As firefighters get closer to containing the 41,000-acre Rail fire, burning since July 31 in southwestern Baker County, a Forest Service team is assessing the damage and hoping to secure money for projects designed to protect forest visitors in the future.

“We’re trying to identify high values at risk that are at a high likelihood of post-fire impact that may necessitate some type of a treatment to minimize or avoid that impact,” said Todd Reinwald, co-leader of the team.

Reinwald is the soil and water program manager for the Mount Hood National Forest and is part of the six- to eight-member BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) team comprising Forest Service soil, GIS (geographic information systems) and hydrology specialists from across the country.

Dave Callery, co-leader of the BAER team and watershed program manager for the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, said the team works in areas that have already burned to avoid interfering with firefighters.

“Our efforts need to come on the heels of suppression, and try to get (our job) done as soon as possible as things start to wind down,” Callery said. “We’re definitely not going where the fire is still active and not contained.”

The team’s job is to analyze the fire’s effect on soils and how that might impact the safety of forest users. Soil composition plays a role in how extreme erosion damage might be when the rain falls on burned areas.

“We are evaluating the impact of the fire on soil resources and how they have changed — infiltration and run-off characteristics,” Reinwald said.

That analysis is then used to determine and prioritize what resources need to be protected. The data the BAER team collects allow local Forest Service officials to request emergency funding to mitigate risks.

Resources being evaluated include several hiking and off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails, campgrounds and roads.

If the BAER team determines a resource is vulnerable, the emergency money could deal with that problem.

However, if the danger to visitors is from hazard trees and the risk is severe enough, the site might be closed until the hazard trees are removed. That work would be paid for from the local forest’s budget, not emergency BAER money.

“It’s an important distinction. The emergency response is to guard from risk to life and safety,” Reinwald said. “The longer term treatment is not a BAER treatment. It becomes a post-fire treatment.”

The fire has burned about 27,100 acres on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, and 13,700 acres on the Malheur National Forest.

BAER money would pay for signs that alert forest users to potential dangers in places where the risk doesn’t warrant closing the area.

The loss of vegetation from the fire can lead to soil erosion once the rainy season starts. The Rail fire has burned along the South Fork of the Burnt River and several of its tributaries.

Sediment and ash carried into those streams can be a concern to another forest resource: aquatic wildlife.

“There are short-term water quality impacts,” Callery said. “Beyond that and maybe of more concern is the potential for fine sediment to get washed into streams.”

That sediment can harm fish and their habitat.

Reinwald said the loss of tree canopy in the more severely burned areas contributes to increased erosion because when rain falls, more of the drops hit the ground.

“It may change the characteristics and magnitude of peak flows and as well it may change base flows in late summer,” he said. “So water supply -— water quantity — is also a concern as well as water quality.”

Those higher peak flows can potentially have negative impacts to recreational resources such as roads, trails and campgrounds downstream.

See more in the Aug. 31, 2016, issue of the Baker City Herald.