ROGUE-UMPQUA NATIONAL DIVIDE, Ore. -- A Burned Area Response Team is analyzing the Miles Fire burn scar to see what areas are the most at risk for erosion and landslides.
They are also marking which areas where crews will have to haul hazardous trees away, and which roads will need upgraded culverts, in case flash floods head toward the roads.
Claire Campbell is a soil scientist with the U.S. Forest Service. She says much of the Miles Fire will recover nicely on its own, since it was a lower-severity burn.
She says on the higher-severity burns, sometimes the Forest Service will use helicopters to drop mulch on the forests. But this area doesn't need that.
"This complex -- because it’s a lower-severity fire -- it’s a really nice matrix of burn severity. It’s probably not a good candidate of that." Campbell said. "You can see in the background there’s actually a lot of needle cast in this burned area so the trees are taking care of the mulching for us."
The BAER team will compile a list of projects and funding needed, and send it to Washington D.C. Those projects will then be completed over the next year.
