Grazing returns to burned area

The Capital Press reported Dec. 5 that Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials will use 30 miles of targeted grazing fuel breaks as part of its plan to protect the restoration work it has done following the 2015 Soda Fire, which scorched tens of thousands of acres of grazing land in southwestern Idaho and part of eastern Oregon. As part of BLM’s post-fire restoration plan, ranchers were not allowed to graze their animals on those allotments for at least two growing seasons following the blaze. Idaho and Oregon ranchers have just recently started to resume grazing their cattle on some of the 279,000 acres of prime rangeland scorched by the fire. The fire burned 84 pastures on 40 BLM grazing allotments. Most of the damage was done in Owyhee County southwest of Boise, ID, with some of it occurring near Jordan Valley, OR. Grazing resumed this fall on 48 affected pastures and BLM officials expect to make decisions on the remaining 36 pastures by the end of December, according to Peter Torma, BLM’s Soda Fire project manager.