{"id":99691,"date":"2018-05-20T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/seedlings-heal-burn-scar-left-by-missionary-ridge-fire\/"},"modified":"2018-05-20T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T11:00:00","slug":"seedlings-heal-burn-scar-left-by-missionary-ridge-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/seedlings-heal-burn-scar-left-by-missionary-ridge-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Seedlings heal burn scar left by Missionary Ridge Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A crew of contracted tree planters begins work at dawn high on Missionary Ridge in 2014. For several years, tree planting projects in the spring and fall have sought to reforest areas slow to regenerate after the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire.<\/span>Courtesy of San Juan National Forest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Little by little, the scar of the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire is disappearing.<\/p>\n

Since efforts began in 2013, almost 3,000 acres within the burn area northeast of Durango have been replanted. And, a project this year is expected to add another 180,000-plus trees on about 430 acres.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, we\u2019ve been trying to plant where we know there used to be a forest,\u201d said Gretchen Fitzgerald, a forester for the U.S. Forest Service\u2019s Columbine District in Bayfield. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve been having a pretty good success rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2002, a massive human-caused fire ripped through an estimated 70,000 acres of the San Juan National Forest, from Missionary Ridge Road north of Durango to Vallecito Reservoir.<\/p>\n

The Missionary Ridge Fire became the largest fire in the area\u2019s recorded history, which was exacerbated by a record drought. A little more than 30 percent of the entire fire burned at a \u201chigh severity.\u201d<\/p>\n

While aspen trees have been able to thrive in the burned areas, pine trees have not shown the same ability to regenerate.<\/p>\n

About five years ago, foresters decided it was time to start replanting projects in areas that burned so hot the environment hasn\u2019t been able to naturally regenerate, Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

Each spring and fall, replanting projects have tackled site-specific areas. And the efforts have had good success.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy
Courtesy of San Juan National Forest<br><br>A crew prepares to plant seedlings an area burned by the Missionary Ridge Fire in 2002. This fall the National Forest Foundation will support an effort to plant 180,000 trees around Vallecito and Lemon reservoirs.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This past spring, the Forest Service led a project to plant 100,000 trees \u2013 about 300 trees per acre of ponderosa pine and 50 trees per acre of Douglas fir on a total of about 280 acres.<\/p>\n

The area targeted was around Wallace Lake on Missionary Ridge.<\/p>\n

Though the Forest Service is seeing great success with ponderosas that are replanted \u2013 about an 80 to 95 percent survival rate \u2013 the same cannot be said for Douglas firs, which have about a 50-50 chance of surviving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure why Douglas fir don\u2019t do as well,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cBut that\u2019s why I don\u2019t plant as much until I can figure out how to make them survive better. But I think we just need to have that diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

This fall, Fitzgerald said a major project will put more than 180,000 new trees in the ground.<\/p>\n

On Earth Day this April, the National Forest Foundation announced an \u201cambitious campaign\u201d to plant 50 million trees on Forest Service land to address \u201cincreasing reforestation needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Year-old
Year-old Engelmann spruce seedlings await planting on Missionary Ridge.<\/span>Courtesy of San Juan National Forest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The National Forest Foundation was created by Congress in 1993 to promote the health and public enjoyment on the 193 million-acre national forest system, according to the group\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will address this need head on by planting trees where they are needed most,\u201d said Mary Mitsos, the foundation\u2019s president, in a prepared statement. \u201cPlanting 50 million trees is an enormous challenge, but in that challenge we see opportunity \u2013 opportunity to engage Americans in their national forests. Since every dollar donated plants a tree, each of us can plant several trees for the cost of a morning latte. It really is that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald said she has been surveying land around Vallecito and Lemon reservoirs that would be appropriate for this year\u2019s planting. A major factor in deciding where the project will occur is access.<\/p>\n

All trees planted have been grown from seeds previously collected in the San Juan National Forest, within at least 50 miles of where the tree is going to be planted, to ensure genetics and local adaptation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat makes a huge difference for how well the trees grow,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald also noted that a separate tree planting project will occur in the Hermosa Creek special management area to reforest areas that were clear-cut in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

Both projects are slated to begin in early September.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Project this fall will plant more than 180,000 trees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,2161,199],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-99691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-missionary-ridge","tag-san-juan-national-forest"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99691"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=99691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}