Soberanes Fire – BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response)

Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) personnel have completed erosion and flooding modeling and are preparing presentations and reports for forest close-out and ICP briefings at the Soberanes Fire that is burning in the Los Padres National Forest, Ventana Wilderness, and Monterey County. “BAER is an emergency program aimed at managing imminent unacceptable risks to human life and safety, property, or critical natural and cultural resources from post-wildfire damaging events. The Burned Area Emergency Response Team is sent to fires to determine the need for and to prescribe and implement EMERGENCY treatments to minimize threats to life or property and to stabilize and prevent unacceptable degradation to natural and cultural resources resulting from the effects of the fire.” This quotation comes from Forest Service Manual 2523.02. Teams identify values at risk from the effects of the fire not in response to fire suppression activities (suppression repair covers that).