DAYTON, Wyo. — Now that colder and wetter weather conditions are moving in across the Bighorn National Forest and crews have contained 82% of the 98,352 total acres of the Elk Fire, experts are able to assess the severity of the burns across the fire’s area.
According to the Bighorn National Forest Facebook page, Burn Area Emergency Response team members used before-and-after satellite imagery to assess the whole of the fire’s area to see where and to what degree soil was burned.
The collective effort of BAER geologists, hydrologists, engineers, archeologists, recreation specialists and soil scientists, according to the Forest Service, produced the below map.
As the map’s key suggests, a majority of the area’s burns are unburned, have very low burn damage severity or have low burn damage severity. Those categories make up an estimated 72% of the total acreage of the fire, which first ignited Sept. 27.
The worst burn damage is sporadically dispersed around the northwestern section of the fire area. In these areas, mostly all ground cover is completely consumed and the below soil is generally discolored and permanently altered.
As fire activity has lowered and containment has rapidly increased, authority over containment responsibilities has shifted from the regional Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team 1 to the local Wyoming Interagency Type 3 Team. Some crew members will remain to ease the transition, but the guard has more or less changed, although major responsibilities haven’t.
Weather conditions may inhibit ground work somewhat in steeper and higher-elevation areas. Otherwise, crews are working to widen defensible space in areas vulnerable to future spread, mostly in the southern part of the fire area. In other places, crews are repairing the lines they dug back to the state they found them in as they are no longer needed.
According to the Forest Service, a new winter weather advisory is in effect that could slow this work somewhat. The weather will also help with fire suppression.
For more information on road and forest closures, which are always subject to change as conditions and containment efforts alter, see the Bighorn National Forest Facebook page.