BAER Team surveys Soberanes burn damage

The Burned Area Emergency Response Team is wrapping up its assessment of areas damaged by the Soberanes Fire. Made up of scientists and experts, they look at potential risks after a fire, like flooding and erosion.

“That rainfall can move a lot of soil down and it can flow much more heavily than it did before because that vegetation is not there slowing down the rainfall and flow over the surface,” said Kevin Cooper, BAER Team coordinator. “So it can lead to flooding in major creeks and small creeks. Debris flows, which are kind of like a cement mix like material moving down the steep channels and a lot of erosion. So we’re assessing all that.”

Now that the Soberanes Fire is fully contained, some rehabilitation work is underway at Bottcher’s Gap. Along the eight mile Skinner Ridge Trail, crews have been clearing debris and digging drainages to keep future rain from washing out existing trails.

Trail crews cleared away parts of the eight mile Skinner Ridge Trail.

“Mostly looking for are what trails are highest at risk,” said Erich Huebner, trails works leader. “And what trails we can do a little work right now before the winter storms in order to save a lot of work later, after the winter storms. As well as looking for safety issues and hazard trees, falling rock.”

While last weekend’s rain temporarily prevented crews from assessing some bun zones, it’s actually giving them hope about this upcoming winter.

“The good news is the soil has been wetted down, we didn’t see any major damage or movement or flooding yet, so that was great,” Cooper said. “But we got enough where we expect the grasses to germinate fairly quickly now, so, with this warm weather, I think we’ll see some great response of vegetation.”

But the area isn’t out of the woods yet. Torrential rains and back-to-back storms could pose problems down the line.