For Release: March 28, 2006
Contact: Joe Pollini, 760-872-5020
CCal-06-038

Prescribed Fire at Fish Slough Area of Critical Environmental Concern

On February 14th, ten U.S. Forest Service (USFS) firefighters, eager to leave their off-season fire training and station renovation, set out to save fish with fire. At the request of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), USFS firefighters ignited a nineteen acre prescribed burn designed to enhance the Fish Slough Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), home to endangered species that live in and along the Owens River. The ACEC, a pinkish desert basin straddling the stark Sierra Nevada and hulking White Mountains, is located a few miles north of Bishop, California.

Steve Parmenter, an associate fishery biologist for the DFG, outlined two objectives for the burn; to remove dead material that had been sitting on the land for years, choking out new growth; and to open up the area around a dam the DFG plans to alter, improving the environment of the endangered Owens pupfish living upstream.

The two and a half inch fish faces extinction due to habitat destruction and the introduction of non-native predators as the area was settled over the last two centuries. The dam was built in the 1984 to create a sanctuary for the native desert species. Over time, flaws developed in the dam which kept it from being effective.

Terry Russi, supervisory biologist for the BLM, says the burn will generate a diversity of vegetation. The new growth will include a more diverse group of native desert plants.

Before the prescribed burn, the fire crew spent a day preparing the site, cutting grasses around fences and trees, deciding burn patterns and establishing where in the marshy area they would find safe passage. Prior to setting the fire, multiple weather tests were performed to make sure temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction were within safe, established ranges. Several fire trucks were filled and ready as Kenny Gaynor, designated burn boss from the USFS reviewed the burn plan.

The land burned is actually owned by the LADWP. Dale Schmidt, representing the LADWP at the burn site, said his organization would benefit because the masses of dead vegetation were actually a fire hazard. Burning them in a controlled setting serves as fire prevention.

Because so many agencies are interested in the Fish Slough land, a strong interagency partnership has developed. Cooperation between those involved has helped each organization in accomplishing its goals.

All agencies involved understand how fragile and important the Fish Slough ACEC land is. Less than fifty years ago, Edwin Philip Pister, then district fishery biologist for the DFG and a pioneer in species conservation, carried the entire Owens pupfish species of about 800 in two buckets through the marshes of the Owens valley towards deeper water. For unknown reasons, the summer of 1969 had reduced the single room-sized pond they inhabited into a shallow pool.

The species now numbers in the thousands. "It's certainly a lot better off than in a bucket," said Parmenter. Thanks to more sufficient funds and a greater societal understanding of the value of conservation.

The burn was successful in meeting the objectives outlined by Parmenter, but the Owens pupfish is not in the clear. Without the agencies and community support it can not survive. It will take the continuing efforts of these agencies as well as those of inspired individuals to conserve this valuable resource.

-BLM-

BLM Bishop Field Office, 351 Pacu Lane, Bishop, Ca 93514

Note: This article was prepared by BLM volunteers Brittany Sidway, a third year environmental studies major at Northeastern University in Boston, and Paul Szaroz, a environmental education student from Saskatchewan, Canada.