RED LODGE— Rehabilitation efforts have started for the land damaged in the East Side Fire three weeks ago, which burned 1,219 acres, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The fire started April 20, just south of Red Lodge.
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Logan Bosak, incident commander with the U.S. Forest Service, said crews plan to plant seeds in the wildfire-ravaged areas as soon as the next week.
Related: From evacuation warning zone, Red Lodge residents nervously watch East Side Fire
“It's a lot of land maintenance and then coming back in and trying to reseed and get some of the natural flora back,” said Bosak.
Reseeding will help prevent further natural disasters, according to Beartooth District Ranger Amy Haas.
“If we didn't do this up front and we got those spring runoff rains, we could potentially have more erosion in some of those areas because we are in a highly burned and high-intensity burn area,” said Haas.
“This phase of the incident is just as important as the initial response,” she added.
Haas said crews are working to remove dozer lines, tracks made with bulldozers to break down vegetation and prevent fires from spreading during a wildfire.
“We anticipate where the fire is moving, and we would put a dozer line in there and it acts as… a barrier, so when the fire would get there, it wouldn't jump across or cross that fire line area,” said Haas. “We're taking them back off the landscape.”
Related: Fresh snow brings relief to Red Lodge after East Side fire threatened homes
The fire is 70% contained, but there are still areas of concern.
“It's just a lot of hiking around and putting out hotspots, making sure this fire doesn't stand up later,” said Bosak.
He said he and his crew use drones to identify and manage hotspots.
“We're able to work in tandem with those drones to help us find the hotspots and get better eyes for us up there,” he said.
East Side Road is closed to non-residents until rehabilitation is finished.
