Gathering

the BAER Clan

By Mary Stuever

October 2004

     Rodeo-Chediski.  Biscuit.  Hayman.  Cerro Grande.  Grand Prix-Old.  Aspen.  Bobcat.  Coal Seam.  Missionary Ridge.  Grizzly Gulch.  8^th Street.  Trap & Skeet.  Hot Creek.  Trail Creek.  Rattle Complex.

     Big fires.  Large, hot, destructive fires.  Burns upon the land that clearly transcend the range of natural variability.  With the advent of these increasingly severe, intense, broad-scale wildfires, a new breed of land manager is emerging.   “Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) Implementation Leaders” met in Denver earlier this year to discuss techniques used to stabilize and rehabilitate the land.  Commonly called the BAER (pronounced “bear”) Team, these crews follow on the heels of firefighters to provide emergency stabilization actions after catastrophic wildfires.

      When Ben Nuvamsa, a Hopi tribal member and the Superintendent of the Fort Apache Agency in east central Arizona, addressed the group, he offered them a new identity.  “At first I felt a stranger here among so many white people,” he explained to the crowded room, “but then I realized I was among family.  I am BEAR clan, and you are BAER clan, too.”

        Bureau of Land Management.  Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Bureau of Reclamation.  Forest Service.  Natural Resources Conservation Service.  National Park Service.  U.S.  Fish & Wildlife Service.  U.S.  Army Corps of Engineers.  Tribal Governments.  State Governments.  County Governments.  City Governments.   

Wildfires show no preference for political boundaries.  No one seems exempt from the roulette of wildfire ignition in this western-states-wide, multi-year drought.  Until quite recently, many at the Denver clan gathering had no career aspirations that included burn area rehabilitation until they found their own ward facing such a challenge.  

After a huge and devastating wildfire is suppressed, communities in these burned areas often face a potentially more devastating disaster from flash-flooding and erosion when the next rains pound bare and blackened hillsides.  Storm events that would previously barely raise stream levels become the equivalent of 100-year floods, and when several of these occur in a span of weeks, the results can be decimating.  Conference participants viewed slides of mudslides wiping out highways, torrents washing out bridge supports, and houses that, although heroically saved by brave firefighters weeks earlier, were filled with mud or battered to pieces by moving boulders.   

Hydrologists.  Soil Scientists.  Foresters.  Engineers.  Botanists.  Wildlife Biologists.  Range Conservationists.  Environmental Planners.  Geologists.  Archeologists.  Administrators.  Managers.  Ranchers.  Technicians.  Cowboys.  

            With diverse backgrounds of varied experience and education, the clan is tasked with daily versions of “Mission: Impossible.” In forest and rangelands, rills become gullies, gullies grow to canyons, soil loss is measured in feet, and the resulting sediments clog downstream reservoirs.   Where fire intensity was hottest, seed sources are often vaporized and soil chemistry is altered creating water-repellent coatings that prevent rainfall from soaking into the ground. 

Regardless of background, BAER Implementation Leaders quickly become generalists, mastering the mechanics of coordinating dozers and excavators in one breath while honing the ecological details of monitoring vegetation recovery in the next.  Conference topics raced from “applying seed” to “removing culverts” to “capturing wild horses” to “spraying hydro-mulch” to “tracking budgets.” 

     Aerial seeding.  Aerial straw mulching.  Hydro-mulching.  Log erosion barriers.  Wattles.  Check-dams.  Contour felling.  Low water crossings.  Culvert cleaning.  Sediment basin cleaning.  Bank & channel stabilization.  Fencing.  Feral horse removal.  Imprinting.  Range Drilling. 

The over-riding objective is to stabilize the slopes, staving off excessive erosion and massive flooding.  The approaches are as diverse as the varied ecosystems they are used within.  A practice that works well on one fire may fail miserably on the next.  Other actions work all the time, but may be too costly to justify in every instance.    

The conference participants spent a day touring the 2002 Hayman Burn.  Local resource managers shared the lessons they learned in stabilizing one of Denver’s key watersheds. 

     On large fires a team of experts—the BAER Assessment Team—dictates the first round of land prescriptions.  Only assembled for a few weeks, the team addresses immediate concerns and writes a plan that outlines projects to implement.  The job of completing these projects and deciding what else needs to be done falls on the shoulders of the “Implementation Leader.”  It can be a lonely responsibility for Implementation Leaders, but they can now lay claim to “Clan” membership, and enjoy the benefit of shared lessons and experiences.