| Contacts: | Cass Cairns, 719-269-8553 |
Bureau of Land Management receives $974,000 for Fourmile Canyon fire emergency stabilization treatments
Cañon City, Colo. – The Bureau of Land Management received $974,000 to stabilize natural resources damaged as a result of the Fourmile Canyon Fire through its Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Program (ESR).
About $907,000 for Emergency Stabilization treatments is available immediately, while $67,000 for rehabilitation treatments is expected to be available in January or February of next year.
“Getting funding so quickly allows the BLM to move forward with our coordination with the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Boulder County on stabilization treatments. Working together to identify post-wildfire emergency rehabilitation needs across jurisdictions and ownerships improve the efficiency and effectiveness of post-wildfire emergency for private landowners,” said Keith Berger, Royal Gorge Field Manager.
BLM Emergency Stabilization priorities are to ensure public safety and restore habitat for wildlife and significant heritage sites.
Treatments on BLM lands include 115 acres of hand seeding, 650 acres of aerial mulching, noxious weed survey, and treatment of critical heritage resources.
BLM Burned Area Rehabilitation Priorities are to repair or improve lands damaged directly by a wildland fire and rehabilitate or establish healthy, stable ecosystems in the burned area. The BLM plans to have these treatments completed in the next three years.
Twenty-two percent of land that was burned by the Fourmile Canyon Fire is on BLM lands. Rehabilitation treatments include ponderosa pine seedling planting, hazard tree removal within seedling planting areas, and treatment effectiveness monitoring.
The Fourmile Fire began on Sept. 6 and destroyed 169 homes west of Boulder making it the most destructive blaze in Colorado history. An initial assessment by the Fourmile Emergency Stabilization (FES) team – consisting of representatives from local and federal agencies – was completed of the burn area. This assessment identified immediate threats from the wildfire impacts to soils, vegetation, hydrologic functions, such as debris flow in drainages and slopes, trees, transportation infrastructure, abandoned mines, cultural resources, and wildlife.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.