The Recovery Teams

• The Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation Team (BAER)
• The Black Area Restoration Team (BART)
• The Green Team
  
  

BAER (pronounced 'bear') Teams are formed after major fires to assess damage caused by the fire and to implement a rehabilitation plan that will prevent loss of life and property and reduce further natural resource damage. In a nutshell, they survey and implement a plan to accomplish erosion control.

BAER Teams are composed of highly skilled wildlife biologists, archaeologists, soils scientists, landscape architects, geologists, ecologists, engineers, foresters, botanists, GIS and GPS specialists and other disciplines from all over the nation.

After a fire, some or all of the ground cover (called 'duff'...needles, decomposed wood and leaves) will be burned away, exposing the soil to the direct impact of rain. In addition, and depending on the severity of the fire ('high' being the worst, see below), the soil itself may become somewhat 'hydrophobic'...that is, it will repel water, rather than absorbing it. These conditions can set the stage for soil erosion when rain occurs.

Also, keep in mind that a forest fire typically doesn't burn at the same intensity everywhere...depending on terrain and fuels. Usually, fire severity will be classified as low, moderate, or high. Generally, high intensity burned areas have priority for treatment, as they tend to be more hydrophobic, have the least duff and have the greatest potential for erosion.

Burn severity can be classified as follows...

• Low - The trees may be dead, but the needles (brown) are still in place. The duff hasn't been totally consumed.
• Moderate - The duff is completely consumed, but is mixed with unburned areas...the area has "patchy" ground cover.
• High - The duff is completely consumed over a large area. Smaller branches will be completely consumed.
  

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Possible BAER Treatments

The goal of BAER is to keep the soil in place, or as close to it as possible. To accomplish this, certain treatments are applied, such as mulching, log erosion barriers, wattles, seeding or scarification.

Mulching is the hand application of weed free straw to parts of the burned area to replace ground cover that has been lost. Log erosion barriers are dead trees cut and placed 'on the contour' of the hill to collect soil and slow water movement. Wattles are a biodegradable plastic mesh filled with weed free straw. They are placed on the contour of a hill as well, and function in much the same way as the log erosion barriers. Aerial seeding is the application of cereal grains to get plants growing. This not only helps with ground cover, but the plants roots help hold the soil in place. The plants used are a type that won't persist beyond a year or two, so they won't compete with native plants as they return to the area. Scarification is the plowing or disking of strips along the contour. The purpose is to break up the hydrophobic layer of soil so that water can absorb as it flows down the hill. The sacrificed areas may also be planted.

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The Black Area Restoration Team is also comprised of highly skilled wildlife biologists, archaeologists, soils scientists, landscape architects, geologists, ecologists, engineers, foresters, botanists, GIS and GPS specialists and other disciplines and will carry on the long-term restoration of the burn area.

Recruitment and hiring for this team is currently in process. Many of these team members are currently involved in BAER work and will remain as part of the long-term BART effort.

The "Green Team" is comprised of timber prep and sale personnel, contract specialists, forestry technicians, fire management personnel and many others directly involved in the reduction of hazardous fuels in the forest.

The hazardous fuels program reduces the impacts of unwanted wildland fires on communities, natural resources, and cultural resources. Past disruptions of natural fire cycles, as well as other management practices, have resulted in wildfires of increasing intensity and severity. Treatment of hazardous fuel will help reduce the impacts of wildfires on communities and restore health to fire-adapted ecosystems.

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