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BAER Plan approved for Mesa Fire on the Payette National Forest

McCall, Idaho – The Mesa Fire burned 34,719 acre east of Council, Idaho, including lands in the Payette National Forest. Even before the fire was contained on August 25, 2018 a team of Forest Service specialists were conducting field assessments to prescribe burned area emergency response (BAER) treatments. BAER is a specific effort to reduce further damage due to the land being temporarily exposed in a fragile condition. Loss of vegetation exposes soil to erosion; water runoff may increase and cause flooding; sediment may move downstream and damage houses or fill reservoirs, putting habitat and community water supplies at risk. The BAER program is designed to address these situations through the key goals of protecting life, property, water quality, and deteriorated ecosystems.

Led by West Zone Hydrologist Melanie Vining, the Mesa Fire BAER Team used satellite imagery of the burned area to classify the landscape into low, moderate, and high burn severity. Of the total burned area, there were 14,856 acres of low severity, 15,222 acre of moderate severity, and 1,078 acres of high severity within the burned area. The burned area was initially classified using the satellite imagery and adjustments in classification were made based on ground surveys resulting in a final soil burn severity map. The entire burned area was mapped, though the field work and treatments are limited to only the 16,560 acres of burned area on the Payette National Forest. Soil burn severity information was also shared with other agencies, including Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), and the National Weather Service. A BAER Plan with treatments totaling $73,042 has been approved to be implemented over the next 12 months using federal dollars on the Payette National Forest. The planned treatments include work on roads and trails, weed treatment, and grazing management.