Wildfire on the INL

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Wildfire

Fire is a natural process in the sagebrush steppe and any given area can be expected to burn every 50 to 70 years on average. The INL has seen a number of large wildfires since 1994. Since that time, approximately 25 percent of the site has burned.

A phenomenon common to all burned areas on the INL is wind erosion. Once vegetation has been removed by the fire, there is nothing to stop the wind from scouring the surface of the soil. Although the burned areas may lose large amounts of soil, it is redistributed and deposited in unburned areas downwind.

Unfortunately, on the INL blowing dust can create significant problems for the normal operations of facilities located directly downwind of a recent burn. Blowing dust from the fires has temporarily closed roads and facilities.


Post fire dunes	Blowing dust after fire
	Although the aftermath of these fires leaves a landscape apparently devoid of anything living, many of the plants of the sagebrush-steppe have mechanisms for surviving fire. The initial recovery of plant communities following fire relies primarily on re-sprouting of the resident plants that were able to withstand the fire.
	Our experience at the INL has been that natural recovery processes can be expected in those areas where a healthy plant community existed before the fire. This is the same scene three years after the 1994 Butte City Fire.

Areas where there is not a healthy plant community, cheatgrass will dominate the recovery process. Cheatgrass is an annual weed that usually results in areas burning more frequently and provides little wildlife habitat. Once cheatgrass dominates, natural recovery by native species is impossible. Luckily this has not yet become a significant problem on the INL.

One important plant species that does not recovery quickly after fire is sagebrush. Sagebrush may take 15 or more years to return after a fire. It does not re-sprout, but must return from seed. Artificial seeding in the first few years following fire can speed up this process. This will become increasingly important as more sagebrush, and the wildlife that depend on it, is lost from the landscape.

INL's Fire History