partners in post-fire recovery planning and implementation of
subsequent “first aid” travel and resource management prescriptions that are
focused on reopening affected areas in a timely manner so as to avoid prolonged
impacts to recreation access and local communities.
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