Crews are continuing restoration efforts in Sterling’s Card Street Fire which burnt mostly in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Refuge Fire Management Officer Kristi Bulock gave us an update on the work being done by the Division of Forestry.
Bulock: “Any place that there is impacts such as established camps or dozer lines, some of these things that are needed with suppression of the fire to get control of the fire, they’ll go in afterwards and take a look at those areas and try to restore them back to as close to what they were pre-fire as much as possible.”
Bulock outlined the two types of fire lines that were created by firefighting suppression efforts..
Bulock: “There’s the direct fire lines where they do dozer lines that are right on the fire’s edge and then there’s also indirect lines where they may conduct some sort of a fuel break down to mineral soil and that’s away from the fire’s edge.”
She said the areas of the west side of the fire saw indirect fire lines; those have already been stabilized by crews restoring vegetative mats and other measures to prevent erosion.
Bulock said the direct fire lines on the east side have been left in order to ensure no flare-ups cross into unburned sections.
Next week refuge staff will discuss which portions of the east side can begin restoration work.