Slinkard Fire Restoration Project
View looking west where burned slope abuts Hwy 395
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Background The Slinkard fire incident fire burned approximately 9,700 acres total between July 13 and July 20 2002. The fire was ignited by lightening and was strongly influenced by high winds (20-30 miles per hour), dry fuel conditions, a variety of fuel types and mountainous topography. Vegetative resources were impacted due to the burn pattern and variations in burn intensity. Key Issues - Threat to terrestrial ecosystem integrity due to increased risks of weed invasion
- Soil erosion risks and associated increased sediment loads into endangered Lahontan Cutthroat habitat
- Loss of critical mule deer winter range
| Emergency Stabilization Goals | - To prescribe cost effective post-fire stabilization measures necessary to protect human life, property, and critical cultural and natural resources
|  Road created from fire suppresion activities | - To promptly stabilize and prevent further degradation to affected resources on lands within the fire perimeter or downstream impact areas and mitigate damages caused by fire suppression operations in accordance with approved land management plans and policies, and all relevant federal, state, and local laws and regulations
|  Road after restoration work |
Rehabilitation Goals - To repair or improve lands unlikely to recover naturally from severe wildland fire damage by emulating historic or pre-fire ecosystem structure, function, diversity, and dynamics according to approved land management plans
- Restore or establish healthy, stable ecosystems, even if these ecosystems cannot fully emulate historic or pre-fire conditions as specified in approved land management plans
Prescribed Treatments | - Drill seed 14 acres with native shrub, grass and forb species between the first and second growing season following wildfire control
|  Drill Seeding Equipment | - Broadcast seed on 550 acres. The treatment sites are comprised of rocky alluvium which provides adequate microsites for seed as well as barriers to granivores such as ground squirrels that avoid rockier sites.
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Area after drill seeding |  Straw wattle treatments - above Slinkard Creek | - Install approximately 200 straw wattles on slopes above Slinkard Creek to minimize soil erosion
| - Implement contour-felling of burned Pinyon Pine on 110 acres adjacent to perennial and ephemeral channels on slopes no > 40% to prevent debris flow onto U.S. Hwy. 395
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Contour felling of Pinyo Pine
| - Conduct monitoring on 600 acres seeding treatment sites to determine treatment efficacy between the second and end of the third growing season following wildfire control.
| - Conduct weed detection/control studies on 600 acres to determine if noxious or invasive species are present or increasing in the recovering burned area or in new seedling
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| Table 1. - Native seed mixture used in drill seeding treatments |
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| Treatment Area | Seeded Species | Cost Per Pound | Application Rate (pls) | Type | Percent of Mix | Drillseed @ 8 lbs/acre Slinkard Valley and north to California Creek Watershed | Bottlebrush squirreltail
(Elymus elymoides) | $25.00 | 2 lb/acre | Native Perennial | 20 | Indian ricegrass
(Achnatherum hymenoides) | $25.00 | 2 lb/acre | Native Perennial | 20 | Needle and thread grass
(Hespirostipa comota ssp. comata)
| $50.00 | 1.5 lbs/acre | Native Perennial | 10 | Bitterbrush
(Purshia tridentata var. tridentata)
| $25.00 | 2 lb/acre | Native Perennial | 40 | Silver lupine and Blue Flax
(Lupinus argenteus), (Linum lewisii)
| $65.00 | 0.5 lbs/acre | Native Forb | 10 | | Totals: | $190.00 | 8 lbs/acre | | 100 |
|  Back to Restoration in Progress
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