Two prescribed burns planned on BLM lands in Eagle County

Posted by egable on September 9th, 2008 filed in Wildlife, Fire

Federal fire officials are planning two prescribed fires this fall on Bureau of Land Management lands in Eagle County — a 560-acre burn southeast of Burns and a 1,200-acre burn north of State Bridge.

The burns are planned to occur sometime by the middle of October, depending on weather. The burns will only be initiated if conditions are ideal for safe and effective fires, BLM officials said.

Both fires are planned to improve wildlife habitat and ecosystem health as well as decrease the amount of fuel that has built-up in the areas.

The prescribed fire three miles southeast of Burns is planned in mountain shrubs and pinyon-juniper on lands managed by the BLM Glenwood Springs Field Office. It’s the latest of several prescribed fires in this area over the past several years.

The other burn, planned one mile north of State Bridge on Yarmony Mountain, is the first burn in a multi-year project covering 2,396 acres. This burn will be primarily in sage and pinyon-juniper on lands managed by the BLM Kremmling Field Office.

These fires should improve wildlife habitat by stimulating new, more nutritious plant production in the burned areas, BLM officials said. Because the fires should leave a patchwork of burned and unburned areas, wildlife will have better areas to feed but also continue to have areas of unburned vegetation that will provide important hiding cover.

Since these areas haven’t burned in a number of years, a large amount of fuel for wildfires has built up. BLM hopes these burns will decrease that fuel load, helping reduce the risk of a much larger, unwanted wildfire.