Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

FROM ASHES ... WEEDS

Experts fear non-native plants will flourish in aftermath of wildfire

Charred Mojave yuccas stand Monday in front of the sandstone cliffs at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area after lightning-sparked fire burned there last week. Photo by Ralph Fountain. Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson. A sign marks the closure Monday of the scenic drive in Red Rock Canyon. Photo by Ralph Fountain. "The thing we need to keep in mind is that fire is a natural thing. It's inevitable. Having said that, the thing that made it worse is invasive species." STEVE MOORE FIRE INFORMATION OFFICER

The smoky smell of charred shrubs and yucca plants lingered Monday over an 821-acre swath of one of the most scenic parts of Red Rock Canyon while the last fire crew searched the blackened landscape for hot spots.

The 13-mile road that loops through the core of the national conservation area west of Las Vegas will remain closed for at least a week until firefighters are certain the wildfire is out and public lands officials start their rehabilitation effort.

The visitors center, which is not far from where the fire began, was reopened, but trails remained closed.

Three days after lightning sparked the tinder-dry, weed-infested ground around native yuccas and blackbrush plants, the stretch that had been the foreground to the canyon's signature sandstone cliffs was barren soil that looked like burnt toast with black posts jutting from it.

"The thing we need to keep in mind is that fire is a natural thing. It's inevitable. Having said that, the thing that made it worse is invasive species," said fire information officer Steve Moore.

He was referring to non-native grasses like red brome and other noxious weeds that have taken over much of the desert surrounding native yuccas, shrubs and cactuses.

The flash-fuel, as firefighters call it, has caused wildfires in the Mojave Desert to be much larger than they have been historically. This summer alone roughly 1,400-square miles of public lands in Nevada have burned in more than a dozen wildfires.

Officials Friday had estimated the burn area of Red Rock Canyon's Loop fire to be 1,500 acres, but after a flyover, the size was reduced to 821 acres.

About 200 firefighters from nine hot shot crews and one other crew battled the blaze with 10 engines, three planes and a helicopter. A cost estimate was unavailable Monday.

Moore said the Loop fire might have grown larger had it not been for overcast skies and rain Saturday that soaked the torched terrain. Much of the fire was snuffed by environmentally fertilizer-based slurry.

A wind shift vexed the firefighters. After the lightning strike at 9:30 a.m. Friday, the wind drove the fire northwesterly; then the direction change drove it back south.

Most wildlife escaped the flames, Moore said. Most desert tortoises remained safe in burrows, but one succumbed to the fire about 10 feet away from its burrow.

John Hiatt, conservation chairman of the Red Rock Audubon Society, said most of the native plants will not grow back, and some at least not for a while.

Blackbrush, a slow-growing native plant, will take years to recover. But in less than 12 months, invasive red brome and cheat grass will cover the landscape.

"It's sad," he said.

"What we're seeing here is not just that it burned but that it's not going to recover back to what it was," he said. "It's going to be at risk to another fire starting next summer when the fuel is there."

Erik Berg, who manages the Joint Fire Science Program for the Bureau of Land Management in Boise, Idaho, said the government spends about $16 million per year on wildfire research, rehabilitation studies and oversight.

One of the major studies, he said, focuses on how to deal with the fire-causing effects of invasive species in the Great Basin. The results will apply to the Mojave Desert.

"We believe this is going to give very substantive results," Berg said about the five-year effort.

"A lot of people say it's about time we pay serious interest to these surrogate dry land sites."