BLM Authorizes Soda Fire Fuel Breaks to Protect the Owyhee Front
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BOISE, Idaho — The Bureau of Land Management announced today it has issued a Decision Record for the Soda Fire Fuel Breaks Project, located in Owyhee County, Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon.
The Decision Record authorizes the development and maintenance of fuel breaks on BLM-managed land along 271 miles of existing roadways in and around the 2015 Soda Fire burn area. These fuel breaks will help to protect extensive Soda Fire stabilization and rehabilitation treatments on critical rangelands, prevent the spread of wildfires along the Owyhee Front’s wildland-urban interface, and protect valuable wildlife habitat.
Project implementation is expected to begin in spring 2017. The BLM plans to coordinate efforts with the State of Idaho to create a strategic set of fuel breaks in key areas to minimize the potential for wildfires.
Fuel breaks are created by strategically altering vegetation along existing roads to reduce heavy fuels that produce dangerous flame lengths during a fire. Once a fuel break is in place, these areas offer safer places for fire personnel to rapidly and effectively suppress fires. A variety of methods will be used to create these fuel breaks including targeted grazing, seeding, mowing, and chemical treatments.
Private contractors will do the majority of implementation work. Bidding opportunities will begin this spring and continue throughout the project.
In 2015 the massive Soda Fire burned nearly 435 square miles in Idaho and Oregon destroying public and private infrastructure, threatening multiple communities, and consuming valuable sagebrush and bitterbrush wildlife habitat. The fire left the ecosystem vulnerable to the spread of invasive annual grasses and it created a continuous band of fuel loads more likely to catch and carry wildfires. After the fire, the BLM undertook major restoration efforts, including seeding and seedling planting to improve the sagebrush-steppe habitat impacted in the Soda Fire. Strategically placed fuel breaks within and outside the Soda Fire perimeter would limit the ability of wildland fires to burn into the Soda Fire restoration area from the outside and to limit the ability of wildfires from starting inside the fire restoration area to burn out into intact native vegetation.
The Decision Record can be read online here at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/52963/510. For more information or if you have questions, please contact the BLM Boise District Office at (208) 384-3393.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.