09/21/07 BLM to put millions into Murphy fire restoration

The Bureau of Land Management plans to spend 23 million dollars on two programs that will limit soil erosion, control the spread of noxious weeds and rehabilitate land burned in the Murphy Complex in south central Idaho. That fire burned 652 thousand acres, an area the size of the state of Rhode Island. For this fiscal year nine and a half million will be spent on seeding, fencing and weed control and another eleven million is earmarked for fiscal 2008. 80 thousand acres of land will be ground seeded, 270 thousand acres will be aerial seeded. More than 100 miles of fences will be built to protect recovering areas and 390 miles of damaged management fences will be repaired. Right after the fire was controlled these ranchers wanted actions that would prevent this from happening again. RANCHERS "If it happens again there will be loss of human life and that's a danger too because it was a close call this time." "If things aren't changed it's going to get progressively worse." BLM says it will consider many projects proposed by the public at recent meetings, including creation of various types of fuel breaks in strategic locations, the use of forage kochia and other fire resistant species plantings, chemical vegetation control, mowing, projects to restore sage-grouse habitat and cooperative projects on adjacent private and state lands. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott