Burned Area Emergency Response, BAER
Background
| Wildland Fire
Leadership Council
While many wildfires cause little damage to the land and pose
few threats to fish, wildlife and people downstream, some fires
create situations that require special efforts to prevent further
problems after the fire. Loss of vegetation exposes soil to
erosion; runoff may increase and cause flooding, sediments may
move downstream and damage houses or fill reservoirs, and put
endangered species and community water supplies at risk. The
Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program
addresses these situations with the goal of protecting life,
property, water quality, and deteriorated ecosystems from further
damage after the fire is out.
National BAER & Watershed Improvement Program Leader: Penny Luehring
References
Watershed Publications
Current Forest Service Manual Direction for BAER; pdf 137 KB
USDA Forest Service RMRS, Soil & Water Engineering Publications
Erosing From Burned Watersheds in San Bernardino NF; Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-58. Berkeley, CA: Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; 1982. (PDF 66 KB)
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