Sunday, October 2, 2011

BLM Is Managing the Ferris Mountain Wildfire

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) High Desert District is managing the wildfire on Ferris Mountain in conjunction with the seven-person Unaweep Wildland Fire Module (WFM) as part of the planned 42,576 acre Ferris Mountain prescribed fire project. The wildfire is located approximately 30 miles north of Rawlins, Wyo. within the Ferris Mountain Wilderness Study Area. The low intensity fire is creeping slowly through steep, rocky terrain with occasional torching of individual and small groups of trees and is an estimated three to four acres. The WFM is helping to direct the fire away from undesirable areas while utilizing the fire to achieve the effects of a prescribed burn.

Dispatched from Grand Junction, Colo., the highly trained Unaweep WFM will also assist the BLM in assessing ecological concerns, impacts to water sources and potential safety zones. Tools the WFM uses to manage fires can include constructing firelines, creating defensible space around resources by burning perimeter fuels and using geographic information systems to map the layout of a fire area in order to best plan management actions.

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