ELY, Nev. - The Bureau of Land Management Ely District in January finished aerially seeding nearly all of the 8,268 acres of the public and private lands burned in last June’s Brown Fire, south and east of Lund, Nev.
A member of the contract crew connects a seed-filled hopper to the helicopter. The seed mixer can be partly seen in the foreground. Seed mixes vary depending on which portion of a fire is seeded. Factors that can determine a seed mix include burn severity, soil type, elevation, slope, annual precipitation, and pre-existing vegetation.
The 8,000-acre seeding, which took three days to complete, is part of the district’s Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) plan. Other plan components are a 3,000-acre drill seeding with fire-resistant strips along 12 miles of roadway, fence repair, temporary fence construction and a temporary grazing closure. The treatments will be monitored for three years to determine their effectiveness.
The Brown Fire over five days in late June 2020 burned approximately 8,268 acres of public and privately-owned lands located south and east of Lund, Nev. The cause of the fire is unknown.
The District has developed ESR plans for eight of last season’s wildfires, the Bishop, Meadow Valley, Miller, Stewart Canyon and Twin fires in Lincoln County, and Baldy, Brown and Flat fires in White Pine County.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
