Wetlands rise out of the ashes

The sight is at once heartbreaking and inspiring. Acres of the Clark County Wetlands Park are blackened and broken.

It took three days to completely douse the fire that began on April 16. Only two weeks later, nature is reclaiming the damaged area. Two-foot shoots are growing out of inches of ash, and wildlife can be seen fluttering among the burnt branches and heard rustling though the remaining rushes on the edge of the devastation.

Although several theories were bandied about, including the rumor that the fire started when someone was burning the plastic from wires to harvest the copper, the Clark County Fire Department has concluded that the fire was sparked by homeless people living it the park.

"Our investigators traced it back to a homeless encampment," said Clark County assistant fire chief Mike Johnson. "They didn't determine the exact cause, but it was human-related. It could have been a warming or cooking fire or smoking-related. The list goes on and on."

Fires are almost an annual event in the 2,900-acre park, the largest park in the valley. Most of the park at 7050 Wetlands Park Lane is well away from human structures, so the fires rarely pose a danger to private property. The western edge of the park abuts a residential area, and one fire in recent years came within a few dozen yards of those homes, leading to the construction of a firebreak between the park and the houses.

"The optimum size of a fire break is one and a half times the fuel height," Johnson said, "They're pretty standard when you have brush near homes."

The fire that began around 3:30 p.m. on April 16 created a towering smoke plume that could be seen across the valley. It took approximately 60 firefighters to put it out, including members of the Clark County Fire Department, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. The majority of the fire was out by the following morning, and the firefighters spent the next two days knocking down hot spots in smoldering foliage.

Helen Dougherty lives nearby and frequently hikes with her dog Maggie in the area where the fire occurred. Dougherty isn't concerned for her safety . She finds the beauty of the area outweighs the occasional drama of a wildfire.

"This is the most amazing spot," Dougherty said, "We have a beautiful playground in our backyard. I watch the coyotes at night, and the raccoons come around, too."

Most of the damage was to tamarisk trees, also known as salt cedar. The tree is considered an invasive non-native species, and conservation groups have worked to remove the trees to protect more fragile native foliage.

"The tamarisk will probably come back whether we want it to or not," said Elsie Sellars, Wetlands Park coordinator. "The other thing that made up a lot of what burned was the common reed, which goes dormant and is very dry in the winter."

Sellars said she expects that some of the wildlife in the park were impacted by the fire and might not have been able to escape the flames. The area wasn't home to any threatened or endangered species. She expects the burned area to recover quickly.

"Probably by mid-summer you won't even be able to tell that a fire occurred out there," Sellars said. "It was in an undeveloped section of the park, so no trails or amenities were affected."

Before the area was turned into a park, it spent decades as an unofficial dumping ground. Old dirt roads wind among piles of concrete rubble that may date from that time or may have been placed there by the county to shore up the wetlands. The trails aided in suppressing the fire by allowing the firefighters good access to the burn area. Although the fire was within sight of the under construction Wetlands Park visitors center, it wasn't close enough to pose a threat to the structure.

The undeveloped nature of that part of the park is part of what appeals to Dougherty, who said she still finds new places and things to see there. The proximity to access roads but relative remoteness of the park is likely what attracted the homeless who were encamped there.

"I've been at the park about five years, and we've had three or four fires in that time," Sellars said. "Just about all of our fires are caused by human activity, so it's pretty unpredictable."

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.