As forest fire officials continue to contain the Museum Fire’s growth, some mysteries remain, such as how severely the flames burned through the forests of the Dry Lake Hills and what the fire has left behind.
As of Tuesday afternoon, first-hand accounts from firefighters who had traveled in the fire scar have been the main source for knowledge on just how severe the blaze could have burned and what it burned. However, the Burn Area Emergency Response team is finalizing its report Tuesday night and will be able to give more of a sense of how severely the fire burned by Wednesday.
Foresters with the U.S. Forest Service and researchers at Northern Arizona University’s Ecological Restoration Institute are both looking for those answers as they, and the rest of the community, continue to see the remnants of smoke hang in the air above the fire scar. The data will mean different things for local forest thinning efforts, wildlife habitats, post-fire flooding concerns, and hiking and biking trails within the fire scar.