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Fire Rehabilitation Begins on Fort Apache
Indian Reservation
[Whiteriver, Arizona] -- The
Rodeo-Chediski Fire, two fires that grew together on June 23 to be
nearly 470,000 acres, quickly became the largest fire in Southwest
history. About 275,000 acres of the Ft. Apache Indian Reservation
were involved, including vast areas of ponderosa pine forests.
Recovery and rehabilitation of the worst-hit areas began within days
of the fires' ignitions.
One of the most immediate and
vital concerns in the recovery efforts is stabilization of the
landscape bared of erosion-preventing vegetation as the monsoon
storm season approached. Stabilization activities include
construction of water bars (logs, rocks and other materials
installed to slow down or divert runoff carrying topsoil and other
materials), wattles (porous sleeves containing straw and other
filtering components), K-rails (concrete barriers placed end to end
to repel and redirect runoff bearing virtually anything large
quantities of fast-moving water can carry) and seeding.
Sunup to sundown, for 16 days
straight, three crop duster planes from the Cibecue Airfield and
three more based in Heber attacked the charred fire area from the
north and south with 3,200-pound loads of seed. Each round trip,
carefully calculated to seed about 120 acres at the rate of 50 seeds
per square foot, averaged 17 minutes. Darkness, occasional
rainstorms and refueling stops were the only breaks in the
routine.
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