Little by little, the scar of the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire is disappearing.
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.
“In general, we’ve been trying to plant where we know there used to be a forest,” said Gretchen Fitzgerald, a forester for the U.S. Forest Service’s Columbine District in Bayfield. “And we’ve been having a pretty good success rate.”
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.
The Missionary Ridge Fire became the largest fire in the area’s recorded history, which was exacerbated by a record drought. A little more than 30 percent of the entire fire burned at a “high severity.”
While aspen trees have been able to thrive in the burned areas, pine trees have not shown the same ability to regenerate.
About five years ago, foresters decided it was time to start replanting projects in areas that burned so hot the environment hasn’t been able to naturally regenerate, Fitzgerald said.
Each spring and fall, replanting projects have tackled site-specific areas. And the efforts have had good success.
This past spring, the Forest Service led a project to plant 100,000 trees – about 300 trees per acre of ponderosa pine and 50 trees per acre of Douglas fir on a total of about 280 acres.
The area targeted was around Wallace Lake on Missionary Ridge.
Though the Forest Service is seeing great success with ponderosas that are replanted – about an 80 to 95 percent survival rate – the same cannot be said for Douglas firs, which have about a 50-50 chance of surviving.
“I’m not sure why Douglas fir don’t do as well,” Fitzgerald said. “But that’s why I don’t plant as much until I can figure out how to make them survive better. But I think we just need to have that diversity.”
This fall, Fitzgerald said a major project will put more than 180,000 new trees in the ground.
On Earth Day this April, the National Forest Foundation announced an “ambitious campaign” to plant 50 million trees on Forest Service land to address “increasing reforestation needs.”
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’s website.
“We will address this need head on by planting trees where they are needed most,” said Mary Mitsos, the foundation’s president, in a prepared statement. “Planting 50 million trees is an enormous challenge, but in that challenge we see opportunity – 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.”
Fitzgerald said she has been surveying land around Vallecito and Lemon reservoirs that would be appropriate for this year’s planting. A major factor in deciding where the project will occur is access.
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.
“That makes a huge difference for how well the trees grow,” Fitzgerald said.
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.
Both projects are slated to begin in early September.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
