“We’ve had larger wildfires up here, but this was the largest wildfire we’ve had in ten years,” said Joanna Gilkenson with Superior National Forest.
Gilkenson said with how devastating the fire was, the Burned Area Emergency Response team (BAER), was created to examine the severity of the damage.
She said “The BAER was called together and assembled on October 5 and so basically what they do is a rapid assessment of the fire burned area.”
The team spent seven to ten days analyzing the landscape. Then, they sent their results to forest officials to begin the recovery process.
David Morley worked with the BAER team as a forest soil scientist. Morley saw signs of recovery had already begun shortly after the fire.
“We were already seeing vegetation coming in just weeks after the fire went through in some of those areas,” said Morley.
Within the report, Morley also examined other elements including small roots, water infiltration and woody debris, which showed a positive outcome.