7/19/16

Indian Canyon Fire nearly the perfect burn


An act of Gaia has cleared twenty one square miles of cheatgrass and ponderosa pine from Fall River County in southwest South Dakota.
The closest threat was at the Custer-Fall River Landfill, about four-fifths of a mile from Edgemont’s southeastern city limits. Most of the visible flames and smoke plumes were gone, leaving only a haze in the sky and black charring stretching for miles across the ground. By 4 p.m. Monday, the fires were 60 percent contained. [Rapid City Journal]
Fire managers got a fortuitous break after a major thunderstorm dumped much needed rain on the land decimated by over a century of cattle infestation.

Toxic slurry was used for structure protection and is expected to kill fish in the Cheyenne River then enter Angostura Reservoir southeast of Hot Springs.

Private property owners in the area are advised to enter leases creating migration corridors within the proposed Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge. The burn area is sandwiched within the boundaries of the Thunder Basin, Oglala and Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.

The region is suffering from drought conditions exacerbated by devastating land management practices.

Rewild the West.

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