News Release

For Release: August 28, 2008
Contact:  Heather Feeney (208) 373-4014

Team Completes Report on Grazing and Fuels in Murphy Complex Wildfires

→ See a Summary of the Report 
→ VIEW/DOWNLOAD full Report

BOISE, ID – A team of scientists, habitat specialists and land managers established by the Idaho Bureau of Land Management has completed an assessment of interactions among livestock grazing, vegetation types and fire behavior in the 2007 Murphy Complex wildfires.  The report also contains management and research recommendations related to these subjects.

The full text of the report by the Murphy Wildland Fire Grazing and Fuel Assessment Team is published as a U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report, available online http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1214/  and on the University of Idaho website, http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/range/MurphyFireComplex/ .

“The Murphy Complex fires were historic for Idaho,” said BLM Idaho State Director Tom Dyer. “This report gives us the opportunity to learn from scientific analysis and specialist expertise and go forward with piloting new possibilities for managing both livestock grazing and wildland fire.”  Dyer called the assessment team together in August 2007 to examine information from the Murphy Complex fires with specific attention to the possible influence of livestock management on the fire’s extent and behavior.

The team used information gathered during a tour of the area last August, along with official federal and state agency records and remote-sensing data, to analyze characteristics of the fire such as how fast it spread, the level of fuel consumed and the intensity of the fire.

During a briefing on the report, Dyer told team members and BLM staff how the agency plans to implement the findings and recommendations.  He noted that information in the report will be incorporated into the Jarbidge Resource Management Plan, currently being revised.

The Murphy Wildand Fire Complex burned more than 650,000 acres of sagebrush grasslands in southern Idaho and northern Nevada in July 2007.  It was the largest wildfire to burn in Idaho since 1910, affecting grazing allotments, wildlife habitat and winter range, watershed and riparian areas, and a number of cultural sites. 

The Assessment Team included representatives of federal agencies (BLM, U.S. Geological Survey and USDA Agricultural Research Service), state agencies (Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho Department of Lands and Idaho State Department of Agriculture) and universities (University of Idaho and University of Nevada Cooperative Extension). 

Emergency stabilization and rehabilitation of BLM-managed lands burned in the Murphy Complex wildfires that began in the fall of 2007 are continuing in partnership with grazing permittees and state agencies in Idaho and Nevada.  The BLM Jarbidge Field Office will continue to monitor seedings for the next two growing seasons, and the University of Idaho is undertaking long-term studies that will compare pre- and post-fire native vegetation.

—BLM—