BLM Chief Commits To Rehabilitate Soda Fire Damaged Land
Southwest Idaho’s nearly 300,000 acre Soda Fire is the largest this year in areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Most of the burned area was habitat for the sage grouse, the bird whose status as a contender for the Endangered Species List could affect ranching, recreation and energy production in 11 western states. That is why the national director of the BLM was in Boise Wednesday to talk about rehabilitating that land.
Neil Kornze says his agency has to quickly start re-seeding the Soda Fire burn scar to keep invasive species like cheatgrass from overwhelming native plants like sage brush. But more importantly the BLM director says, they have to keep working on that land for the decades it could take to bring it back to full health.
Kornze says the bureau has often planted seeds in burned land and called it quits. He says the BLM is shifting its priorities to focus more on land rehabilitation.
Fly Over The Soda Fire: Rehabilitation Teams Already Making Plans To Reclaim The Landscape
The Soda Fire was officially contained this week, at 445 square miles. Now thoughts turn to reclaiming the landscape southwest of Boise.
A team of 40 specialists spent five days in the field, surveying the burned area. Their goal is to find and fight threats to life, property and resources over the next three years.
T.J. Clifford is the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team Leader for the Soda Fire. The team is working for the Bureau of Land Management but is made up of people from multiple agencies.
Wild Horses That Survived The Soda Fire To Be Rescued
Wild horses that survived the Soda Fire now face another threat: starvation, after the fire burned their food supply. The Bureau of Land Management plans to rescue those animals and feed and house them until the landscape can recover.
Three horse herds – the Sands Basin, Hardtrigger and Black Mountain herds – live on the 445 square miles burned in the Soda Fire. Twenty-seven horses died in the fire, but those that survived now face this new peril, says the BLM’s Heather Tiel-Nelson.
“These horses of course need enough forage to sustain them and there simply isn’t enough out there right now to get them through much longer, which is why we’re doing this emergency gathering of those horses,” says Tiel-Nelson.
Feds Publish Final Plan For Southwest Idaho Wilderness Areas
Federal authorities have made public the final management plan for six wilderness areas and 16 wild and scenic river segments in southwestern Idaho.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Monday published on the Federal Register the Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness and Wild & Scenic Rivers Management Plan.
The process allows for appeals to be made within 30 days concerning the state’s newest wilderness areas that include about 518,000 acres and 325 miles of wild and scenic river in Owyhee County.
The six rugged areas became federally protected preserves in 2009 after Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, organized a coalition of ranchers, wilderness advocates, outdoor enthusiasts and others in an effort called the Owyhee Initiative.
The 99-page federal document contains rules ranging from floating rivers to grazing livestock.